Client Service Associate
UBS Financial Services Inc.
in IL

Pension Reconciliation Specialist
Pinnacle Financial Services, Inc.
in FL

401(k) Retirement Plan Administrator
Nicholas Pension Consultants
in CA

Team Lead / 401(k) Pension Administrator
Nicholas Pension Consultants
in CA

Retirement Plan Administrator
Plan Administration and Consulting, LLC
in TN, Telecommute

Implementation Specialist
KB Pension Services
in FL

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SEC Proposes 'Best Interest' Guidance
"While the proposed regulation is titled 'Regulation Best Interest,' the proposal does not define the term 'best interest' ... Rather, its view is that whether a broker-dealer acts in the best interest of a retail customer when making a recommendation will depend upon the facts and circumstances of the particular recommendation and the particular retail customer, along with the circumstances of the four specific components of the Regulation Best Interest[.]"
The Wagner Law Group

2018 WBPC-Phoenix Spring Conference -- May 10, 2018, Scottsdale, AZ

Full day conference hosted by the Western Pension & Benefits Council-Phoenix Chapter. Loans & Distributions by Stephen Forbes, Fiduciary Roles & Benchmarking, Indexing, Small Plan Tax Issues, Plan Audits, Estate Planning Bootcamp and more.

SEC Proposes Standards of Conduct for Broker-Dealers, Investment Advisers
"The SEC's decision to propose this package is a first step toward developing standards for advice to retail customers, regardless of whether they are investing through a retirement or taxable account. The proposal is subject to change through the notice and comment process, which closes 90 days after the releases are published in the Federal Register, although given the complexity of the issues raised, the SEC might be expected to extend the comment period."
Morgan Lewis

SEC Proposes Best Interest Standards for Advice to Retail Customers
"Addressing themes similar to those in the DOL rule, the SEC proposal aims to better protect retail investors by raising the standard of conduct for broker-dealers providing recommendations to retail investors and reaffirming/clarifying the terms of the relationship between retail investors and investment professionals."
Conduent

Dissecting Retirement Plan Lawsuit Issues
"The claims incorporated into these complaints cover a broad spectrum, but there are some that are common across many of these lawsuits.... Why does the plan need multiple recordkeepers? Why does the plan need so many investment options? How should the plan pay for plan services? ... Documenting how they reached their decision in each case is part of how they can defend themselves against potential claims."
Cammack Retirement Group

403(b)s Are Not 401(k)s: Higher Education Organizations Come to the Defense of 403(b) Plans
"A recent amicus brief involving one of the cases in the ongoing litigation against university 403(b) plans is interesting because it came to the defense of 403(b) plans and their distinctiveness.... The brief involves the appeal of a lawsuit against the University of Pennsylvania over the management of its 403(b) plan that was dismissed by a district court.... [The brief] can essentially be summarized in a single assertion: 403(b) plans are most certainly not like 401(k) plans, and the law requires an apples-to-apples comparison, and therefore, a 403(b) apple should not be compared to a 401(k) orange."
Cammack Retirement Group

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Report of Employee Plans Compliance Unit (EPCU): Completed Project -- Discontinuance of Contributions
"The responses indicated about 10% of plan sponsors had a complete discontinuance of contributions. These sponsors used [the] self-correction (SCP) and voluntary correction (VCP) programs to correct this error and make the affected participants 100% vested in their accounts.... [S]ome sponsors made errors in completing their Form 5500 series return because they did not understand the instructions for reporting terminated participants."
Internal Revenue Service [IRS]

Application for Benefit Suspension Under MPRA: Plasterers and Cement Masons Local No. 94 Pension Fund
"The effective date of the proposed suspension is May 1, 2019. The proposed suspension is for an indefinite period of time. The proposed suspension is the maximum permitted suspension and does not provide for different treatment of Participants and Beneficiaries other than as a result of the application of the individual limitations of Section 432(e)(9)(D)(i), (ii) and (iii)."
U.S. Department of the Treasury

Joint Select Committee Focuses on Multiemployer Basics, Asks for Public Comments
"On [April 18], at the first hearing (and second public meeting) of the Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans, one fact became abundantly clear: the problem of multiemployer plans is complex and finding a solution to the issue is also going to be a challenge. But there was a general acknowledgement from members, from both sides of the aisle, that they had to work together to do something."
Pension Rights Center

