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Paid Days Off at This Time of Year Can Help Recruitment
Excerpt: "MRA's annual survey of more than 600 companies in Wisconsin, Iowa and northern Illinois shows 98% are providing scheduled paid holidays for employees next year on Thursday, Dec. 25, and 69% will offer at least a half-day off paid on Dec. 24. Fewer employers are closed the day before New Year's, the survey says." (Journal Sentinel Inc.)

Disease Control No Panacea to Health Cost Reduction, Study Finds
Excerpt: "An analysis by the RAND Corp. shows disease management programs can improve quality of health care and reduce hospital admission rates for patients with congestive heart failure but finds no conclusive evidence that the strategy saves money." (The Chattanooga Times Free Press via MSNBC.com)

7 Ways to Lower Benefit Costs Without Decreasing Coverage
Excerpt: "Don't fear the CEO when she asks you to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. Here are seven strategies to drop benefit costs without decreasing coverage. There's still time to get these in for 2008." (Workforce Management; free registration required)

Massachusetts Firms Find Ways Around State Health Law
Excerpt: "[S]ome employers are taking actions that could shift costs to the state or leave more people uninsured, potentially upsetting the delicate balance of responsibility on which the initiative rests, according to interviews with more than 20 companies, insurance brokers, and trade organizations." (The Boston Globe)

New Study on Employees Who Balance Their Professional and Personal Lives
Excerpt: "Most employees believe work/life balance policies are important when considering whether to take, remain in or quit a job. And employers who deliver on their promise of a good balance between professional duties and personal needs tend to have more engaged employees who say they're more satisfied with their companies." (Human Resource Executive Online; free registration required)

Overview: IRS Rules on Deductibility of Health Insurance Costs of Two-Percent S Corporation Shareholder-Employees
Excerpt: "A two-percent shareholder-employee may deduct amounts paid for accident and health insurance under Code Sec. 162(l) if the insurance plan was established by the S corporation. A plan is considered to be established by the S corporation if (1) the S corporation makes the premium payments in the current tax year or (2) the two-percent shareholder makes the premium payments, furnishes proof of the payments to the S corporation, and is reimbursed by the S corporation in the current tax year." (Wolters Kluwer Financial Services)

Health Industry Trend Could Further Erode Broker's Role
Excerpt: "The rise of individual health insurance could cut into the market currently served by the traditional group broker. Carriers have reason to be bullish about more individual customers because it represents real growth, according to Paul Veronneau, U.S. payer industry leader for PwC's Health Research Institute." (Employee Benefit Advisor; free registration required)

States' Widening of Health Care Hits Roadblocks
Excerpt: "Though the governors of three big states -- California, Illinois and Pennsylvania -- proposed sweeping plans to restructure health care this year, none will finish 2007 with bills passed and signed. In each state, the initiatives confronted entrenched opposition from insurance and other business lobbies that made it far more difficult to build a consensus for change than in the smaller New England states that acted in recent years." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Health Care Pushed to Fore by California Vote
Excerpt: "The universal health insurance package that one chamber of California's legislature passed this week looks a lot like the one Massachusetts not only passed but put in place a year earlier: Every resident will be required to have insurance, every employer must pitch in, and no one can be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition." (The Washington Post; free registration required)

COBRA Notice not Due to Employee Who Failed to Pay Health Premiums
Excerpt: "The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed with a lower court ruling that a former Tyson Foods employee was not entitled to notification under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) - because he failed to pay his health care plan premiums while on medical leave prior to his termination." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

Court Considers 44-Day Timeline for COBRA Election Notices
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: The court's opinion is frustrating because it does not discuss whether the employer and plan administrator are separate entities. Under the DOL's COBRA notice regulations, when the employer and the plan administrator are the same entity (as is typically the case with single-employer plans), the election notice deadline is 44 days from the date of the qualifying event (or loss of coverage, for those plans following the alternate rule). Indeed, this single 44-day period controls even if a TPA handles election notices (unless the TPA has agreed to be the ERISA plan administrator)." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)

IRS Explains When More-Than-2% Shareholders of Subchapter S Corporations Can Deduct Health Insurance Premiums
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: Several examples in the notice discuss when S corporations have established plans providing medical care (thus making a deduction available to more-than-2% shareholders). These examples address accident and health insurance policies obtained by the shareholder in the shareholder's name as well as policies obtained by the S corporation in the corporation's name." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)

