Today's News from BenefitsLink

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The BenefitsLink Newsletter -
Retirement Plans Edition

February 20, 2001

Today's sponsor: The International Quality & Productivity Center (click)

BENEFITS 2001 CONGRESS: How to Increase Customer
   Satisfaction & Leverage Your Benefits Dollars   March 26-27, 2001   Scottsdale, AZ
   For more information call 1-800-882-8684 or visit
   http://www.iqpc.com/b156benefits2001

Analysis: IRS Revamps Minimum Distribution Rules
Excerpt: "Our summary of the new proposals follows." (Groom Law Group)

GOP Won't Push 2001 IRA, 401(k) Changes
Excerpt: "Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm last week dampened the financial services industry's hopes for new retirement savings incentives, saying the legislation would probably have to wait until next year. Industry lobbyists were disappointed that President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax-cut proposal does not call for increasing the ceilings on tax-deferred contributions to Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) accounts." (American Banker)

Summary: IRS Expands Correction Program for 2001
Excerpt: "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has revised and expanded the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS). Released Jan. 19, Revenue Procedure 2001-17 modifies those procedures for EPCRS set out in Rev. Proc. 2000-16 released last year. The updated EPCRS system is effective May 1, 2001, but plan administrators may implement the new procedures now." (Thompson Publishing Group)

Opinion: Retirement Security Act is a Renewed Threat to Your 401(k)s
Excerpt: "Americans dodged a bullet in the waning days of the Clinton administration and the 106th Congress. But the new Congress is in the process of reloading its guns, and investors who are concerned about their retirement better get their defenses ready. The issue is the ill-named 'Retirement Security Act,' which, if passed into legislation, will make retirement anything but secure for many Americans." (New York Post)

Robert Tilove, Pension Expert, Dies at 86
Excerpt: "As a senior vice president of the Martin E. Segal Company, an actuarial and consulting firm, he helped shape the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, known as ERISA, in 1974 and federal legislation on union-management plans in 1980." (New York Times; free registration required)

Pension Expert Robert Tilove Dies
Excerpt: "Mr. Tilove was the author of 'Public Employee Pension Funds,' which the publication Pension World called an "authoritative and seminal work" in the field.... He retired from Segal in 1989 after 40 years." (Washington Post)

(Following items also appear in Welfare Plans Edition)

Washington State Lawmaker Skirts Governor Locke Over Benefits to Domestic Partners
Excerpt: "The legality of out-of-state gay marriages and taxpayer-funded domestic partner benefits would be decided by voters under a measure sponsored by Rep. Joyce Mulliken. The Ephrata Republican is pushing for a referendum to kill the benefits made available last year to unmarried partners of state employees." (Yakima [Wash.] Herald-Republic )

Forfeiture-For-Competition Provisions Under Employer Stock Plans
Excerpt: "Employers have devised several means of discouraging employers from leaving to work for a competitor. Covenants-not-to-compete are one end of the strategic spectrum. These absolutely prohibit any work for a competitor provided, of course, that a court enforces them.... At the other end of the spectrum, we find provisions permitting the departing employee to compete to her/his heart's content, but at a price." (Nixon Peabody LLP)

Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings ( Post Yours! )

Pension Consultants/Administrators; F/T & P/T

for Northern NJ Mid-Size Pension Consulting Firm
in NJ, NY

Sales Executive

for Evolution Health, Inc.
in ALL STATES

Manager - Benefits Administration

for Towers Perrin
in NY

Team Leader - Benefits Administration

for Towers Perrin
in NY

VP/Director Of Operations, Deerfield, IL

for ADP, INC
in IL

Client Consultant

for Invesmart, Austin, Texas
in TX

Executive Director

for WEB Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (WEB, Inc.)
in ALL STATES

Pension Administrator

for The Allied Companies
in MI

Death & Disability Coordinator

for Fire & Police Pension Association
in CO

Death & Disability Assistant Benefits Rep

for Fire & Police Pension Association
in CO

Newly Posted Conferences ( Post Yours! )

Managing Flexible and Work/Life Benefits

in GA on March 5, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

Managing Flexible and Work/Life Benefits

in TX on June 18, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

Managing Flexible and Work/Life Benefits

in CO on August 20, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

Managing Flexible and Work/Life Benefits

in CA on November 26, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

Managing Flexible and Work/Life Benefits

in NY on December 10, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

Integrated Disability Management

in CA on May 21, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

Integrated Disability Management

in IL on September 12, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

Integrated Disability Management

in NY on November 12, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

International Benefits

in MI on April 2, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

International Benefits

in IL on July 23, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

International Benefits

in CA on September 10, 2001
presented by WorldatWork

International Benefits

in NY on October 8, 2001
presented by WorldatWork