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Part Time On Call Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in AR, CA, HI, IL, MI, MO, NJ, NY, TN, TX, UT

Long Term Care Claims Consultant - Senior Level
AUL / OneAmerica Financial
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Account Manager
EPIC Advisors, Inc
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Client Service Manager, Defined Benefit
The Newport Group
in WI

Sr. Implementation Consultant - Retirement Plan Administration
AIG Life & Retirement
in TX

Pension Administrator
Beneco
in AZ

Operations Investment Analyst
T. Rowe Price
in MD

Staff Accountant
T. Rowe Price
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Plan Compliance Consultant
T. Rowe Price
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Retirement Account Manager
Alerus Retirement Solutions
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John Hancock
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Western Benefits Conference
July 27, 2014 in NV
(Western Pension & Benefits Council - Orange County Chapter)

Litigating Stock-Drop Claims After Dudenhoeffer: New Presumption Standard in Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims
August 12, 2014 WEBCAST
(Strafford)

What a 401(k) Administrator Needs to Know About IRAs
August 19, 2014 WEBCAST
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

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Keeping Up with the Trends in 401(k) Plans
"Being an ERISA plan fiduciary is hard work, particularly in the current landscape of evolving plan and investment structures -- coupled with increased regulation and scrutiny. There is no 'one size fits all' approach to 401(k) plan design; however, prudence may dictate regular review of the plan's structure and consideration of whether any changes may be desirable and appropriate for the plan's population." (Benefits Bryan Cave)

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Staying Ahead of the Curve: Anticipating Changes in the Target Date Fund Marketplace
"Traditionally, target-date funds were invested in underlying proprietary funds. Now managers are increasingly considering open architecture, incorporating funds of competitors with unique capabilities that complement their own. This 'unbundling' would mirror what has already occurred in the core investment lineup over the past two decades in the defined contribution plans." (Money Management Intelligence)

University of California Borrows $2.7 Billion to Fund Pension Debt
"After restarting in 2010, the employer contribution to the UC Retirement Plan increased from 12 to 14 percent of pay this month and most employee contributions increased from 6.5 to 8 percent of pay, a total of nearly $2 billion a year. But the steady increase of contributions that were once zero still falls short of closing the pension funding gap. Last year UC Retirement had only 76 percent of the actuarially projected assets needed to pay pension obligations over the next three decades." (Calpensions)

U.K. Offers More Workers Option of Lump-Sum Payment in Lieu of Lifetime Annuity
"Britain will give more workers a choice to cash in their pension savings ... [T]hese rights would apply to more pension schemes than originally planned, taking the total number of people affected to 18 million, over half the workforce.... Companies which sell annuities will also be able to sell more complex products that do not pay a constant income and allow one-off lump-sum withdrawals. Some industry experts fear that people may be sold unsuitable investments." (Reuters)

How Well Does Your Retirement Budget Process Handle Your Specific Situation and Objectives?
"If you are simply spending 4% of your accumulated savings at initial retirement increased with inflation each year, you are probably not adequately reflecting your specific situation or objectives." (Ken Steiner, FSA Retired)

Thousands of 401(k)s Fail Nondiscrimination Tests
"Almost 60,000, or about 12 percent, of plans reviewed were forced to make 'corrective distributions' to HCEs in 2012 ... The paybacks, which can be taxed as regular income by the federal government, totaled $794 million ... The portion of plans with corrective distributions in 2012 was down 2 percentage points from the previous year." (Thompson SmartHR Manager)

Aggregating Inherited IRAs
"In all of these scenarios the RMD will have to be calculated and distributed separately for each IRA. You can never take the RMD for an inherited IRA from an IRA that you own or vice versa. IRAs inherited by non-spouse beneficiaries have RMDs beginning in the year after the death of the account owner regardless of the age of the beneficiary." (The Slott Report)

Derisking and Pension Expense: Not All Bad News
"For some plan sponsors ... derisking presents a challenge because, as the fixed income allocation grows, the long-term expected rate of return on assets (EROA) decreases.... On the other hand, derisking occurs as the plan's funded status is improving, and pension expense will generally decrease as funded status improves. This improvement in funded status can offset the decline in EROA. This paper describes the offsetting effect, which -- when combined with the advantages of derisking -- may encourage sponsors to go ahead with a derisking strategy." (Vanguard)

Should You Add Longevity Protection to Your Retirement Plan?
"A retired investor who owns such an annuity can plan for his portfolio of stocks, bonds, and funds to last for through a given time horizon -- say, until age 85. If the individual is still living beyond that date, the annuity payments will help supply income in addition to whatever cash flow the (possibly dwindling) investment portfolio can provide." (Morningstar)

Measuring Employee Savings and Investing Behavior in Defined Contribution Plans: 2014 Benchmarks (PDF)
9 pages. Excerpt: "The average participation rate across all companies was 78.3%. This is a slight uptick from last year's value of 78.0% and well above the value of 69.8% 10 years ago.... Plans with automatic enrollment saw their average participation rate grow to 84.6%, up from 81.4% the prior year. Conversely, the average participation rate among plans without automatic enrollment decreased from 63.5% to 62.4%. The average savings rate was steady at 7.5%." (Aon Hewitt)

ESOP Boundaries: Plan Design Versus Fiduciary Function
"The United States Supreme Court's Dudenhoeffer decision [was surprising] because the Supreme Court has repeatedly made this point about the distinction between settlor and fiduciary functions.... [It] seems like the decision to establish an ESOP to invest primarily in employer securities is a settlor function: plan design. But the Court treated the investment in employer securities as a fiduciary function." (Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP)

Form 5500 Season Is Well Underway -- Are You Prepared? (PDF)
"Some of the issues that may unnecessarily raise red flags and prompt attention from the government include ... Inconsistent and/or incorrect use of plan names and employer names... Schedule C completion in a manner that contradicts the instruction ... Anomalies in the participant counts from one year to the next ... Incorrect codes on Line 8 regarding the plan characteristics ... Misreporting the existence of a fidelity bond ... Late deposit reporting." (The ERISA Law Group)

Health Insurance and Retirement Decisions
"[The authors] study two important SSA priority areas: first, to what extent do people remain in the labor force until age 65 in order to maintain health insurance for themselves (and after age 65 to maintain health insurance for their spouses)? Second, do early retirees have poorer health than others and does the availability of Medicare interact with their decision to claim benefits?" (University of Michigan Retirement Research Center)

ISS 2015 Policy Survey: Expanded Focus on Executive Compensation
"In contrast to last year's policy survey, which was notably light in compensation areas, this year's survey focuses quite a bit of attention on pay-for-performance alignment and equity plan evaluation. In addition, ISS is reviewing general governance questions related to areas like boardroom diversity and risk and audit oversight." (Towers Watson)

Fifth Circuit Case Highlights Tension between Compensation Plans and ERISA
"[T]he Fifth Circuit in Tolbert v. RBC Capital Markets Corporation held that a company's wealth accumulation plan (WAP) was a pension benefit plan for purposes of ERISA because the plan permitted participants to defer distributions to termination of employment or beyond.... This case highlights two important issues[:] ... whether the compensation plan qualifies as a 'pension benefit plan' for purposes of ERISA [and] ... [t]op hat status." (Winston & Strawn LLP)