Plan Document & Compliance Specialist
Northeast Professional Planning Group, Inc.
in NJ

Employee Benefits Associate
Thompson Hine LLP
in OH

Education Director
Retirement Industry Trust Association [RITA]
Telecommute

Client Service Manager, Retirement Plan Services
Charles Schwab
in OH

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Retirement Plans Under Attack: What Are Plan Sponsors Doing Now?
March 15, 2018 in NY
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - New York Chapter

Make ADP / ACP Testing Great Again
May 23, 2018 WEBCAST
ASPPA [American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries]

Form 5500 Update 2017
June 5, 2018 WEBCAST
ASPPA [American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries]

How a Defined Benefit Plan Termination or Freeze Impact a DC Qualified Plan
August 29, 2018 WEBCAST
ASPPA [American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries]

Ethics Case Studies on Circular 230 Provisions
September 12, 2018 WEBCAST
ASPPA [American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries]

Identify and Avoid the Most Common Prohibited Transactions
September 19, 2018 WEBCAST
ASPPA [American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries]

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New Topics on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

New Comments and Topics

All Topics , Grouped by Forum

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: New Rules for Retirement Plans and IRAs
"Employers may also wish to review the types of roll-ins their plans will accept in light of the new [loan repayment] rules.... Employers will need to modify their criteria for approving 'safe-harbor' hardship distributions that are made to reimburse expenses for damage to the employee's principal residence.... The Act provides various types of tax relief for 2016 and 2017 distributions from eligible employer plans (and IRAs) due to 2016 storms and flooding."
Spencer Fane

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The best & easiest-to-use software for Defined Benefit, Defined Contribution, Cash Balance and combined Plan Proposals, Testing, Administration. Also Plan Documents, 5500s and 1099Rs. Call us at 888-328-2474 or visit www.datair.com

Disability Claims and Appeals: How the New Regs Affect Retirement Plans
"403(b) plans generally ... rely on the determination made by other sources, such as the Social Security administration or the employer's LTD carrier. So, 403(b) plans will be spared from the most significant components of the revised regulations.... 403(b) plans should update internal procedures for handling an appeal from a denial of disability benefits to comply with the new regulations."
PlanPILOT

IRS Provides Guidance on Withholding Post-Tax Reform
"There is a general expectation that many U.S. taxpayers will experience a reduced income tax obligation in the post-tax reform world. Based on this expectation, Notice 2018-14 sets its default withholding assumption for periodic retirement payments to be equivalent to the level of wage withholding appropriate for a married worker who is entitled to claim three withholding allowances."
Ascensus

DOL Enforcement Extremely Active During FY 2017; Terminated Vested Participant Investigations a High Priority
"[C]ompared to Fiscal Year 2016, total recoveries rose 42%, from $777.5 million in 2016 to $1.1 billion in 2017. This includes enforcement action recoveries, which nearly doubled from $352.0 million in 2016 to $682.3 million in 2017.... EBSA specifically notes that '[o]f the $682.3 million recovered in its investigations, EBSA helped terminated vested participants in defined benefit plans collect benefits of $326.7 million due and owing to them.' "
Morgan Lewis

Common Pitfalls in 401(k) Plan Administration
"401(k) Plans with fewer than 100 participants must deposit salary deferrals withheld from participants' paychecks no later than 7 business days following each and every pay date.... Proper compliance requires maintaining accurate service records for all employees, not just those employees who participate in the plan.... [A]ny funds in the forfeiture account must be disposed of in the year they are forfeited or the following year."
TriStar Pension Consulting

Navigating the Compliance Challenges of Missing Participants

The DOL is coming ... Pension plan audits are on the rise with a specific focus on the Term-Vested population and RMD. Contact the pros at PBI to learn more about our new Term-Vested Audit & Remediation Service.

Metlife Finds Accounting Issue, Boosts Pension, Annuity Reserves
"MetLife said it was reviewing its processes for finding missing group annuity policyholders and pension beneficiaries after disclosing in December that it had lost track of some. Reserves were boosted by $525 million to $575 million before taxes, and the earnings report and conference call was postponed."
Pensions & Investments

Survey Results: Multiemployer Pension Plan Sponsors
"Nearly half (44%) of those polled plans' current funded status is 'endangered' or worse. Trustees with plans currently in the red zone status are not entirely confident the plan will meet the targets in its rehabilitation plan.... 62% of trustees polled are increasing contributions to alternative investment classes in an effort to improve overall health of the plan"
SEI

Wall Street Warns of Seismic Pension Fund Shift Into Bonds This Month
"While the S&P 500 index has returned about 6.2% since the beginning of the year, 10-year Treasury futures have slumped 1.5%, pushing yields to near the highest since 2014. The bond benchmark was little changed in trading Thursday. With those profits and losses in mind heading into month-end, pension funds will purchase about $24 billion in fixed-income securities, while selling an unusually high $12 billion of U.S. equities, according to a Credit Suisse model."
Pensions & Investments

