ASPPA

Retirement Plan Administrator
Great Lakes Pension Associates, Inc.
in MI

Plan Investment and Advisory Analyst
Christian Retirement Ministries
in CO

Benefits Associate
Ogletree Deakins
in OR

Specialist Bundled Services
Nationwide
in OH

Compliance/Documents Specialist
United Retirement Plan Consultants
in CO, NJ, WA

Compliance/Documents Assistant
United Retirement Plan Consultants
in WA

Retirement Plan Consultant
Strategies, LLC
in CO

Compliance Manager
General Board of Pension and Health Benefits
in IL

Retirement Plan Administrator
Goldleaf Partners
in MN

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State Efforts to Expand Coverage: Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program Act
RECORDED
(ASPPA [American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries])

ERISA Fiduciary Investment Basics 2015
February 4, 2015 WEBCAST
(Practising Law Institute)

ERISA Fiduciary Investment Basics 2015
February 4, 2015 in NY
(Practising Law Institute)

Protecting Your Benefit and Retirement Plans from a DOL Audit
February 24, 2015 in TX
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Dallas Chapter)

A Road Map to Major Changes Coming to Multi-Employer Pension Plans
February 26, 2015 WEBCAST
(Polsinelli)

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Financial Services Institute Chair Calls White House Fiduciary Memo 'Offensive'
" 'The ignorance in the memo is shocking to me,' [Adam Antoniades, chair of the Financial Services Institute] explained. 'For those who spend their lives in the industry, it is frankly offensive.' ... What's the industry to do? 'We highlight the good we do, how the good outweighs the bad, and we come together to address what's wrong and craft a solution,' he explained. 'As industry leaders, we must be brave, bold and strong enough to take policies and positions founded on our core beliefs of how to engage clients in a conflict-free ... manner.' " (ThinkAdvisor)

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For Passive Funds, a Stronger Link Between Fees and Performance
"Unlike the Porsche, there is no cachet from buying a high-priced fund. Still, price can be useful when predicting results -- though not in the way fund companies would like.... As the chart illustrates, there appears to be an inverse relationship between fees and performance.... This suggests that investors can increase their probability of success by selecting low-cost funds. Fortunately, there are a lot of low-cost passive and active funds to choose from." (Morningstar)

DC Sponsors' Big Concern: Controlling Costs
"Almost half of the employers surveyed (47%) said they had recently taken the first [step] in managing plan costs, which is reviewing them. Of the remaining half, 71% were very likely to do so in 2015.... One-quarter of plans surveyed said they have recently restructured their administrative fees in other to be calculated in a more equitable manner, meaning as a per-person charge to participants or using an asset-based or revenue sharing model." (Money Management Intelligence)

Target Risk Funds: How Do They Work?
"Target risk funds and target date funds are two types of mutual funds that make the asset allocation decision for an investor. Target risk funds have not been studied before: this article is the first comprehensive study of their characteristics and performance and how they compare to target date funds as an investment vehicle." [From the article: "These funds differ from target date funds in that they attempt to hold risks (on a relative or an absolute basis) constant over time while a target date fund attempts to lower risk as an investor's time horizon approaches."] (Edwin J. Elton, Martin J. Gruber, and Andre De Souza; all are with the New York University [NYU] -- Department of Finance)

How Often Should an Investment Policy Statement Be Updated?
"Individual clauses can be reviewed and updated on a schedule that corresponds with normal portfolio monitoring procedures.... [T]he IPS should be reviewed in full on an annual basis to review for any outdated information. Once the IPS is sufficiently old, you and the client (or the courts!) might consider it stale and no longer valid.... [E]very IPS ought to be rewritten every 3-5 years, just to remind the client this is an active and important document and because it needs to accurately reflect the client's current thinking and circumstances[.]" (fi360)

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Independent Panel Proposes Changes to Military Pensions
"[P]ersonnel costs [have] become the fastest growing part of the Pentagon budget. Between 2000 and 2014, those expenses rose 46%, according to [CBO], to $142 billion -- or about a third of the defense budget. Military officials worry that the price tag for salaries, health care and retirement will consume growing costs and leave less money for other things." (The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)

