Department of Labor Announces Results of 2020 Employee Benefit Plan Investigations and Other Enforcement Measures:

On October 14, 2020, the Department of Labor (the “DOL”) published a Fact Sheet summarizing its fiscal-year 2020 compliance enforcement activities regarding employee benefit plans. Here are the highlights:

• The DOL closed 1,122 civil investigations, with 754 of those cases (67%) resulting in over $2.6 billion in recoveries to plans and participants.
• Amounts restored to plans and participants via the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program totaled approximately $12 million.
• When employees experience a problem with an employee benefit plan, they can directly contact the DOL for assistance. In fiscal-year 2020, the DOL closed more than 171,000 inquiries and recovered $456.3 million in benefits on behalf of employees and their families through the informal resolution of individual complaints.