Public Employees: Avoid Big Surprises After You Retire -- Like a Major Reduction of Your Social Security Benefits
"[If] you have worked in a position(s) that was subject to Social Security and in a position(s) that was not subject to Social Security, it makes good sense to analyze whether you could be impacted by either the [Windfall Elimination Provision and/or the Government Pension Offset] and to determine if there is anything you would want to do to mitigate those impacts. As part of the process, it wouldn't hurt to check on the accuracy of your Social Security earnings record and your projected Social Security benefits."
Best Best & Krieger LLP

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DB Funding and 2017 Tax Planning
"If the sponsor contributes that $100 million for the 2017 year, it reduces its 2017 taxes by $35 million; if it contributes that $100 million for a later year, it reduces its taxes for that later year by $21 million. Making that contribution for 2017 nets the sponsor $14 million in tax savings.... As a general matter, contributions 'for' 2017 will reduce VRPs for 2018, and fully funding plan liabilities will eliminate them."
October Three Consulting

Another Nobel Laureate in Economics Focuses on 401(k) Plans
"Professor Merton asserts that a saver's primary concern is 'Will I have sufficient income in retirement to live comfortably?' In contrast, and as required by regulations, the performance metrics which drive our everyday 401(k)/403(b) investment decisions are asset values, growth, and risk (in terms of volatility of asset values).... [Merton] concludes that most savers' funds are not being well managed relative to retirement income objectives."
Plan Sponsor Council of America [PSCA]

Text of IRS Publication 15 (Circular E): Employer's Tax Guide, for Use in 2018 (PDF)
70 pages. "What's New -- 2018 federal income tax withholding.... Employers should implement the 2018 withholding tables as soon as possible, but not later than February 15, 2018.... P.L. 115-97 suspends the exclusion for qualified moving expense reimbursements from your employee's income beginning after December 31, 2017, and before January 1, 2026.... Reminders: ... Severance payments are subject to social security and Medicare taxes, income tax withholding, and FUTA tax."
Internal Revenue Service [IRS]

New Tax Law Strengthens Limits on Excessive Compensation
"Companies should be careful in determining which arrangements are grandfathered. It is not enough that a compensation arrangement was set forth in a valid writing on November 2, 2017; it must meet other requirements to qualify for grandfathering. While the exact scope of this grandfathering rule will need to be clarified by the IRS, it appears to mean payments that would have been tax deductible under the old rule as performance-based compensation or commissions will continue to be deductible if they are made pursuant to a contract that satisfies the grandfathering rule."
Poyner Spruill LLP

District Court: No ERISA Preemption Where Determination of Benefits Was Non-Discretionary
"Under a recent decision from the Central District of California, employers may not be able to invoke ERISA preemption and remove cases to federal courts where the benefits claims at issue are not 'complex' and do not implicate administrative discretion." [ Amlani v. Baker's Burgers, Inc. , No. 17-2278 (C.D. Cal. Jan. 10, 2018)]
Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Hardship Withdrawals: 1-Year Suspension OK?
If our plan is not a safe harbor plan, can we impose a 1-year suspension for a hardship withdrawal, or must it be 6 months?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Repayment of In-Service Distribution within 60 Days
Client needs an in-service distribution from his profit sharing plan; the document allows it. Because the client is under age 59-1/2, obviously the 10% penalty on a premature distribution would apply, plus the 20% withholding requirement. But the client's accountant says these don't apply if the client repays the funds within 60 days. Can that be right?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Start Date/Termination Date: Work Day or Pay Day?
What's the definition of start date for purposes of eligibility in a 401(k) Plan? Is it first day worked? The first day paid? My client uses a sign-on bonus and pays it at signing. Does this begin the count-down for eligibility? Or can the plan still use first day worked? And the reverse: what's the definition of termination date? The last day worked or the last day paid? For example, a participant terminates on 12/28/2017; his last paycheck is in January 2018. What's the termination date? Is such a participant eligible for the 2017 contributions if the plan has a last-day employment requirement?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Post-Employment Consulting and Separation from Service
An executive retires with a nonqualified plan benefit, but has an ongoing part-time consulting agreement that will continue for at least one year, under which services will be provided at approximately 25% to 35% of the time put in during the several years leading to retirement. He is considered an independent contractor during the consulting period. My understanding is that this is in the gray area between more than 20% and less than 50%, where there is no presumption as to whether the executive separated or not. My question is about language in regulation section 1.409A-1(h)(2)(ii), which states that, in the case of an independent contractor, "No amount will be paid to the service provider before a date at least 12 months after the day on which the contract expires under which the service provider performs services for the service recipient (or, in the case of more than one contract, all such contracts expire)." Assuming that the employer has treated executive as not separating from service, would that "12 months after expiration until you make payment" rule also apply in the situation where an employee transitions to an independent contractor?
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