Procrastinors will have more time to opine on reforming the Form 5500s, thanks to the Department of Labor extending the public comment period on proposed regulations.
The new deadline is Dec. 5 vs. an original deadline of Oct. 4. The proposed rules, issued by the DOL on July 21, aim to modernize financial reporting and provide more fee information.
For such an intensely debated subject within the retirement industry, only 23 public comments had been filed as of Sept. 13. By contrast, the now-enacted conflict-of-interest rule had 3,134 public comments.
Among those 23 responses to the Form 5500 proposal, nine were requests for filing extensions. The requests came from trade groups in the employee benefits industry; lawyers representing members of the benefits industry; and trade groups representing financial services institutions as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Fidelity Investments.
“A range of stakeholder groups asked for an extension of time to submit comments given the scope and significance of the proposed forms revisions and regulatory amendments,” said a DOL news release. “This step is intended to facilitate robust and thoughtful public input on the proposals while respecting the need to keep the rule-making aspects of the project moving forward.”
The proposed regulations are available on the U.S. Government Publishing Office's website.
