ESOP and 401(k) Administrator
Primark Benefits
in CA

Pension Administrator
Primark Benefits
in CA

Corporate 401K Administrator
Lockheed Martin
in MD

Retirement Account Administrator
Alerus Financial
in MN

Retirement Plan Consultant
Loren D. Stark Company
in TX

Sr. Employer Benefits Financial Analyst
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
in LA

Area President / Branch Manager
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
in IA

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Legal Updates with Marcia Wagner
August 25, 2015 WEBCAST
(401k Coach Program)

Distributions, Taxation & After-Tax Contributions
August 27, 2015 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

Private Exchange FORUM
September 1, 2015 in MD
(Institute for HealthCare Consumerism)

The Deadline For Filing Forms 1094-C And 1095-C Is Approaching. Are You Prepared?
September 3, 2015 WEBCAST
(Tucker Ellis LLP)

Strategies to Increase Participants
September 11, 2015 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

16th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey
"The Compendium provides a five-year trend analysis and in-depth perspectives on access to employer-sponsored retirement benefits, savings rates, planning-related activities, and the changing nature of retirement itself. This extensive report offers 20 key indicators of retirement readiness among workers by employer size, generation, gender, household income, and level of education." (Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies)

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Long Live the 401(k)
"Over the past few decades, 401(k)s have simply gotten a whole lot better. Insights from behavioral economics have led to the development of retirement plan features that have encouraged greater employee participation and higher deferral rates. The industry has developed investment options that simplify decision-making.... In many ways, the real debate has shifted from a discussion of whether 401(k)s can work for employees -- they definitely can -- to a debate about the best way to maximize the benefits of defined-contributions plans, and to bring them to a greater number of workers." (Morningstar Advisor)

Putting Plan Design to Work
"[T]he data now bears out that plan design has the most powerful impact on improving participant outcomes. Automatic enrollment is driving participation rates close to 90%. Eight of every 10 plans have designated a target-date fund (TDF) as their default investment. And plans are increasingly using autoescalation features to help participants boost their savings rates incrementally over time. This is a shift from a decade ago, when there was a belief and a hope that participant education would be the best way to improve outcomes." (Vanguard)

401(k) Fees Continue to Drop
"401(k) participants paid an average expense ratio of 0.54% of assets for equity mutual funds in 2014, continuing a long-term downward slide, down 30% from 0.77% in 2000 ... At year-end 2014, 88% of 401(k) plan equity fund assets were invested in mutual funds with expense ratios of less than 1%. Only 1% of assets were invested in funds with expense ratios of 1.5% or greater." (Forbes)

Trial Date Set for Boeing 401(k) Fee Case
"[A]rguments in the trial will be heard August 26, 2015, before the U.S. District Court of Southern District of Illinois. Plaintiffs allege that Boeing violated [ERISA] by permitting excessive fees to be charged to 401(k) plan participants. They also claim that Boeing engaged in self-serving conflicts of interest, and permitted imprudent funds to be included in the company retirement plan." (PLANSPONSOR)

Hearing Reveals Room for DOL Compromise on Fiduciary Rule
"The DOL is least likely to give ground on its proposal by deferring to the [SEC] and [FINRA] on a 'harmonized' best-interest standard, as many witnesses and commenters have demanded.... Where the DOL did indicate willingness to bend was on issues such as clarifying the line between education and advice, and lengthening the eight-month implementation period." (Bloomberg BNA)

Defensive Plan Building: Minimizing Legal Risks in the Design, Implementation and Administration of Employee Benefit Plans
"The point of 'defensive plan building' is to look ahead at risks like this and design the plan in such a way that this doesn't occur by accident, by insulating such senior officers from involvement that could drag them in as defendants. Multiply this by a thousand fold, concerning all of the other exposures that a plan can bring, and you have the idea of 'defensive plan building:' look ahead when building and operating a plan at your potential exposures, and avoid the ones you want to avoid." (Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group)

Managing a Frozen Pension Plan
"[T]he proportion of U.S.-based plans that are frozen has grown dramatically over the past decade, and around 10 percent of all U.S.-based plans have been closed since 2008.... [A] frozen plan has a finite life span. Even though that life span may be decades long, once a plan is frozen the plan sponsor should start working almost immediately toward the new end game." (Treasury & Risk)

Planning to Annuitize Current Retirees? Fifth Circuit Unambiguously Upholds Verizon's Right to De-Risk
"The court made the following rulings ... [1] The decision to annuitize was not a fiduciary act.... [2] The possibility of annuitization was not required to be disclosed in the [SPD].... [3] Participant consent was not required for annuitization of their benefits.... [4] Section 510 of ERISA ... was not violated merely because the plaintiffs did not have rights to continued plan participation, ERISA coverage or PBGC insurance.... [5] Paying $1 billion in fees and expenses as part of the $8.4 billion annuitization was not a fiduciary breach.... [6] It was not imprudent to purchase one group annuity contract from Prudential rather than from multiple insurers." [ Lee v. Verizon Comm. Inc. , No. 14-10553 (5th Cir. Aug. 17, 2015)] (Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP)

