4/6/17 - Missing Participants: Enforcement Activities, Best Practices, Policy Ideas


Thursday, April 6, 2017 (4pm - 5:30pm US/Eastern)


The Department of Labor has increased enforcement activity with respect to the procedures behind locating missing participants in both defined benefit and defined contribution plans. The panel will provide an overview of the enforcement activities on missing participants being led by the Department of Labor, best practices for employers to follow in adopting quality procedures and programs to locate missing participants, and federal policies that could assist both plan sponsors and participants in ensuring funds are properly attributed to an individual. A portion of the policy discussion will be led by David Knox, Senior Partner at Mercer, who will focus on how Australia has tackled this issue area. John Ferreira, Morgan Lewis, will lead the discussion on enforcement activities. Paul Nawrot, Fidelity Investments, will lead the discussion on employer best practices as well as provide information/data

Please see David’s and all other speaker bios below. We look forward to you joining this important webinar!

John G. Ferreira represents clients in equity and executive compensation and every facet of employee benefits. He advises global public companies, private equity firms, large financial institutions, nonprofit organizations, middle-market companies, individual executives, and emerging information technology and life sciences companies. John counsels these clients on compliance with ERISA, tax, securities, and labor laws. He also advises vendors to employee benefits plans on compliance with the reporting, fiduciary responsibility, and prohibited transaction requirements of Title I of ERISA. John serves as the managing partner of Morgan Lewis’s Pittsburgh office. John provides support to clients in litigation, transactional matters, and collective bargaining. In addition, he represents clients before the US federal agencies responsible for regulation of employee benefits plans and programs, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), and the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefit Security Administration. The Best Lawyers in America listed John from 2003 to 2016, and named him Pittsburgh Employee Benefits Lawyer of the Year in 2010. Pennsylvania Super Lawyers named him one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Pittsburgh. John received his J.D., with distinction, from Hofstra University School of Law and a B.A. from Western New England College.

David Knox is a senior partner at Mercer, National Leader for the Research practice area and is responsible for providing actuarial consultancy services, with a particular focus on public sector actuarial work. He is the actuary for the West Australian and Tasmanian public sector superannuation schemes.
Prior to joining Mercer in January 2005, he was a Director with PricewaterhouseCoopers Actuarial. His previous roles have included Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, Foundation Professor of Actuarial Studies and Director of the Centre of Actuarial Studies at the University of Melbourne. He has also held positions with Macquarie University. He is a well-known speaker and author on superannuation matters. He was an independent Board member of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority from 1998 to 2003, and President of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia in 2000. He is also the author of the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index. David has a bachelor's degree and doctorate from Macquarie University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

Paul Nawrot is a Senior Vice President within Fidelity Investments’ Benefits Consulting group, which provides a holistic approach to managing benefit programs. Paul continues to be the strategic lead on several clients in addition to leading business development for the group nationally. In his prior role, Paul led West region business development and previously managed the Dallas office.
For 20 years, Paul has focused on helping employers manage and understand financial risks of employee benefit programs as well as aligning strategic opportunities with a sponsor’s business needs. This includes Asset Liability Management (ALM), benefit design, strategy, demographic analysis, communication, and administration consulting. Paul’s current and past client base spanned a wide range of size and industry. Prior to joining Fidelity in 2005, he was an actuarial retirement consultant for Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
Nawrot holds a B.S. degree in actuarial science and mathematics from the University of Iowa. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), an Enrolled Actuary (EA) of the Joint Board, Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries (FCA), and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).