$20 Billion Club Strategy: 2018 Update (PDF)
"Many members of the $20 billion club have made plan design changes like introducing a 'hybrid' plan design (e.g., cash balance or pension equity), while only about 40% of defined benefit plans are hybrid in nature. Moreover, almost all of the plans in the $20 billion club are closed to new entrants, with some completely frozen to new benefit accruals."
Russell Investments

Puerto Rico Board Certifies Fiscal Plan, Pension Reform
"On pension reform, the commonwealth plan calls for freezing pension benefit accruals by July 1, 2019, and enrolling all employees in defined contribution plans, as well as Social Security. Benefits would be reduced progressively to an average cut of 10%, with no cuts for participants whose combined pension and Social Security benefits are below the poverty level of $1,000 per month."
Pensions & Investments

Illinois State-Sponsored Retirement Savings Program Enters Pilot Phase
"Under Secure Choice, Illinois employers with 25 or more workers must offer their own retirement savings program, or offer Secure Choice, which automatically channels five percent of workers' paychecks into a Roth IRA.... [E]mployers that volunteered for Secure Choice early are trying it out now in a pilot program. Other employers will be brought in beginning in the fall, with full participation expected by the end of 2019."
WNIJ

The SEC's 'Regulation Best Interest' Is in the Best Interest of Wall Street, Not Retirement Savers and Other Investors
"At first blush, these appear to be positive, albeit incremental, steps. In fact, their purpose is not to protect investors, but to present an alternative to the much stronger protections in a [DOL] rule that requires financial professional offering investment advice to retirement savers to adhere to a fiduciary standard."
Economic Policy Institute

SEC's Advice Rule: 'Regulation Best Interest' and Advisor Title Reform
"[T]he SEC's proposal is not actually a uniform standard that would require brokers to be fiduciaries, but instead would only partially lift the conduct standards for broker-dealers, with a new 'Regulation Best Interest' requirement that would obligate brokers to act in the best interests of their customers when making an investment recommendation ... but only at the time they actually make the recommendation. And not at all if the broker is implementing recommendations that were crafted while wearing his/her investment adviser 'hat' under a dual-registered B/D-RIA firm."
Nerd's Eye View

Benefits Claim of Employee Who Claimed Prior Misclassification Was Preempted by ERISA
"Granting dismissal of an employee's (who was a former independent contractor) claim that his prior misclassification resulted in denial of the value of the benefits plan he would have received had he been properly classified, the federal district court in Massachusetts found that this portion of his claim was preempted by ERISA. The state law causes of action under the Massachusetts independent contractor law 'related to' the employee benefit plans covered by ERISA, concluded the court[.]" [ Lavery v. Restoration Hardware, Inc. , No. 17-10856 (D. Mass. Mar. 28, 2018)]
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business

Attribution Between Husband and Wife: Two Sole Proprietorships
A husband receives income as a sole proprietor from one entity and his wife receives income as a sole proprietor from a different entity. Are they considered a controlled group based on attribution? Can they have one DB plan that includes both of them?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Allocation Conditions
Participant must be employed on last day of plan year, or work 500 hours in year of termination to receive a match. In 2017, one participant received a match, but term'd with 300 hours. Is a retroactive corrective amendment to eliminate the allocation conditions for 2017 an appropriate correction? The match is calculated and deposited each pay period, I'm thinking we should eliminate the allocation conditions altogether. Plan has no HCEs. Comments please? Thank you!
BenefitsLink Message Boards

OK to Add 20 Hours/Week Requirement for Deferral Eligibility?
The 403(b) plan as been around for decades. It's starting to grow rapidly, taking on a lot of 10- and 15-hour per week employees. The plan currently has the "20 hours/week" exclusion for the employer contribution, but not for the deferrals. Is there any reason why the employer can't add the exclusion for deferrals, going forward?
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Press Releases

Court Orders Payment of Employee Benefit Plan Funds In Southern California After Fiduciaries Default on Settlement Agreement Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

Bob Entringer and James Lucania Join Board of Directors for Ascensus Trust Ascensus

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