How Changes in Interest Rate and Mortality Assumptions May Impact Plan Sponsor Financial Statements
"[This article considers] the effect of possible interest rate increases on sponsor financial statements by analyzing two different scenarios (out of a nearly infinite number of possible ones): [1] Optimistic: The Fed raises short-term rates by 50 basis points between now and the end of the year, and that results in a 50 basis point increase in rates across the yield curve. ([The authors] call this 'optimistic' because of its affect on DB plan finance -- higher interest rates = lower liabilities.) [2] Pessimistic: The Fed raises short-term rates by 50 basis points; medium-term rates are unchanged and long-term rates go down 50 basis points." (October Three Consulting)

It's That Time of Year Again for ERISA Plan Sponsors
"The change to Form 5500 for this plan year specifically relates to active participant count. A new line, section 6(a)(1), has been added to the main form, requiring plan sponsors to enter the total number of active participants at the beginning of the plan year. Previously, only the number of active participants at the end of the plan year was requested, along with the total number of participants (active and inactive) at the end of the plan year and the number of participants with account balances at the end of the plan year." (Cammack Retirement Group)

How Employees Want to Learn About Retirement (PDF)
"96% indicated that they did want help completing enrollment, reviewing investments, or selecting the amount to save.... About a third of enrollees do receive guidance from a financial advisor. However, only 33% of those working with a financial advisor would seek out their assistance with the selections on the retirement plan.... 95% indicate that they understand their plan fees after the explanation by a provider. 95% of those also understand how fees can impact their long-term returns." (PlanVision)

Portfolio Survival: The Chain of Longevity Risk
"Path dependence refers to the fact that, once we begin spending from a volatile portfolio, the order of market returns can change the portfolio's value.... The best possible outcome is achieved when our market returns are ordered from best to worst. The worst possible outcome is the reverse.... Path dependent risk is not market risk, cannot be diversified away like market risk, and therefore we can't be compensated for it.... Path-dependence can lead to portfolio ruin, but it probably won't if we lower spending when our portfolio is stressed." (The Retirement Cafe)

Reentering the Labor Force After Retirement
"[A]pproximately 15 percent of older Americans with career jobs returned to the labor force after having retired; respondents were more likely to reenter the workforce if they were younger, were in better health, or had a defined-contribution pension plan." (Kevin E. Cahill, Michael D. Giandrea, and Joseph F. Quinn, via SSRN)

How Rolling Over Your 401(k) to an IRA Can Increase Your Tax Bill
"[O]ne trap you can step into with regards to the Back-Door Roth IRA strategy -- or any Roth IRA conversion for that matter -- is when you 'cross streams' by rolling plan money into an IRA in the same year you make a Roth IRA conversion.... If you convert the entire IRA, you will not owe any tax, since the plan assets are excluded from the IRA pro-rata formula, and your IRA was all after-tax money.... [L]et's say you change jobs mid-year. Believing you'd be better off in an IRA than with your 401(k), you roll your 401(k) to an IRA. Bang! You just increased your tax bill for the year by several thousand dollars." (Slott Report)

Pension Rights Center Comments to IRS on Rules for Retiree Benefit Cuts in Financially Troubled Multiemployer Pension Plans (PDF)
10 pages. "[This letter provides] specific comments intended to help improve the proposed regulations in seven substantive areas: [1] plan eligibility to suspend benefits; [2] post-suspension maintenance of records showing ongoing compliance with suspension conditions; [3] equitable allocation of benefit suspensions; [4] rules relating to disability benefits; [4] rules relating to benefits to alternative payees; [6] rules relating to participant voting; [7] rules relating to benefit improvements; [8] method of communicating with participants; and [9] the selection and function of the retiree representative." (Pension Rights Center)

Comments by American Academy of Actuaries on Proposed Regs on Suspensions of Benefits (PDF)
"The level of resources required could serve to discourage some plan sponsors from pursuing benefit suspensions, particularly because they cannot be certain that their applications will be approved. This concern would be most acute for small plans.... [The authors] suggest that the final regulations clarify that the actuary should base the projections to certify that the proposed suspensions are sufficient to avoid insolvency on the market asset value as of the end of the calendar year quarter preceding the date of certification." (American Academy of Actuaries)

SEC Adopts CEO Pay Ratio Disclosure Rule (PDF)
14 pages. "[T]he three-year provision regarding the frequency of median employee identification does not apply to the frequency of computing the compensation of the median employee for purposes of pay ratio disclosure. A Subject Company that uses the same median employee for two or three years would still be required to calculate that employee's total annual compensation and disclose the pay ratio each year." (Morgan Lewis)

DOL Files Suit Against Fiduciaries of Oxford Holdings Inc. Alleging That They Kept Employees' Contributions to Retirement Plan Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

DOL Obtains Default Judgment Against Fiduciaries of the Applied Technology Systems, Inc. Retirement Plan in Cleveland, Ohio Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

The Standard Appoints New Retirement Plan Consultant The Standard

Fidelity Investments Makes Available Deferred Income Annuities for Investors Looking for Guaranteed Income Later in Life Fidelity Investments

Asset International, Parent Company of PLANSPONSOR and PLANADVISER, Appoints New CEO Asset International

Harry Conaway Named CEO of the Employee Benefit Research Institute EBRI [Employee Benefit Research Institute]

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