Associate Director of Pension Benefits
Sheet Metal Workers' National Pension Fund
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Ohio Pension Services
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Brown Bag Benefits Briefing: Executive Compensation
RECORDED
Thompson Hine LLP

Drafting IRA Trusts
October 18, 2018 WEBCAST
Pepper Hamilton LLP

IRS Audits of Employee Benefit Plans: Audit Closing Agreement Program (CAP) to Avoid Plan Disqualification
November 14, 2018 WEBCAST
Strafford

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Standards of Conduct for Investment Professionals: Overlapping Protections for Broker-Dealer Retirement Customers

"[If] Regulation BI and Form CRS (Client Relationship Summary), at least structurally, are adopted by the SEC as proposed; and ... ERISA regulation reverts as expected to its pre-June 9, 2017 state.... there would be four bodies of nationally applicable regulation broadly imposing standards of conduct on [broker-dealers] in the retirement space: [1] The federal securities law administered by the SEC; [2] The rules of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA); [3] The prohibited transaction excise tax provision of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC); and [4] The fiduciary standards and prohibited transaction rules of ERISA enforced by the DOL." Eversheds Sutherland

For ALL your administrative needs, DB/CB, DC, Cafeteria, 5500s & Documents

Software to prepare proposals, including Combined Plans, compliance testing, participant statements, plan administration for DB/DC, 401(k), Profit Sharing, 403(b), ESOP, prepare 5500s and Retirement Plan Documents! See us at ASPPA Booth #100. 888-328-2474

Perspectives to Help Drive Better Retirement Outcomes (PDF)

44 pages. "High influence plans have: [1] Automatic enrollment with a default deferral rate of 6%+ and annual re-enrollment (i.e., automatically enrolling all non-participating eligible employees each year); [2] Opt-out automatic deferral increase to a rate of 10% or higher; [3] Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA); [4] Match and/or profit sharing of at least 5%; [5] Automatic rebalancing feature; [6] Targeted communication campaigns; [7] Limits on employer stock and participant loans. Low influence plans have few or none of [these] features." Wells Fargo

How Mandatory Force-Outs Turned Into a Fiduciary Concern (PDF)

22 presentation slides. Topics: [1] Why it's important for fiduciaries to scrutinize the auto-rollover process. [2] Pitfalls to avoid for complying with auto-rollover rules. [3] What a prudent auto-rollover process looks like. [4] Relevant due diligence factors for auto-rollover providers. Fi360

How Small- and Mid-Sized Businesses Can Protect Themselves from ERISA Class Action Lawsuits

"By making consistent disclosures of material facts related to investment fees and expenses, a fiduciary can, potentially, mitigate the potential liability associated with investment decisions by limiting the time-period of the inquiry to a three-year period.... [By] documenting and disclosing its procedures for investment benchmarking ... a company potentially can diminish further its attractiveness as a litigation target." BenefitsPro; free registration required

Pension De-Risking: The Next Evolution in Reducing Funded Status Risk

"It is possible ... to utilize equity derivatives to create the ability to hold more assets in long-term bonds, while still retaining equity exposure ... Risk and return can ... be 'shaped' very precisely. This is important for frozen pension plans as there is a definite asymmetry of risk and return: there is only so much upside that a plan can use, while the plan sponsor is exposed to all downside. Equity options allow long-term equity upside that is not needed to be traded for downside protection." River and Mercantile Solutions

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.

On the Path to Pension Plan De-Risking

"When plans de-risk ... [t]hey often focus less than they should on the risk embedded in their hedge assets, specifically the risk that comes from owning corporate credit at this stage of the credit cycle.... What considerations should plans take into account when they're looking to reduce surplus volatility? ... De-risking plans still need growth assets. How do you think about growth and hedge assets together in a portfolio? ... How do you think about using alternatives in pension plan portfolios?" J.P. Morgan Asset Management

The Real(ly Manageable) Cost of Health Care in Retirement

"[W]hile health care costs may cumulatively add up to a lot over a multi-decade time horizon, they do so in ways that can be largely planned for in advance, saved for with both retirement savings itself or using Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) as a supplemental retirement savings vehicle, managed by making good Medicare enrollment choices, and adjusted for (typically-known-by-retirement) chronic health conditions. Or simply funded by Social Security payments, which for a married 65-year-old couple earning merely 'average' benefits, amounts to a lump sum equivalent of more than $600,000 anyway[.]" Nerd's Eye View

As SEC's 'Zero Tolerance' Era for RIAs Commences Post-DOL, a Regulatory Law Firm Makes Anticipatory Hires

"RIAs have lived through a golden era of infrequent and humane audits and the RIA business as a whole grew, prospered and innovated. Now there are signs that that could change out there ... But here we see something scarier -- lawyers spending money to buy the services of more lawyers i.e. putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to a new era of RIA scrutiny." RIABiz

Can Investment Advisers Disclose Away All Conflicts? Can Brokers?

