Defined Benefit Implementation Project Manager
Transamerica
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Managing Director of Sales and Business Development
U.S. Retirement and Benefits Partners
in CA

Retirement Benefits Specialist
I.E.B.C.
in CA

Distributions Team Leader (Retirement Benefits)
Wespath Benefits and Investments
in IL

Trust Operations Manager
Exeter 1031 Exchange Services, LLC
in CA, WY

Manager, Retirement Programs
The University of Chicago
in IL

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Staying Compliant While Maintaining Both a Wealth Management and Retirement Advisor Practice
August 1, 2018 WEBCAST
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PBGC Announces Mailing Address Change, Updates to My PAA

"Effective immediately, the PBGC has changed their mailing addresses for premium payments and correspondence ... Practitioners have the ability to submit a Penalty RFR, Premium Refund and now any other type of actionable request or correspondence directly to the PBGC." Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC]

ERISApedia.com -- Get Reliable Answers for your 5500 Questions

"ASK THE AUTHOR" Personalized help for all of your tough 5500 questions in 4 business hours from noted author and speaker S. Derrin Watson, J.D. Including any supporting schedules: 8955-SSA, 1099-R, 5330 and more). Sign up or email sales@ERISApedia.com

Legislation Impacts Hardship Withdrawals and Loans from Qualified Retirement Plans (PDF)

"[U]ntil Congress makes a technical correction to the law or the IRS issues clarifying guidance, plan sponsors should take a conservative approach to granting hardship distributions under the casualty loss safe harbor standard.... Although amendments to the plan appear unnecessary, plan sponsors should review and, if necessary, modify current hardship applications to ensure they are clear with respect to the new Code Section 165 deduction requirement."
ASC

General Cable Defeats 401(k) Suit Over Foreign Bribery Scandal

"The worker's allegations in support of her fiduciary breach claims under federal benefits law didn't meet the stringent pleading standard required in these cases ... [The federal district court judge said] the worker failed to allege any alternative action the company could have taken that would have been consistent with securities laws and that a prudent fiduciary wouldn't have viewed as more likely to harm the plan than to help it[.]" [ Eley v. General Cable Corp. , No. 17-0045 (E.D. Ky. July 23, 2018)]
Bloomberg BNA

Cash Allocations in Stable Value Fund That Exceeded Industry Mean Did Not Establish Imprudence

"The investment of the assets of stable value fund in cash equivalents did not establish a claim of imprudent management, despite being more conservative than the mean of cash-equivalent allocations by other funds in the industry ... Although the fund's cash-focused strategy may have radically departed from the logic and practices of stable value funds, such evidence was not sufficient in itself to state a claim of imprudence under ERISA." [ Barchock v. CVS Health Corp. , No. 17-1515 (1st Cir. Mar. 23, 2018).
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business

The Three Most Important Practical Things You Must Know as a Professional Fiduciary

"Know the clients in both the strategic sense and the tactical sense.... Staying up-to-date on compliance matters helps insulate the fiduciary from the ever-present risks associated with the job.... When the rubber meets the road, the fiduciary must know how to execute the assigned duties." Fiduciary News

Financially Stressed Workers Likely to Draw from Retirement Plans

"More than half of workers (54%) who identify as being financially stressed say they will likely use their retirement funds for expenses other than retirement ... That's compared to 33% of their colleagues who say they're not stressed about finances.... [J]ust 31% of stressed workers say they'd be able to meet basic expenses if they were out of work for an extended amount of time." Voya

How Public Sector Employers Are Working to Reduce Their Pension Liabilities

"The cost of pensions increased in more than 70% of cities, and one in three cities identified these expenses as the largest expense affecting their budgets ... [B]etween 2009 and 2016, 33% of public sector employers increased employee contribution rates; 22% changed plan design; 17% reduced benefits; 12% reduced the cost of living adjustment; 8% increased eligibility requirements and 7% increased the vesting period." Employee Benefit News

NYC Employers: Required Payroll Contributions to IRAs May Be Coming

"The New York City Council has proposed to establish a 'Savings Access New York Retirement Program' that would require New York City private-sector employers with at least 10 employees to offer a new savings program to employees who are not eligible to participate in an employer-provided savings plan (such as a 401(k) or 403(b) plan).... Although passage of the NYC Retirement Program is far from certain, this proposal is consistent with other state and local government legislative efforts to increase the retirement savings of employees." Epstein Becker Green

Social Security: Minimum Benefits (PDF)

