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ACA Regulatory Roundup: The Top 10 Things You Need to Know Now
February 18, 2016 WEBCAST
(Employee Benefit News)

Five Conversations You Should Be Having About the Cadillac Tax
February 24, 2016 WEBCAST
(Tango Health)

Navigating the Complexities of FMLA, ADA and Other Overlapping Leaves of Absence Laws
February 25, 2016 in NY
(Littler Mendelson)

Developing an Effective ESOP Company Board of Directors
March 29, 2016 WEBCAST
(National Center for Employee Ownership [NCEO])

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Today's Discussions on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

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ADP/ACP Safe Harbor Compensation Compliance Confusion (PDF)
16 pages. "While all these choices for safe harbor compensation may be a good thing, such abundance can lead to compliance issues in plan administration, particularly if the plan document, payroll, and record keeping are not properly coordinated.... This article considers safe harbor matching contributions and does not consider the use of ADP and ACP safe harbor nonelective contributions." (Journal of Pension Planning and Compliance)

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Join the chorus of the LEADING voice of the Plan Sponsor!

Join your peers to strengthen, refine, and amplify your voice at PSCA's 69th Annual National Conference . Hear the latest from Washington and learn the newest trends in DC plans to be a stronger and sharper advocate for your participants and your plan.

Treasury Releases Proposed Regs Clarifying the UPS Rule under MPRA
"Under MPRA, [the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund (CSPF)] is supposed to suspend benefits for the participants in this second category 'before' contemplating any suspensions for UPS employees. In the proposed regulations, however, Treasury explains that the best interpretation of the statute is that a suspension does not need to be applied 'to the maximum extent permissible' before any suspension of benefits is permitted for UPS participants. Under the proposed regulations, CSPF would be permitted to suspend the benefits for participants in the second category and UPS employees' benefits simultaneously, provided that the benefit cuts for the second category are greater than or equal to the cuts imposed on UPS employees.... The proposed regulations are consistent with the approach CSPF has included in the benefit suspension application it filed with Treasury on September 25, 2015. UPS has vigorously opposed the approach." (Morgan Lewis)

IRS Issues Proposed Regs on Limitations to the Suspension of Benefits Rules for Multiemployer Plans
"Under the proposed regulations, a suspension of benefits under a plan that is subject to Code Section 432(e)(9)(D)(vii) is first applied to the maximum extent permissible to benefits attributable to service with a subclause I employer. The suspension may then apply to other benefits that are permitted to be suspended and that are attributable to a participant's service with other employers (under subclauses II and III) only if the subclause I suspension is not reasonably estimated to enable the plan to avoid insolvency." (Practical Law Company)

IRS Proposes Normal Retirement Age Rules for Governmental Plans (PDF)
"The primary rationale for setting a 'reasonably representative' NRA was to limit the payment of plan benefits to periods after actual retirement rather than allowing for in-service withdrawals. Defining NRA as an unreasonably early date, and then permitting distributions at that time without requiring termination of employment, would contradict the general requirement to provide for benefits after retirement.... Under the proposal, a governmental plan that does not permit in-service distributions before age 62 need not comply with the reasonably representative requirement of the 2007 regulations, as modified by the changes in the proposed regulation." (Xerox HR Services)

Do DC Plans Need to Be Redesigned? (PDF)
16 pages. "DC plan core lineups, not including target-date series, continue to offer a significant number of funds.... A significant use of non-recordkeeper funds is a sign that the unbundling of asset management and recordkeeping is underway.... Quality of investment options and how they perform are the foremost priorities of plan sponsors, more so than costs or fees and risk of litigation.... The revision of DC plans will come down to how proactive plan sponsors are in creating a sophisticated retirement plan that can be used by participants to adequately save for retirement." (SEI)

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The Conference is "Virtual", but the Insights are Real.

Catch up on the latest industry trends and topics ? while gaining up to 7.5 hours of CE? Hear from and interact with five of the industry's top thought leaders: Ilene H. Ferenczy, Brian Graff, Craig Hoffman, Adam Pozek and Sal Tripodi.

