Mid-Sized Retirement Conference

Internal Sales
Dallas based TPA / MGU Administering Health Insurance
in TX

Senior Actuary
Acuff & Associates, Inc.
in TN

Actuarial Analyst
Acuff & Associates, Inc.
Telecommute

Senior Staff Analyst - Legal Services
Entergy
in LA

Retirement Plan Administrator
Carr, Riggs and Ingram, LLC
in TX

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Retirement Trends: Where We See the Industry Going
RECORDED
Vanguard

2018 Employee Benefits Seminar
September 25, 2018 in ND
Gray Plant Mooty

ESOPs and Loans: Releveraging, Non-Bank Financing, and Working Capital
October 30, 2018 WEBCAST
National Center for Employee Ownership [NCEO]

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New Topics on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

New Comments and Topics

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Facebook Messages Between Plan Participants Subject to Discovery

"Private Facebook messages exchanged between plan participants in a breach of fiduciary duty suit were subject to discovery by the plan fiduciaries, according to a federal trial court in Indiana. The messages, which disclosed nervousness regarding a pending deposition and a desire to be a good representative for the case, were legally relevant and, the court reasoned, not privileged work product reflective of litigation strategy." [ Bell v. Pension Committee of ATH Holding Co. , No. 15-2062 (S.D. Ind. June 14, 2018)]
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business

ERISApedia.com -- Grow your business using our Business Development Tools

Find prospects and convert them to clients with our Plan Data Intelligence/Operational Benchmarking tools. Customize with your logo/color themes. Contact us 612-605-2266, sales@ERISApedia.com

Criteria and Checklist: Sustainability for Defined Benefit Pension Plans (PDF)

"A Sustainability Checklist contains a list of metrics (which will likely vary from plan to plan) that can be used to assess the sustainability of a DB plan.... [Such a] Checklist can provide several useful metrics that have shown to have an impact on the outcomes of a much more robust scenario or stress testing process.... [The] Checklist can be utilized as a tool to facilitate a discussion about a DB plan's overall sustainability and provide a comprehensive overview of potential sources of current and future risks to the plan." GRS

New Law Makes SBA ESOP Financing Easier

"The new law encourages the creation of ESOPs and worker cooperatives by facilitating transactions via loans supported by the Small Business Administration (SBA). It also directs the SBA's outreach infrastructure to encourage business owners to consider employee ownership.... The [new law] eliminates five obstacles that were challenges under the old law." National Center for Employee Ownership [NCEO]

When Saving for Retirement MIGHT Not Make Sense

"If you have already met your retirement goals but have not yet funded a Health Savings Account; it may make sense to redirect funds into an HSA account.... If you don't earn a lot of money and have no reasonable expectation of earning a lot of money prior to retirement -- Social Security ... is going to replace a substantial amount of your preretirement income, mitigating the need for retirement savings.... If you have NO emergency fund ... it might be best to redirect contributions until the account is funded, then returning to retirement focus." Cammack Retirement Group

Save Some of Your Income from Part-Time Employment in Retirement for Later

"[This post includes] a simple example and a more visual approach to encourage you to save some of your part-time employment income for your later years in retirement. Before you actually go back to work on a part-time or a full-time basis, however, you should familiarize yourself with the Social Security earnings limit rules to see if your Social Security benefit may be affected by your employment." Ken Steiner, FSA Retired

SPARK Forum - November 4-6, 2018 -- The Breakers, Palm Beach, FL

Join us at the retirement services industry's leading event for top marketing, sales, administration and record keeping professionals. Comprehensive agenda includes topics of interest to Record Keepers, 401(k) Plan Providers, Financial Advisors and Cyber Security Professionals.

