A coalition of business groups has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) new and now-final white-collar exemption to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime (OT) rules. A court ruling on the lawsuit could result in a delay in the July 1 effective date of the new rule.

A study released on June 6 by the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA) shows a 25 percent increase in pension risk transfer contracts in the first quarter of this year. A LIMRA statement discussing the study pointed to a record $14.6 billion in 146 contracts in companies shifting their lifetime pension obligations to annuities.

NAIFA has joined forces with 70 organizations, employers, unions, patient and disease advocacy groups, and other healthcare stakeholders to emphasize the importance of maintaining the tax-free status of employer-provided healthcare coverage. In a united front, these organizations reminded Congress of the critical role this coverage plays in ensuring the health and financial security of nearly 180 million Americans.

NAIFA’s May 20-21 Congressional Conference participants will fan out over Capitol Hill to educate lawmakers on key issues impacting NAIFA members and their clients. Several hundred participants from almost every state and Congressional District will also establish and grow the constituent-lawmaker relationships that are so key to favorable legislative outcomes.

On April 23, the Department of Labor (DOL) finalized its new fiduciary rule and its accompanying amendments to prohibited transaction exemptions (PTEs) 2020-02 and 84-24. The new rules would take effect September 23, but they have already triggered the first of what are likely to be multiple court challenges to them. Those court decisions could impact the effective date. And Congress is likely to vote on a Congressional Review Act (CRA) motion to block the rules, although even if a CRA motion passes both the House and Senate, President Biden will surely veto it.

There will be a major tax bill in 2025, as both Republicans and Democrats contend with the looming expiration of most of the current tax code’s individual and estate tax rules. Scheduled for expiration at the end of 2025 are income and capital gains tax rates for individuals as well as the current $12+ million exemption from the estate tax. Tax policy will play a key role in the debate, but so will revenue—the cost of extending the 2017 rules is astronomical. And lawmakers are already looking at other tax issues—like, for example, the corporate tax rate—that are not scheduled to expire but are intrinsic to both tax policy and revenue issues.

The House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing on April 30 with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as the sole witness. The hearing focused on the Biden budget tax proposals, and on the issues surrounding the scheduled expiration of the 2017 individual and estate tax rules.

Not only are fixed annuities now within the scope of the final fiduciary rule, but also a key tax writer is seeking information from the 12 biggest annuity writers about how annuities are sold. It appears that annuities are approaching being at the center of both Congressional and regulatory attention.

The House Education & the Workforce’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing last month on how to allow states and companies to provide independent contractors with employer-provided benefits without causing them to be classified as employees. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) said at the hearing that he is working on legislation to achieve this result.

The long-awaited final rule on the white-collar exception from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) overtime rules was released last month. The new rule significantly increases the salary threshold below which the white-collar exception does not apply and provides for automatic adjustments to the salary threshold every three years.

On April 23, by a 3 to 2 partisan vote, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned virtually all noncompete agreements. There are some limited exceptions involving key executives, but in general, the new rule would not only ban future noncompete agreements, but also require notice to workers who are party to existing noncompete agreements that those agreements will not be enforceable.

On May 9, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Revenue Procedure 2024-25, listing the 2025 inflation-adjusted amounts applicable to health savings accounts (HSAs), high deductible health plans (HDHPs), and excepted benefit health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). The inflation adjustments take effect, generally, in 2025 or for plan years beginning in 2025.

On May 6, the Social Security and Medicare trust fund trustees issued their annual report. The report predicts a financial crisis for the funds within 10 years, unless Congress intervenes before then.

In the wee morning hours of March 23—just two hours after the midnight March 22 deadline—Congress completed the fraught process of funding the federal government’s discretionary spending for fiscal year (FY) 2024—six months after FY 2024 began this past October 1. President Biden signed the measure into law the same day. Despite hard lobbying, the final funding package excluded a rider that would have stopped the Department of Labor’s (DOL) work on its fiduciary rule.

On April 10, NAIFA met with the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to express the association’s concerns about the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) proposed fiduciary rule. NAIFA reiterated its long-standing opposition to the rule, citing its probable impact on the accessibility and affordability of professional investment advice for middle-American retirement savers. Late that afternoon, OIRA sent the proposed rule back to DOL for finalization, canceling at least two subsequent previously scheduled stakeholder meetings.

On March 28, the Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and Treasury released a final short-term limited-duration (STLD) health insurance rule. It retains the proposed rule’s new limits of three months duration, with a four-month renewal option for this kind of insurance.

The tax-writing House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing on April 11 on the TCJA and its expiring individual and estate tax provisions. Predictably, the hearing showcased GOP support for extending the TCJA’s individual and estate tax rules that expire at the end of 2025. Democrats, on the other hand, called for more taxes to be paid by corporations and “the rich.”

Republican Senators are growing increasingly reluctant to vote any time soon on the House-passed bill that would, among other things, allow for more generous business equipment depreciation and business loan interest deductibility. The bill would need 60 votes, and therefore at least ten Republicans, to pass the Senate. However, some key GOP Senators are demanding changes, while others urge waiting until next year when they think they will be in a stronger position.

A bicameral GOP resolution to block the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) now-final worker classification rule has been introduced. On March 21, the House Education and the Workforce Committee approved a Congressional Review Act (CRA) motion to block the rule.

On April 2, the Centers for Medicare, and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rules for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces for 2025. The rules include the requirements applicable to advisors who work with participants in ACA marketplace insurance.