Alicia Munnell: Auto-Enrollment Without Auto-Escalation Reduces Deferral Rates
"6 percent is just my suggested starting point. I believe that it is absolutely necessary to have auto-escalation in the default contribution rate until the combined employee contribution and employer match reaches 12 percent of a worker's salary. Auto-enrollment without auto-escalation would actually reduce contribution rates, as research has shown." (Fiduciary News)

$1 Million Question: How Much Is Enough for Retirement?
"The advisers factored in an estimated average monthly Social Security benefit for a couple at $2,212 a month with a cost of living adjustment of 2.6 percent per year. They also assumed a rate of return on invested savings of 6.5 percent a year with inflation estimated at 3.5 percent each year. They found that a person who wants a retirement income of $50,000 a year for the rest of his or her life would need a lump sum of about $500,000. For an annual income of $75,000 the person would need about $1 million saved; and savings of $1.5 million for an annual income of $100,000 combined with Social Security." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Five Things Young Investors Can and Should Do to Save for Retirement
"[S]aving for retirement in your 20s doesn't have to be hard or expensive (promise). Here are five ways to avoid missing out on saving for retirement in your 20s [1] YOCO (translation for nonmillennials: You only compound once) ... [2] Treat yo' self (to your match) ... [3] You wanna be a millionaire (actually, you do) ... [4] Tackle the debt dilemma ... [5] The power of Roth." (Vanguard)

Arizona Enacts Public Safety Pension Reform
"[T]he reform creates an entirely new retirement plan design for all new employees hired on or after July 1, 2017 that will: [1] For the first time, allow public safety employees the choice of entering a full defined contribution plan or a defined benefit hybrid plan.... [2] Require employees to pay 50% of all retirement costs, including normal costs, administrative costs, and any potential future unfunded liabilities if the plan's experience does not meet actuarial assumptions.... [T]he legislation implements significant governance reforms, including: ... [1] Codifying comprehensive fiduciary standards for pension board members in state law. [2] Prohibiting employers from taking pension holidays. [3] Requiring that any future benefit increases be paid in full at the time of enactment if they create any unfunded liabilities for the plan." (Reason Foundation)

Arizona Pension Overhaul Huge Win for Workers, Taxpayers
"Major provisions of the reforms include replacing the broken cost-of-living formula structure with a traditional Consumer Price Index-based calculation for employees and retirees; offering new workers a choice between a full-defined contribution plan and a traditional pension plan; and requiring new employees and their employers to share equally, 50/50, in retirement account costs while capping pension payments." (Retirement Security Initiative)

Has ERISA Litigation Gone Off the Rails?
"[It] feels like the plaintiffs have moved to a world where every action is judged with the benefit (or burden) of 20/20 hindsight. ERISA has never required that plans go with the cheapest provider or investment or demonstrate that every investment decision bore fruit. Instead, ERISA simply requires that fiduciaries utilize a prudent process. The current world of litigation just seems to have gone off the rails in neglecting this fundamental premise of fiduciary prudence. So where do plan sponsors, service providers and advisors go from here?" (David Levine, for National Association of Plan Advisors [NAPA])

Obama Pushes to Expand Retirement Savings
"All these proposals don't fix the fundamental challenge that the maximum an employee can save annually into an IRA is not enough to create a sustainable income in retirement. Is diverting all this attention to a partial solution worth more than overhauling the current system to make it easier for employers to sponsor better plans?" (Frenkel Benefits)

CBO's Social Security Projections No Cause for Alarm
"CBO judges that Social Security's combined retirement and disability trust funds will need replenishing by 2029, while the trustees put that date at 2034. Even if lawmakers very unwisely took no steps to shore up the program, it could still pay the large majority of scheduled benefits after that -- more than two-thirds according to CBO, three-fourths according to the trustees -- from scheduled tax revenues." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

An Update on Executive Perquisite Trends in the S&P 500
"[P]erk programs have largely evolved into arrangements designed to maximize the efficiency and work/life balance of the executive team, while providing risk mitigation for the company and its investors by providing executives with added security. In an era when the dividing line between personal and business time has become increasingly blurred, the classification of certain benefits as perks, versus a true business need, has become similarly problematic." (Willis Towers Watson)

Stockshield, LLC is Certified for Fiduciary Excellence Centre for Fiduciary Excellence [CEFEX]

BNY Mellon's Pershing Introduces New Independent Recordkeepers to Growing Retirement Plan Network BNY Mellon

MassMutual Enhances The RetireSmart Mobile App for Retirement Plan Savers MassMutual

DOL Finds The Mirage hotel and casino violated Family and Medical Leave Act Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

Pacific Life Insurance Company Completes Nonqualified Pension Buy-In De-Risking Transaction Pacific Life

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