Calculator Estimates Cost of Employee Health Problems
Excerpt: "Many of today's corporate executives want more than promises that wellness and preventive health-care programs will lower medical insurance premiums and other costs related to workplace illnesses. C-suite executives want hard data, say corporate health experts touting a new tool that helps make clearer the connection between wellness and savings." (Financial Week; free registration required)

Lawmakers Extend Mental Health Parity Through '08
Excerpt: "BNA reports that a provision included in the measure passed by the House and Senate this week would impose a $100 fine per day for violations. The provision is effective January 1, 2008, the news report said." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

2007 Version of Form 8889 Released for Use by HSA Account Holders
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: Perhaps the biggest surprise in the 2007 versions of Form 8889 and its Instructions is the interpretation they contain of TRHCA's no-proration rule. Although the rule generally allows someone who first becomes HSA eligible mid-year to make a full-year contribution if the individual is HSA eligible on December 1, a strict reading of the new Code Section 223(b)(8) created by TRHCA allows the individual's December HDHP coverage to be attributed only to previous months of the year during which the individual was not otherwise HSA eligible. Here, however, the rule is interpreted to allow individuals to calculate their contribution limit as the greater of a full-year contribution based on their December HDHP coverage or the pro-rated amount based on the type of HDHP coverage they actually had during months when they were HSA eligible." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)

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Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

New Informational Series Focuses on Public Employee Benefit Plan Studies
Excerpt: "The Center for State and Local Government Excellence has issued the first in a series of briefs, primers and data sheets studying public pension plans, retiree health care and financial planning. The series continues through May 2009 as part of a $1.5 million grant to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College." (Workforce Management; free registration required)

Overview: SEC Adopts Significant Changes to Rules 144 and 145 (PDF)
Excerpt: "In a nutshell, these amendments . . . reduce to six months the minimum holding period for resales of 'restricted securities' of 'reporting companies' (non-reporting companies will continue to be subject to a one-year minimum holding period) and, after the applicable holding period, non-affiliates will be able to resell without concern for virtually any of the requirements currently imposed on sellers of restricted securities. Although contemplated when the Amendments were proposed, the SEC did not reintroduce 'tolling' of the Rule 144 holding period for hedged positions." (Winston & Strawn LLP)

U.S. Incentive Plans, EU Employees and Conflicts of Law (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "This [newletter] summarises important new incentives and employment law developments affecting US employers with operations in Europe." (Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP)

Section 409A Operational Error Relief: Hewitt Summary and Comments (PDF)
11 pages. Excerpt: "Hewitt has prepared a summary of, and commentary on, IRS Notice 2007-100, which provides guidance on the correction of operational errors in a nonqualified deferred compensation plan to comply with Internal Revenue Code section 409A." (Hewitt Associates)

Summary of FASB Statement 123R on Share-Based Payment, Revised December 18, 2007 (PDF)
Excerpt: "Statement 123R creates a more 'level playing field' for equity incentive design that is expected to result in the increased prevalence of full-value and performance-vesting awards, and a corresponding decline in plain-vanilla, tax qualified, and reload stock options, and employee stock purchase plans. The remainder of this paper summarizes the most pertinent provisions of Statement 123R and related staff guidance provided by the FASB and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)." (Frederic R. Cook)

IRS Says FedEx Misclassified Some 13,000 Workers
Excerpt: "According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), FedEx said the IRS has tentatively concluded, subject to further discussion with the firm, that FedEx Ground's pick-up-and-delivery owner-operators should be reclassified as employees for federal employment tax purposes.' (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

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Newly Posted Events

Living to 100: Survival to Advanced Ages International Symposium
in Florida on January 7, 2008
presented by Society of Actuaries

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Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
( Post a Job | View All Jobs | RSS Feed )

Senior Pension Administrator
for Retirement Benefit Solutions, LLC
in DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA

Second Vice President, DC Administration
for New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in MA

Writer
for The Capital Group Companies
in CA

University Director of Retirement Program Services
for Indiana University
in IN

Conversion Administrator
for PensionTrend, Inc
in MI

Employee Benefits Manager
for Michigan Catholic Conference
in MI

Manager, Employee Wellness Programs
for PepsiCo, Inc.
in NY

Benefits Project Manager
for Publix Super Markets, Inc.
in FL

Defined Contribution Analyst I
for Standard Retirement Services
in PA

Mid-Level Pension Actuary
for McCready and Keene, Inc.
in IN

401(k) Senior Account Representative
for Paychex, Inc.
in NY

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Handy Links:

• View Today's Active Message Threads
• Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
• Employee Benefits Library

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