Comment Letter on Department of Labor's Proposed Amendments to Form 5500

Office of Regulations and Interpretations
Employee Benefits Security Administration
U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The American Bankers Association (ABA) appreciates the opportunity to provide comments to the Department of Labor (Department) on proposed amendments (Proposal) to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and Form 5500-SF Short Form Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan (collectively, Form 5500). Form 5500 is required to be filed by each pension and other employee benefit plan concerning, among other things, the financial condition and operations of the plan.

A number of the proposed revisions to Form 5500 result from the statutory amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (Code) that were enacted as part of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement and Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act). Among other things, the SECURE Act expressly directs the Secretary of Labor and Secretary of Treasury to develop a new aggregate annual reporting option for certain groups of retirement plans, and includes other statutory amendments that directly impact annual reporting requirements for multiple-employer pension plans (MEPs). The Department, however, is proposing additional revisions (i.e., not part of the SECURE Act) to Form 5500 that would substantially expand the format and content of the schedules of assets held for investment that are currently required on Schedule H of Form 5500 (the “Schedules of Assets”). These changes are intended to make the financial information collected on the Form 5500 more useful, and in the words of the Department, “data-mineable.” It is the Department’s proposed changes to Schedule H that form the basis of our comments regarding the Proposal.

While we support the Department’s goal to improve the usability of the Schedules of Assets, we believe that several of the Proposal’s changes are highly problematic for Form 5500 filers and their service providers. We further believe that these problems stem from the Department overlooking the opportunity to engage stakeholders prior to Proposal’s release, which has resulted in the inclusion of several flawed and unworkable changes.

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