Articles

On Thursday, April 6, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a preliminary injunction allowing a transgender middle school student to compete on the girls’ cross country and track teams at her school, signaling that a majority of the justices may not yet be ready to address this hot-button social issue.

There has been a proliferation of lawsuits alleging breach of fiduciary duty in 401(k) and 403(b) plans. Although the cases of note involve larger employers and the corresponding larger 401(k) or 403(b) plans, fiduciaries of plans of all sizes should heed the warnings and lessons from the cases that populate the retirement plan news on a regular basis.

While there are many ways to achieve your philanthropic goals, making donations through a personal retirement account (such as an individual retirement account or IRA) can be very effective.

It is too easy to focus only on complying with the rules regarding required minimum distributions (RMD). Your planning should encompass not only distributions upon death, but should also include a lifetime distribution strategy that is coordinated with your estate plan.

Before taking any distribution prior to age 59½, every participant and IRA owner should review the available exemptions from the premature distribution penalty and confirm that an available exemption applies.

2022 mergers and acquisitions among insurance agencies and brokers in the U.S. and Canada declined 17% from the record set in 2021.

On January 18, 2023, Erie City Council passed “Erie City Official Ordinance 3-2023” which will create a new series of requirements and fees for lenders instituting foreclosure actions and owners of vacant houses located in the City of Erie.

The New Year is the perfect time to check your estate planning documents and beneficiary designations.

On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a proposed rule that would prohibit employers from enforcing and imposing non-compete agreements on workers. It is debatable whether a final rule will ultimately be published.

As highly anticipated, the U.S. Congress passed SECURE 2.0 in late December 2022. Following is an overview of certain provisions with which retirement plan sponsors and custodians will want to become familiar. Some, if not all of these changes will call for interim plan amendments which as of now are not required until the last day of the plan year beginning on or after January 1, 2025 (or 2027 for governmental plans).

The Q3 2022 Merger & Acquisition Update prepared by Optis Partners shows 554 property and casualty related transactions in the U.S. and Canada for the first three quarters in 2022 as compared to 644 transactions in the first three quarters of 2021.

Pennsylvania Act 122 of 2022 amends Title 15 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes dealing with Corporations and Unincorporated Associations, which now requires an annual report filing for various entities organized or authorized to do business in Pennsylvania.

The road to financial freedom and peace of mind is not always smooth. The following are ten reasons to hire an experienced elder law attorney to navigate long-term care and Medicaid issues.

Because of the delay between the passage of the SECURE Act and the timing of the proposed regulations and the divergence of guidance regarding the manner in which the 10-year rule would be applied to the post-death RMDs, the IRS issued Notice 2022-53 on October 7, 2022 to provide some relief.

With the release of Notice 2022-55 the IRS has announced the cost-of-living adjustments for pension plans and other related items for the 2023 tax year.