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Pension Trust Admin Supervisor
Associated Pension Consultants
in CA, Telecommute

ERISA Attorney
Baldwin Law Group, LLP
in MD

Pension Consultant
Retirement Plan Administrators, LLC
in GA

Benefit Specialist
SCPTAC
in CA

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Hiding in Plain View: Impact of Recent Tax Legislation on Retirement Plans
March 14, 2018 WEBCAST
ISCEBS - North California Chapter

Implications of the Changes and Challenges Facing State Retirement Systems
April 17, 2018 in DC
National Bureau of Economic Research [NBER]

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Text of PBGC Proposed Regs: Owner-Participant Changes to Guaranteed Benefits and Asset Allocation
30 pages. "This proposed rule would amend PBGC's benefit payment regulation by replacing the guarantee limitations applicable to substantial owners with a new limitation applicable to majority owners. Additionally, this proposed rule would amend PBGC's asset allocation regulation by prioritizing funding of all other benefits in priority category 4 ahead of those benefits that would be guaranteed but for the new, owner-participant limitation. The proposed rule also clarifies that plan administrators may continue to use the simplified calculation in the existing rule to estimate benefits funded by plan assets. Finally, it provides new examples to aid in implementation."
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC]

Check out our 2018 Webinar Schedule

Check out our webinars featuring Sarah Simoneaux and Brian Furgala! Topics will include ERISA updates, dealing with difficult customers, evaluating control groups, an overview of most asked technical questions to TAG, and more to come. Register here.

Text of IRS Publication 575: Pension and Annuity Income, for Use in Preparing 2017 Returns (PDF)
47 pages. "What's New: New rules provide for tax-favored withdrawals, repayments, and loans from certain retirement plans (including IRAs) for taxpayers who suffered economic losses as a result of Hurricane Harvey or Tropical Storm Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria, or the California wildfires.... Beginning in 2018, a qualified plan loan offset amount may be rolled over by the due date (including extensions) for filing the tax return for the tax year in which the offset occurs."
Internal Revenue Service [IRS]

IRS Extends RMD Audit Guidelines for Missing Participants to 403(b) Programs
"In the last year or two, it has been increasingly common for both the IRS and the DOL on audit to demand 'scorch the earth' search methods for missing participants that frequently seem to lack a realistic cost/benefit balance or due sensitivity to privacy considerations.... The guidelines do not address how plans should handle situations in which a participant address has been identified but the participant is unresponsive or will not request distribution, nor do the guidelines address circumstances in which participants fail to cash checks."
Eversheds Sutherland

Budget Act Includes Hardship and Other Retirement Plan Relief
"[P]lan sponsors and third party administrators should update their hardship procedures before the 2019 plan year.... IRS guidance would be helpful to clarify the scope of these changes -- and the impact if a plan sponsor chooses to retain the current more restrictive hardship provisions (or elects to retain the existing provisions for pre-2019 hardship distributions) (e.g., possible loss of safe harbor hardship status and/or loss of safe harbor 401(k) or 401(m) plan status)."
Groom Law Group

401(k) Plan Design Best Practices
"With opt-out rates of less than 10%, auto-enrollment has become the most effective way to combat employee inertia at enrollment.... If you are auto-enrolling, you should be auto-escalating as well.... Immediate eligibility for both regular pre-tax and Roth 401k contributions is the norm now.... If possible, replace any employer profit sharing contributions with employer matching contributions.... Use of annual re-enrollments typically increases plan participation to at least 90%."
Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants

2018 SPARK National Conference -- June 14-15, National Harbor, MD

The retirement services industry's leading event for top marketing, sales, administration and record keeping professionals. Comprehensive agenda is designed to meet the needs of 401(k) Plan Providers, Financial Advisors and Record Keepers.

Who's Your Fiduciary?
"According to an online survey of defined-contribution executives, many don't acknowledge their role as a fiduciary ... The study of 1,000 such executives ... found that almost half (49 percent) did not consider themselves a fiduciary, while another 6 percent had no idea about their status.... [Of] the 104 respondents who managed plans over $500 million, 48 percent did not consider themselves fiduciaries."
Human Resource Executive

Supply and Demand in the Markets and the Retirement Saver's Best Interest
"The fiduciary who can effortlessly and clearly explain the mechanism of supply and demand no doubt helps retirement savers embrace their best interests.... Retirement savers must maintain long-term orientation regarding their assets. Supply and demand shock and generally easy to identify and often temporary in nature. During these kind of extreme events, in most cases, doing nothing is the best road to take."
Fiduciary News