Teacher Pensions: The Math Adds Up to a Crisis
"In 2014, state teacher pension systems had a total of $499 billion in unfunded liabilities, which has risen $100 billion in just two years, according to a new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonpartisan research and policy group dedicated to restructuring the teaching profession. The report card on teacher pensions found that 70 cents of every dollar contributed to state pension systems pays for this massive debt rather than covering current employees' future retirement benefits." (CBS MoneyWatch)

Underfunded Pensions: Tackling an 'Invisible' Crisis
"Wharton finance professor Robert Inman ... noted, for example, that Chicago's unfunded liabilities are 10 times its revenues. 'Just assume that they're going to have to pay 5% of that [number annually]. That means you're looking at 50% of their cash that will have go to pensions.' Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Houston and other major cities will face similar challenges." (Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania)

With Interest Rates So Low, LDI Positions Are Unlikely to Change
"A lot has been said over the past fifteen years about what pension plans ought to do regarding liability-driven investing (LDI). But, with interest rates having fallen this year to levels we haven't seen in decades, [author Bob Collie thinks] that what many plans will do is: not much at all. Whatever the position a plan is in, low interest rates make it difficult to make changes now." (Russell Investments)

Sen. Orrin Hatch Outlines Plans for Retirement Reform
"Many industry groups were particularly fond of Title II in the [Secure Annuities for Employees (SAFE) Retirement Act], which would expand the availability of qualified retirement plans among private sector workers, especially for employees of small businesses.... Other key elements of the SAFE Retirement Act would 'ensure that hardworking Americans will continue to have affordable access to professional investment advice by restoring jurisdiction over the IRA fiduciary duty rule to the Treasury Department and requiring Treasury to consult with the [SEC] when prescribing rules relating to the professional standard of care owed by brokers and investment advisors to IRA owners.' " (PLANSPONSOR)

Debt of the Elderly and Near Elderly, 1992-2013 (PDF)
"The percentage of American families with heads ages 55 or older that had debt increased from 63.4 percent in 2010 to 65.4 percent in 2013.... The debt levels among those with housing debt have obvious and serious implications for the future retirement security of these Americans, perhaps most significantly that these families are potentially at risk of losing what is typically their most important asset -- their home." (Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI])

QPAM Exemptions for Money Managers Being Evaluated
"Far from being a theoretical construct, Credit Suisse Asset Management stands to lose revenue if it cannot maintain its QPAM status for more than $2 billion of ERISA assets.... Given the variability in QPAM awareness, it might be extremely helpful to have QPAM audit results made public. Not only could ERISA plan participants review the results but investment fiduciaries could examine the audit reports as part of their due diligence, both prior to hiring an asset manager and then regularly thereafter." (Good Risk Governance Pays)

Annual Reporting Requirements for Incentive Stock Options and Employee Stock Purchase Plans
"For [1] any exercise of an incentive stock option (ISO) during 2014 or [2] transfer during 2014 of a share previously purchased pursuant to a tax-qualified employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) where the purchase price paid for the share was (a) less than 100% of the fair market value on the date of grant or (b) not fixed or determinable on the date of grant, the Internal Revenue Code requires companies to: furnish, by February 2, 2015, annual information statements to the participant who exercised the ISO or transferred the ESPP share; and file, by March 2, 2015 (for paper filers) or by March 31, 2015 (for electronic filers), an information return with the IRS[.]" (Orrick)

Federal District Court in California Asked to Determine Retroactive Applicability of United States v. Windsor
"The IRS has stated its position. In Notice 2014-19 , the IRS stated that retirement plans are not required to recognize same-sex spouses prior to June 26, 2013, the date of the Windsor decision. However, the IRS permits employers to amend their plans to reflect the outcome of Windsor prior to June 26. In other words, employers can provide retroactive benefits, but they are not required to do so. It seems unlikely that the California district court, and perhaps ultimately the Supreme Court, would take a position different from the IRS. Nonetheless, employers should keep a close eye on the outcome of the decision. If the court finds that Windsor should be applied retroactively to employee benefits, it is possible that many other suits may be filed, and those suits may not be limited to surviving spouse benefits." (Bass, Berry & Sims)

MBGH Launches Price and Quality Transparency Program to Support Employers in Reducing Medical Costs Midwest Business Group on Health

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