BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter
Employee Benefits Jobs
Part Time On-Call Participant Counselor
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New Plan Conversions
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DB/DC Administrator
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Post Your Job on EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com
Webcasts and Conferences
401(k)Rekon Advisor Symposium - Garden City in New York on September 1, 2011 presented by 401(k) Rekon
Best Practices and Practical Guidance on Prevailing Wage Plans Nationwide on August 3, 2011 presented by AccuDraft, Inc.
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"Use this worksheet as tool to help design ESOP documents that meet the applicable requirements." Source: National Center for Employee Ownership's web page at http://www.nceo.org/main/column.php/id/403 (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)
DATAIR Government Forms Software [Advert.]
EFAST2-approved 5500s with all schedules and PBGC forms, 1099Rs, 5300 series, FAS 158 (license only the modules you need). Built-in verification and expert live support assures accuracy. PC-based software for economy and maximum security.
"The [Court] held that a 45-day delay between participants' stated 'annuity starting date' in the plan document and when the lump sum distributions were actually made, was not reasonable." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)
"GASB will accept written comments until September 30, 2011 and hold public hearings in October. GASB's goal is to have final standards in place by June 2012." (Buck Consultants, LLC)
Same-S.ex Marriage Fight at Heart of Cozen O'Connor Benefits Case
"The parents of a Cozen O'Connor partner who left the bulk of her estate to her wife argued the profit-sharing benefits the daughter accrued at the firm should go to them because Pennsylvania and federal law does not recognize same-s.ex marriages." (Law.com via Yahoo! Finance)
Solutions to Prevent Automatic Enrollment Inertia
"There's been a lot of discussion recently about whether the automatic enrollment feature in many 401(k) plans actually leads to lower overall retirement savings rates." (Van Iwaarden Associates)
ACI?s 4th National Forum on Defending & Managing ERISA Litigation [Advert.]
Winning litigation strategies for even the most seasoned ERISA litigators. Advanced forum with expert faculty - 21 in-house attorneys, 11 federal judges, top defense counsel. Learn methods to assert a complete defense for these high-stakes claims.
Ten Key Retirement Ages
USNews.com presents a list of 10 Key Retirement Ages to Plan For. (Cypen & Cypen)
Connecticut Pension Payouts That Far Exceed IRS Limits
See item #7 of newsletter. '[O]ver the past decade or so, the state has apparently paid a small group of elite pension recipients hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the Internal Revenue Code allows for public employee pension plans. Since 2009, $195,000 has been the IRC cap for an annual pension under plans such as Connecticut's, but that limit was exceeded last year by five state retirees' pensions that ranged from $198,296 to $263,047." (Cypen & Cypen)
Embrace Your Fiduciary Responsibility
"The Investment Advisors Act of 1940 requires advisors to put their clients' interest first, which makes them fiduciaries." (403 (b) Advisor via Roland/Criss)
"In 'Confronting Retirement Risks,' [Morningstar's president of the investment management division, Peng] Chen notes that many investors do not estimate how long they will live and end up shorthanded on retirement funds. Conversely, people who are overly optimistic about how long they will live may have a too-frugal existence in retirement." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
"Are you aware that CalSTRS has a website, www.403bcompare.com, which has for several years made available the kind of information you envisioned as the result of the pilot 'transparency project'? In California, availability of this kind of information has not been enough to overcome the large sales forces deployed by 403(b) vendors that sell equity index annuities and other high fee products." (bWise Guys, LLC)
"We've already seen a glimpse of the consequences of past under-contributions based on [Alice-in-Wonderland assumptions]. So far this century, equity markets have provided less than 0.005 percent of the 23,988,000 points needed to meet pension fund expectations. To fund just a portion of the resulting pension deficiency, governments have laid off employees, raised college tuition and taxes, and diverted money from welfare and other services. The rest of the deficiency is being deferred to our kids. Because those deferrals accrue interest, it will be exponentially worse for them." (San Francisco Chronicle)
Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
Senators Introduce Bill to End Stock Option Tax Break
"A . . . press release said the Ending Excessive Corporate Deductions for Stock Options Act, S. 1375, would end excessive corporate tax deductions for stock options by requiring such deductions not to exceed the expense shown on corporate financial reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)
12-Month Private Industry Compensation Costs, June 2011
"Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 2.3 percent for the 12-month period ending June 2011, compared to the 1.9-percent increase for the 12-month period ending June 2010." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Did the Housing Boom Increase Household Spending?
"The brief's key findings are: Regional variations in U.S. house prices provided a natural experiment to test how price changes influence household spending. Households age 51 and over who saw rapid growth in house prices increased their spending on non-durables (e.g., meals out, vacations, and entertainment). The annual increase was modest but, if sustained over time, could be substantial. Interestingly, when house prices fell, households did not appear to tighten their belts." (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)
Press Releases
12 New Investment Options for Securian Retirement Plans and Participants (Securian Retirement Services)
US Department of Labor Sues Former North Carolina Fabric Mill, Company President to Restore Nearly $145,000 to Pension Plan (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA))
States Reaching Millions Of U.S. Investors Through Investor Protection Trust (Investor Protection Trust (IPT))
Fiduciary Firewall Consulting Is Among First To Have Its Investment Support Services Certified (Centre for Fiduciary Excellence (CEFEX))
Mercer Analysis Reveals Automatic Plan Features Help Passively Enrolled Participants (Mercer)
Hyas Group Hires Scott Faris as Senior Consultant (Hyas Group)
DCIIA Report Identifies How Plan Sponsors Can Help ?Plug the Drain? on 401(k) Plan ?Leakage? to Improve Retirement Income Security for Workers (Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA))
Introducing Compliancedashboard 2.0 ? It?s More Than a Face-lift (Compliancedashboard, LLC)
Enrolled Actuary Joins Staff at APC (Associated Pension Consultants)
Study: Standing and Sitting at Work Improves Health, Happiness of Workers (Ergotron)
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