Merrill Lynch to Resume Charging Commissions on Retirement Accounts

"Merrill Lynch originally said it would stop charging commissions in retirement accounts and in 2016 launched a media campaign advertising its new policy and commitment to clients' best interests. The move to reintroduce commission-based brokerage accounts for retirement money is the result of the [DOL] fiduciary rule being killed ... along with the [SEC] proposing its own rule covering all accounts, not just retirement money" The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required

America's Broken Public Retirement Systems?

"These are structural solutions to shore up these plans over the long run: [1] Eliminate contribution holidays ... no matter how well funded the plans are. [2] Stop using rosy investment forecasts or 20-year inflation averages to discount future liabilities.... [3] Adopt conditional inflation protection so the plan's risk is equally shared among active and retired workers.... [4] [A]void shifting public sector workers to a defined-contribution plan at all cost." Pension Pulse

New Jersey Lawmakers Try to Wrangle Pension Problem

"Pension and health-care costs will eat up nearly a quarter of the state's $45 billion budget by fiscal year 2023, fueling a $3 billion deficit ... One of [the] proposals shifts new state employees and those employed for less than five years of service to a hybrid pension and 401(k)-style plan. Another moves public employees to less expensive health-care plans and requires future retirees to pay more for health care." The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required

SEC to Explore Proxy Process in Roundtable, as Treasury Provides 162(m) Tax Guidance

"As companies prepare the 2019 proxy, which will include the second official pay ratio disclosure, newly-issued IRS guidance on the tax deductibility of executive compensation promises to add an unexpected discussion point. Meanwhile, intense political focus on share buybacks as well as an upcoming SEC Roundtable on the proxy process, which is likely to focus on proxy advisory firms, could also have an impact on the executive compensation landscape." HR Policy Association

SEC Targets Perqs in Another Enforcement Action

"[T]he SEC stated [that The Dow Chemical Company] incorrectly applied a standard whereby a business purpose related to the executive's job was sufficient to determine that a benefit would not be a perquisite that required disclosure. As a result, the issuer did not disclose personal use of corporate aircraft and other expenses."
Dodd-Frank.com

Sole Proprietor Wants to Contribute Property (Stock) to a 401(k) Plan

Sole proprietor wants to make contribution by contributing stock that he already owns to the retirement plan. Without regard to the wisdom of doing so, is it even permissible? BenefitsLink Message Boards

Do I Still Have Time to Pay Off a 'Deemed' 401(k) Loan?

I took a loan from my 401k in 2017 but then left my job in December 2017. The last payment on the loan was posted in Jan. 2018, this was a mistake on my former employer's part. Evidently they fund the 401k by a single monthly deposit which included all the employees contributions. They forgot to deduct my contribution amount & failed to inform the management company I was no longer employed there, so the payment was applied like normal. I didn't inform the management company of the error, I was hoping it would work out in my favor (my last day was actually Jan 2, 2018, but my former boss didn't want to file paperwork for me for 2018 so he paid me for my last day on my previous paycheck). Is Jan 2018 when the loan is considered 'deemed'? Is that last payment going to cause a problem because I was no longer employed there? Do I have until tax day 2019 to pay off the loan (based off 2017 tax reform)? BenefitsLink Message Boards

MEPs and PEPs

1. Can you 'convert' a plan from a single employer plan to a different structure like a MEP (and eventually, when/if made legal, a PEP) and move all of the assets over without making it a distributable event?
2. When a plan terminates, it creates a distributable event, I believe. Is there a way to convert these assets to a MEP -- say like a 'mass rollover'?

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Press Releases

BPCC Foundation is Certified for Fiduciary Excellence Centre for Fiduciary Excellence [CEFEX]

Benefitfocus Joins the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy Benefitfocus

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Most Popular Items in the Previous Issue

IRS Approves 'Student Loan Repayment Nonelective Contribution' But Questions Remain Nixon Peabody LLP

Self-Directed Brokerage Windows in 401(k) Plans: Do Fiduciaries Have to Look Inside? Morgan Lewis

President Trump to Address Retirement Security Charlotte Observer