The Employee Benefits Security Administration is trying to make it easier for benefit plan administrations to cope with employer bankruptcies.
EBSA, an arm of the U.S. Department of Labor, today has proposed a change to the Settlement Class Exemption.
The exemption deals with the sorts of assets plan fiduciaries can accept on behalf of a plan in connection with efforts to settle litigation with related parties.
Normally, plan fiduciaries can only accept cash. They have had to apply for individual exemptions to hold warrants or most bonds.
EBSA now is proposing to permit fiduciaries to accept more types of non-cash consideration if the consideration can be objectively valued, and if the transaction is otherwise beneficial to the employee benefit plan, EBSA officials say in a preamble to the proposed amendment to the class exemption, which appears today in the Federal Register.
