BenefitsLink
Retirement Plans
Newsletter
Retirement Plans
Newsletter
February 8, 2006
Today's sponsor: ASPPA ? Working for America's Retirement?
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
The ?06 ERISA Outline book will give you what you need to succeed. Now with five volumes, these are the books that will tell you what you need to know, including:
Revised comprehensive 415 regulations
Expanded information on Roth 401(k) contributions
Final USERRA regulations
Order The ERISA Outline Book today!
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Overview: IRS Finalizes Roth 401(k) Regulations
Excerpt: "The IRS has finalized the Roth 401(k) regulations that were proposed last year .... Although the final regulations generally follow the proposed regulations, the IRS made some changes. The rules became effective January 1, 2006." (Watson Wyatt Worldwide)
Pension Reform Moves Forward -- Stage Set for Final Agreement in 2006
Excerpt: "As the U.S. House of Representatives was wrapping up its 2005 legislative session, the Pension Protection Act (PPA, H.R.2830) seemed stalled. But a last-minute agreement between key lawmakers and the United Auto Workers cleared the way, and the House approved the PPA by a vote of 294-132 on December 15, 2005." (Watson Wyatt Worldwide)
Proposed Bill Would Impose More Scrutiny on CalPERS
Excerpt: "A bill introduced by California Assemblyman Keith Richman proposes an outside audit of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) every three years. The Sacramento Bee reports that Richman wants to ensure the fund faces 'the same transparency that we have in public companies.' His proposal was spurred by questions about CalPERS estimates of state contributions when appealing to the Legislature in 1999 for improved retirement benefits." (PLANSPONSOR.com: one-time registration required)
$37.1 Billion Hike in PBGC Premiums Sought in Budget Request
Excerpt: "The Bush administration [yesterday] proposed raising the premiums paid by U.S. companies for federal pension insurance by $37.1 billion over the next 10 years, a move unlikely to garner much support in Congress." (Chicago Tribune: one-time registration required)
Pension Program Savings May Be Optimistic
Excerpt: "Of the $65 billion in savings from entitlement programs that President Bush has proposed, one-fourth would come from steps to restore solvency to the federal agency that insures employer-based pension plans." (AP via The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Bush Plan Would Cut Social Security Survivor Benefits
Excerpt: "If President Bush gets his way, the venerable $255 Social Security death benefit will fade into history. And 16- and 17-year-old high school dropouts will lose their monthly survivor payments." (AP via The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Commentary: Bush's Social Security Sleight of Hand
Excerpt: "If you read enough numbers, you never know what you'll find. Take President Bush and private Social Security accounts. Last year, even though Bush talked endlessly about the supposed joys of private accounts, he never proposed a specific plan to Congress and never put privatization costs in the budget. But this year, with no fanfare whatsoever, Bush stuck a big Social Security privatization plan in the federal budget proposal, which he sent to Congress on Monday." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
The Effects of Investing the Social Security Trust Funds in GNMA Mortgage-Backed Securities (PDF)
39 pages. Excerpt: "This AARP Public Policy Institute Issue Paper examines the effect on trust fund solvency of investing trust fund assets in Government National Mortgage Association mortgage-backed securities (MBS), which are guaranteed in principal and interest by the federal government but carry a higher yield than U. S. treasury bonds." (AARP)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Overview: Annual Funding Notice for Multiemployer Plans (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The obligation to provide the notice was added to ERISA by the Pension Funding Equity Act of 2004. According to the EBSA, the purpose of the notice is to provide all those parties interested in a plan's financial viability the opportunity to monitor the plan's funding status. In the past, it has often been difficult for employers contributing to multiemployer pension plans to obtain current data regarding a plan's funding status." (Seyfarth Shaw LLP)
Overview: Proposed Amendments to the Executive Pay Disclosure Rules -- Compensation Committees (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "The recently proposed SEC amendments will require the disclosure of almost all aspects of executive pay and benefits and also require more in-depth disclosure of the Compensation Committee's philosophy and rationale for its decision making." (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP)
Analysis: SEC's Sweeping Compensation Disclosure Reform Proposal (PDF)
43 pages. Excerpt: "[T]he SEC has proposed amendments, which, if adopted, will implement numerous changes to the disclosure requirements for reporting companies. These changes have both an overarching component, mandating new substantive disclosures in a number of areas, and also a detailed component, requiring very specific new elements on discrete aspects of a particular disclosure requirement." (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP)
Overview: SEC Proposal for Expanded Executive Compensation and Related Party Disclosure (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "[Orrick wants to] emphasize some of the hottest compensation issues of the moment that are left untouched by the proposal." (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP)
Milliman's Monthly Benefit News and Developments, February 2006 (PDF)
2 pages. The newsletter provides a summary of the previous month's legislative, regulatory, and judicial information on employee benefits. (Milliman)
Newly Posted Events
Assessing Nonqualified Deferred Compensation After 409A
Nationwide on February 15, 2006
presented by Retirement Capital Group
Best Business Practices for Retirement Plan Loan Management - Brown Bag Luncheon
in Ohio on February 28, 2006
presented by ASPPA Benefits Council of Greater Cincinnati
CFDD 2006 Conference for Retirement Advisors
in Illinois on October 3, 2006
presented by Center for Due Diligence
Equity Compensation Plans for Private Companies
Nationwide on February 16, 2006
presented by Beyster Institute
Equity Compensation Plans for Private Companies
Nationwide on February 22, 2006
presented by Beyster Institute
ERISA Litigation
in Massachusetts on May 11, 2006
presented by ALI-ABA (American Law Institute-American Bar Association)
The Brave New World of Roth 401(k)
Nationwide on February 22, 2006
presented by ASPPA (American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries)
Newly Posted Press Releases
Survey Shows Half of Large Firms Have Caps On Retiree Health Care Obligations
(Kaiser Family Foundation)
ICC Plan Solutions forms Strategic Alliance with InvestLink
(Metrics Partners)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
ERISA - Associate Legal Counsel
for T. Rowe Price
in MD
Sr. Benefits Analyst
for Saint-Gobain Corporation
in PA
Pension Administrator
for Retirement Planners
in VA
Senior Retirement Plan Consultant
for Invesmart, Inc.
in TX
Compliance Consultant
for ING US Financial Services
in PA
Senior HR Specialist/Benefits
for The Regional Medical Center
in SC
401 (k) Plan Administrator
for Polycomp Administrative Services, Woodland Hills (LA) and Roseville (Sacramento)
in CA
401(k) / Defined Contribution Administrator
for Campbells Administration Inc.
in CA
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
Copyright 2006 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you may reprint this newsletter in full (including this sentence) without obtaining our permission.
Published by:
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
https://benefitslink.com/about.html
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park FL 32789
(407) 644-4146
Fax: (407) 644-2151
Editor and Publisher: David Rhett Baker, J.D.
Housekeeping: