PLANADVISER - January/February 2021 - 4

Legislative and Judicial Actions
compliance news //
Missing Participant Guidance
The Department of Labor (DOL)'s
Employee
Benefits
Administration
issued
their
guidance
(EBSA)
to
Security
has
help
retirement plan fiduciaries
meet
obligations,
under Title I of the
Employee
Retirement
Income
Security Act
(ERISA), to locate and
distribute retirement
benefits to missing or
nonresponsive participants.
The guidance
comes in three forms:
a page titled " Missing
Participants - Best Practices
for Pension Plans, "
Compliance
Bulletin
Klinefelter Wilson, " The guidance ...
reflects our ongoing commitment
to help plan fiduciaries ensure
that their plan participants
and beneficiaries receive the
retirement benefits they
worked so hard to earn. "
Plan Trustee Faces
CybersecurityRelated
Lawsuit
American Trust is the
trustee for the Mandli
Communications Inc.
401(k) Plan and Trust.
One of its services to
the plan is to review
and approve all distribuAssistance
Release
2021-01 and Field
Assistance
(FAB)
2021-01.
" Best Practices for Pension
Plans " describes a range of best practices
that fiduciaries of retirement
plans, including defined contribution
(DC) plans, might apply to help
reduce the number of missing participants
and help ensure that all enrolled
in the plan receive their promised
benefits after retiring. EBSA suggests
putting processes in place to regularly
update participant census data and
beneficiary information. In addition,
the guidance lists best practices for
finding missing participants.
Compliance
Assistance
Release
2021-01 outlines the general investigative
approach that will guide EBSA's
regional offices under the Terminated
Vested Participants Project for defined
benefit (DB) plans and facilitate voluntary
compliance efforts by plan fiduciaries.
The guidance reveals the information
that EBSA staff request from plan
sponsors and the errors they look for.
FAB 2021-01 authorizes, as a matter
of enforcement policy, plan fiduciaries
of terminating DC plans to use the
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
(PBGC) missing participants program
for missing or nonresponsive partici " The
guidance ...
reflects our ongoing
commitment to help
plan fiduciaries
ensure that their
plan participants
and beneficiaries
receive the
retirement benefits
they worked so
hard to earn. "
pants' account balances. The guidance
describes which participant accounts
may be transferred to the PBGC and the
rules for participant notices.
According to Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Labor for EBSA Jeanne
tions from it.
Last February 14, American
Trust made an unauthorized
distribution in the
total amount of $124,105 from
the account of Raymond J. Mandli,
the company's president and founder,
in response to a withdrawal request
from an unknown third party.
According to the complaint, American
Trust has refused to take responsibility
for the unauthorized distribution
from Mandli's account, failed
to promptly inform him and Mandli
Communications about the unauthorized
distribution, has concealed facts
and has declined to provide Mandli or
his company with copies of any of the
requested documentation related to the
details of the distribution.
The lawsuit also says the trustee did
not mail or email any acknowledgment
of receipt of the withdrawal election
form submitted by the unknown party
and did not call or otherwise contact
Mandli or his firm to verify that the
distribution request was legitimate.
On March 11, nearly a month later,
the American Trust employee responsible
for the firm's relationship with
Mandli
Communications
informed
Mandli about the unauthorized distribution.
On May 12, he told Mandli that
to process a claim for reimbursement,
an insurance company for American
4 | planadviser.com January-February 2021 Art by Katherine Streeter
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - January/February 2021

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