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    BenefitsLink
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    July 9, 2003 - 13,238 subscribers
    Today's sponsor: Thompson Publishing Group, Inc.

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      ?New COBRA Notice Rules? audio conference 7/16/03 * 2:00 p.m. ET 
 
Are you familiar with the DOL's new proposed COBRA notice requirements?
Don't miss out on the opportunity to send the DOL your questions before
the regulations are finalized!  Join us for this 90-minute interactive
audio conference ? Learn the details of the DOL?s proposal and still
have time to submit comments before the July 28th deadline!

    (Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
    Analysis: Final Catch-Up Contribution Regulations
    Excerpt: "The regulations are applicable to contributions in taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2004.... The annual determination of whether an amount is a catch-up contribution may be problematic for an employer that does not want to match catch-up contributions.... The final regulations do not contain any special rules to address this situation." (SunGard Corbel)

    Hypertext Version of Final Catch-Up Regulations
    (Internal Revenue Service)

    Treasury and IRS Propose Regulations Affecting Optional Forms of Payment from a DC Plan
    Excerpt: "EGTRRA permits optional forms of payment to be eliminated from a defined contribution plan if the plan offers a single-sum distribution form.... [R]egulations that were finalized in 2000 only differ from section 411(d)(6)(E) by requiring advance notice to participants. These proposed regulations would conform the 2000 regulations to the new EGTRRA requirements by eliminating the advance notice." (Internal Revenue Service)

    Hypertext Version of Proposed Regs Eliminating Certain Notices Upon Changing Distribution Forms
    (Internal Revenue Service)

    Full Text of Proposed Regs Eliminating Certain Participant Notices Upon Changing Distribution Forms (PDF)
    9 pages. Excerpt: "To reflect the addition of section 411(d)(6)(E) by EGTRRA, these proposed regulations ... would retain the rules under which a [DC] plan may be amended to eliminate or restrict ... a particular optional form of benefit [if] the alternative forms of payment that remain available ... include payment in a single-sum distribution. However, these proposed regulations would remove the 90-day notice condition previously applicable to these plan amendments." (Internal Revenue Service)

    Pension Interest Rate Shift Would Hurt Some Workers
    Excerpt: "Baby boomer employees who retire early or change jobs could lose substantial amounts of their lump-sum retirement money under a Bush administration proposal aimed at giving corporations some near-term relief from paying for their growing pension liabilities." (Boston Globe)

    Some Question Treasury Department's Proposed Changes to Pension Interest Rate Rules
    Excerpt: "Business groups and labor unions raised concerns [on July 8, 2003] about a Bush administration proposal to change how corporations calculate their pension liabilities, saying it could force some of the nation's largest companies to trim retirement benefits or drop traditional pension plans altogether." (Washington Post)

    Ways and Means Subcommittee to Examine Treasury Department Proposal for Pension Interest Rate Reform
    Excerpt: "Congressman Jim McCrery (R-LA), Chairman, Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the Committee on Ways and Means, [on July 8, 2003] announced that the Subcommittee will hold a joint hearing with the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations of the Committee on Education and the Workforce on the Administration's proposal to replace the 30-year Treasury rate. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 ..." (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures)

    Text of Treasury Department's Explanation of Pension Interest Rate Proposal
    Excerpt: "Using the yield curve is essential to match the timing of future benefit payments with the resources necessary to make the payments." (U.S. Treasury Department)

    Class-Action Lawsuits Might Change How Retirement Plans Work
    Excerpt: "Class-action law firms are attacking a key underpinning of employee retirement accounts: company stock. Invoking the specter of Enron Corp., the firms allege that employers push company stock on retirement savers, and hide material problems. The lawsuits, while numbering in the dozens at the moment, promise to change how 401(k) plans work -- for good or ill." (The Philadelphia Inquirer via Newsalert.com)

    Who Has the Best 403(b) Plans?
    Excerpt: "403(b)wise is searching for examples of quality employer 403(b) plans in order to compile a database that can serve as a resource for employers and employees seeking to improve their 403(b) plans. Quality plans should feature the following: ..." (403bWise.com)

    Early Retirement Programs in Arizona Save Money But Cause Loss of Good Teachers
    Excerpt: "Critics say student achievement is at risk when teachers who have spent decades in the classroom accept buyouts. Veterans often are replaced with inexperienced teachers who come in at a dramatically lower salary." (The Arizona Republic)

    Asset Allocation: a New Approach
    4-page document. Excerpt: "Fifteen months ago, we issued a paper that examined existing asset allocation models available for individual investors ... and proposed a new approach, the 'Econometric Monte Carlo' (EMC) model.... [But that model] can be used only when the investor can reasonably predict what the pay-outs from the investment fund need to be.... So we have returned to this subject and are further proposing a new, more generalized model: The Econometric Risk Capacity (ERC) Model." (Still River Retirement Planning Software, Inc.)

    Debate Surfaces Over How to Invest Pension Funds
    Excerpt: "It sounds like a quick fix for underfunded pension plans: Raise cash by selling bonds and plow that money back into the plans to cover the shortfall. But that only solves part of the problem. Now they have to decide how to invest this new money and make enough off it to not only generate ample returns for the plans themselves, but also to cover the interest and principal associated with the bonds." (New York Times; one-time registration required)

    Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

    Overview: IRS Supplements 2002 Split Dollar Regulations
    Target page includes link to 3-page document. Excerpt: "Latest proposed rules dash any remaining hope that IRS will permit an executive who has a split dollar arrangement, in which he shares ownership of a life insurance policy with his or her employer, to avoid tax each year on that year's increase in the policy's value." (Hay Group)

    Microsoft to Award Stock, Not Options, to Employees
    Excerpt: "The announcement is the clearest sign yet that stock options have lost some of the cachet they held a few years ago. Microsoft's move also comes as some big investors are putting pressure on companies to award fewer options, calling them a prime example of corporate excess in the 1990's." (New York Times; one-time registration required)

    Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
    Post a Help Wanted Ad

    Corporate Director of Benefits & Compensation
    for Multi Billion-Dollar Food & Beverage Manufacturer
    in CA

    Regulatory Support Officer
    for American Express
    in MN
    Newly Posted Conferences
    ( Post Yours! )

    CEBS Course 2 - Employee Benefits: Design, Administration and Other Welfare Benefits
    in ALL STATES
    September 8, 2003
    IFEBP/CEBS Program

    CEBS Course 4 - Retirement Plans: Defined Benefit Approaches and Plan Administration
    in ALL STATES
    September 8, 2003
    IFEBP/CEBS Program

    CEBS Course 9 - Health Economics
    in ALL STATES
    September 8, 2003
    IFEBP/CEBS Program

    Advanced Health Insurance Underwriting & Rate Negotiations Seminar
    in CA
    September 30, 2003
    J. Madison-Bentley Health Insurance Pricing Experts
    Newly Posted Press Releases
    ( Post Yours! )

    BART Renews Plan Administration Contracts with ICMA Retirement Corporation
    (ICMA Retirement Corporation)

    Dex Media Deploys Workscape's Compensation Planner With Superior Results
    (Workscape)

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