Senators Introduct 'Bipartisan Retirement Savings Lost and Found Act'
"[The Act] uses the data employers are already required to report to create a national, online, lost and found for Americans' retirement accounts.... [The proposal] also: [1] Allows employers to more easily invest abandoned accounts into target date funds rather than money-market funds.... [2] Allows for uncashed checks of less than $1,000 to be transferred to Treasury securities ... [3] Clarifies the responsibilities employers and plan administrators have to connect former employees with their neglected accounts."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-MA] and Sen. Steve Daines [R-MT]

Senate Joins House in Naming of Union Plan Select Committee
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) have each named four members of their respective parties as Senate representatives on the Select Committee: Republican Senators Lamar Alexander (TN), Michael Crapo (ID), Orrin Hatch (UT), and Rob Portman (OH), and Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown (OH), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Joe Manchin (WV), and Tina Smith (MN)."
Ascensus

Blackrock DC Survey Highlights Sponsor Decumulation Challenge
"Sponsors estimate this year that 54% of their participants may have to delay retirement in the future, versus the 34% of participants cited last year.... Broadly speaking, these plan sponsors either increased their default rate, changed the company match, and/or improved the default investment option."
PLANSPONSOR

Startup Offers Annuities Online on a Subscription Plan
"[D]eferred income annuities ... typically require five- or six-digit sums in return for a future stream that, should someone die prematurely, may never be used. [Blueprint's] website spits out a quote for a contract in 60 seconds and requires an initial investment of $5,000. The real twist is part of a trend that's swept industries from mattresses to clothing to movies: subscription-based business models."
InvestmentNews

Women Need Help Improving Retirement Confidence
"Fifty-three percent of women plan to retire after the age of 65, including 13% who do not plan to ever retire ... Of those who plan to work past retirement age, 58% say they want the income, 48% say they are concerned that Social Security will provide them with less income than they expected, and 47% say it will be because they cannot afford to retire because they will not have saved enough."
PLANSPONSOR

Premium Interest Tax for 409A Failures (PDF)
17 pages. "IRC Section 409A and Proposed Treasury Regulations established premium interest tax as an additional income tax on Section 409A failures. The purpose of the tax is to retroactively disqualify deferrals from having received tax-deferred status without causing an extreme administrative burden on plan sponsors or participants.... This article will describe a comprehensive list of steps used to calculate premium interest tax as well as explore common issues with each step."
Aon Hewitt, via Journal of Deferred Compensation

Reporting and Withholding on Nonqualified Deferred Compensation (PDF)
20 pages. "This article discusses the reporting and withholding requirements for NQDC plans ... Reporting requirements include understanding which form to use and how to complete the form. Withholding requirements include the amount and timing of withholding for FICA taxes, federal income taxes, and state income taxes."
Aon Hewitt, via Journal of Deferred Compensation

ADP/ACP Testing: When Match Is Forfeited vs. When Match Is Refunded
Can someone clarify when match is forfeited vs. when it is refunded, when completing ADP and ACP testing? Scenario: plan matches 25% up to 8%. The ADP and ACP tests fail independently. We've historically completed ADP and ACP tests "simultaneously" and refunded the respective elective and match to HCE's after leveling.
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Safe Harbor Plans and 410(b)
A consultant referred a plan to me. He said they have a safe harbor plan with the 3% QNEC. They realized this year that the plan's safe harbor QNEC failed the 410(b) test last year. All they have are the 3% QNEC and 401(k) deferrals. They want to correct using a corrective amendment under 1.401(a)(4)-11(g). The problem, the consultant says, is some of the employees whom they'll add didn't receive the safe harbor notice. He wants to know if they can adopt an 11(g) amendment and separately correct the failure to provide the safe harbor notice under EPCRS. I am struggling, however, with the idea that they somehow failed 410(b) "after the fact" with a safe harbor contribution.
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Large Plan's Audit Not Finished by Extension Deadline
Years ago before e-filing, we had a large plan that filed right at the extension deadline with a "note" from the CPA stating something to the effect that the audit would be filed once completed. The plan sponsor filed the 5500 with the note and at some point after the extension deadline the audit was filed. Is this still an acceptable procedure?
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Press Releases

Russell Investments unveils more meaningful ESG scoring Russell Investments

Lockton Benefit Group Welcomes Jay Kirschbaum Lockton

401kTV and the National Institute of Pension Administrators Announce a Partnership to Better Support 401(k) and 403(b) Plan Sponsors NIPA [National Institute of Pension Administrators]

Butterfield Schechter LLP Names Corey F. Schechter Partner Butterfield Schechter LLP

Businessolver and Transamerica Announce Strategic Collaboration to Deliver Industry-First Direct Integration of Wealth and Health Transamerica

OneAmerica Promotes Randy Reed, Hires Crandall Hall to Serve U.S. Institutional Clients OneAmerica

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