Plan sponsors brace for new regs

New rules from the U.S. Department of Labor regulating fee disclosures are meant to help 401(k) plan participants better understand what they’re paying for, but complying with these regulations will be an arduous task, said a number of leading attorneys who spoke at the Managing Retirement Income conference in Miami. One of the newest attempts to improve disclosure is a revamped form 5500, an annual report that pension plans must file with the IRS. The new form must include total direct compensation paid by the plan, whether any party receives indirect compensation and the total amount of non-eligible indirect compensation. “You begin to see how complicated and confusing this will be for plan sponsors,” said Nadine Rosin, counsel with Pepe & Hazard LLP. “Hopefully, the plan participants will be the one who benefits from all of these disclosures. It’ll be a challenge to administer.”