26 pages. "In 2017, about 39,347 of the 62 million Social Security recipients qualified for the minimum benefit.... The Social Security Administration estimates that the provision will have no effect on workers turning 62 in 2019 or later.... Some recent proposals would redesign the minimum benefit.... [A] new minimum benefit provision could be introduced, the standard benefit could be increased for people who worked for many years at low earnings, or a fixed dollar-benefit could be introduced." [Report R43615, July 20, 2018] Congressional Research Service [CRS]

The Wrong Way to Preserve Public Pensions

"Despite many months of promises of special sessions and legislation, public employees were not invited to come to the table and offer their suggestions for how to improve the funding of Kentucky's public pensions.... In Minnesota, the successful result of negotiation and compromise meant that the state reduced its unfunded liability by more than $3 billion. In Kentucky, the state has saved no money, has done nothing to reduce its unfunded liability, and the legislation is tied up in court battles that will last for months." National Public Pension Coalition

Internal Statutes of Limitation Under ERISA (PDF)

16 pages. "In light of the heightened frequency of 401(k) plan litigation, it is appropriate for plan sponsors to include favorable procedural rules as part of their claims procedures. One such rule is an internal statute of limitations, which the Supreme Court has held is permissible in an [ERISA] plan so long as it is reasonable and there is no controlling statute to the contrary. As a best practice, notice of any internal statute of limitations should be provided." The Wagner Law Group, via Benefits Law Journal

Tips for Successfully Arguing Against Attorney Fee Awards in ERISA Cases

"Courts apply additional criteria to decide whether to award fees...and these criteria help frame arguments to oppose Plaintiff's request for fees... even when they achieve 'some success on the merits.'... When determining to award fees in the Sixth Circuit, the court applies the five-factor King test ... similar to tests applied by a majority of the other circuits." [ Guest-Marcotte v. Life Insurance of North America , No. 15-10738 (E.D. Mich. July 17, 2018)]
Lane Powell PC

A New Era in Compensatory Equity Offerings?

"The elimination of the comment period means that the SEC did not issue any guidance (transition or otherwise) on the practical implications of the amendment to Rule 701(e). However, the SEC's release provides that, if the effective date of the final rule ... occurs during an issuer's ongoing 12-month testing period, the issuer may rely on the increased $10 million disclosure threshold immediately." Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

SEC Amends Rule 701, Issues Concept Release on Modernizing Employee Offerings

"The SEC also issued a concept release on July 18, in which it requested public comment to further modernize Rule 701, together with Form S-8, in light of the evolution of the forms and types of equity compensation.... The SEC is seeking comment as to whether Rule 701 should be further revised[.]" Morgan Lewis

Reallocated Forfeitures on Comp-to-Comp Basis: Average Benefits Testing Still Required?

A 401k plan has a safe harbor design using matching contributions. The plan is not top heavy. There are no profit sharing contributions but there are a small amount of forfeitures to be allocated to participants who work at least 1,000 hours and are employed at the end of the year. New comparability (with each participant as a group) is normally used to allocate the forfeitures, however, doing the average benefit test and including the deferrals and match produce results much worse than if the forfeitures were allocated on a comp-to-comp basis. If the forfeitures are allocated on a comp-to-comp basis, would the ABT still be needed to be done? Can this type of allocation be considered nondiscriminatory? BenefitsLink Message Boards

Wrong Year Appeared in the Safe Harbor Notice That Went Out to Participants: How to Fix?

Scenario: The safe harbor notice went out at the correct time prior to 2017 (November 2016). The information in the safe harbor notice was correct within the notice EXCEPTthe notice was to apply to 2017, but the notice stated that it "applies to the plan year beginning 1/1/2016." In all other ways, other than the Plan Year identification, the information was correct. Can this be considered a typo/mistake of fact so that 2017 can be tested as a safe harbor plan? Should this be self-corrected by providing all the participants who should have received the notice stating for plan year beginning 1/1/2017 with a corrective employer contribution? Most of the employees are already making elective deferrals.
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Fred Reish Appointed to Standards Resource Commission of Certified Financial Planner Board Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Anthem, Inc., Samsung and American Well Partner to Provide Consumers Access to Telehealth Services Anthem, Inc.

HR Tech Outlook Magazine Names Hodges-Mace 2018 Top 10 Cloud Solution Provider Hodges-Mace

Retirement Plan Concepts & Services, Inc. is Certified to Industry Best Practices Centre for Fiduciary Excellence [CEFEX]

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