DOL shifting burden of rules compliance to employers

President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget released Feb. 1 proposes to shift responsibility for compliance with fiduciary rules, annuity requirements, certain health rules, and other regulations from the department to employers.

It said this shift will be accomplished through the 2010 regulatory agenda of the department's Employee Benefits Security Administration, released Dec. 7, 2009.

The budget described the agenda as “aggressive,” including a broader definition of a fiduciary who provides investment advice to benefit plans for a fee; encouraging annuities for defined contribution plans; and clarifying that health agreements by state/local governments for nongovernmental employees are not subject to the Employee Income Security Act.

The budget said recent laws such as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, and extension of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act health premium reduction, and the resulting demands on the agency, also will result in further shifting the burden of compliance to employers, “rather than exclusively relying on enforcement intervention.”

The budget also proposes automatic individual retirement accounts, doubling of the tax credit to small employers to offer a retirement plan, and expansion of the saver's tax credit.

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