"[T]he SEC is clear that disclosure is only effective in addressing conflicts when advice is absent from the relationship.... [V]arious interested parties are still at odds over the fundamental question of whether disclosure and informed client consent are enough to satisfy a fiduciary's obligation to act in the client's best interest.... As important new guidance, the SEC notes that some complex or extensive conflicts may defy adequate disclosure, thereby depriving clients of the ability to provide truly informed consent." InvestmentNews

Contributing Real Property: Has Connecticut Found a Solution to Underfunded Public Pensions?

"The state's inventory of real assets on its books, such as office buildings, parking lots, raw land or highway right-of-ways, identifies nearly 7,000 properties.... Transferring those assets from the state's balance sheet to the pension funds investment portfolio recategorizes their value from book to current market.... [T]he pensions get a boost in asset values and the state gets a lower pension liability with no cash outlay." Forbes

Second Circuit Speaks on When Ministerial Acts Can Breach a Fiduciary Duty

"The Second Circuit affirmed summary judgment to the pension plan on the basis that the SPD clearly and unambiguously provided ... accurate information ... [But] the court found the welfare plan SPD lacking in its organization, presentation, and substance: ... The Second Circuit concluded that the 'almost impenetrabl[e]' language, coupled with the petitioner's reasonable misunderstanding of a comment by a claim specialist concerning the availability of health benefits, presented a question of material fact sufficient to defeat summary judgment." [ In re DeRogatis , Nos. 16?977-cv, 16?3549-cv (2d Cir. Sept. 14, 2018; unpub.)]
Robinson & Cole LLP

HIPAA and Accounting Cybersecurity Update

"The SEC had been investigating 9 publicly traded companies who became victims ... The fake vendor scams were emails from company vendors (following hacking into vendor systems) requesting payment to the vendors but directing the funds to non-vendor accounts.... [Two of the companies] lost in excess of $30 million and all 9 in total lost nearly $100 million. Because HR requires the use of a number of vendors to deliver benefits, it is important that all of the HR department personnel be alert when reviewing email requests for payment." Winstead PC

2018 Small Business Benefits Study

"4 in 10 small business workers depend on their workplace benefits for financial security. Higher out-of-pocket medical costs impact workforce well-being. Small businesses are addressing workforce health with wellness initiatives and flexible work arrangements. People want to work for companies that care." Guardian

Employees Decrease Retirement Savings and Financial Wellness Due to Health Costs

"Approximately one-half of workers (47%) report having experienced an increase in health care costs in the past year, about the same percentage since 2015. Of those reporting cost increases, 24% state they have decreased their contributions to retirement plans, and 41% have decreased their contributions to other savings. Thirty percent have delayed retirement, and 17% have taken a loan or withdrawal from a retirement plan." planadviser

Former Law Partner Becomes 'Of Counsel' -- Separate Cash Balance Plan OK?

A former partner in a law firm is now just a 1099 employee of the law firm as they are of counsel. This former partner maximized his benefit in the cash balance plan of the law firm. Can we set up a new cash balance plan for him using his 1099 wages or are his 1099 related to the law firm somehow and therefore he has already reached him maximum benefit? BenefitsLink Message Boards

Misleading to Call a Stable-Value Account a 'Fund'?

To provide a retirement plan's participants an investment alternative they perceive as having no risk of investment loss, the plan uses an insurance company's separate account and group annuity contract. The separate account has the one plan as the account's only beneficial owner. The annuity contract provides each quarter-year a credited interest rate determined by amortizing investment gains, losses, and values over a duration that approximates an estimate of an average duration for the investments held for the separate account. The contract has delayed payments or a market-value adjustment if the plan leaves the insurer when the separate account's market value is less than the book value credited to participants. The plan's communications writer wants to label this participant investment alternative the stable-value fund . Do you think 'fund' is misleading?
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Press Releases

Ascensus Acquires ESOP Economics Ascensus

OCR and ONC Bolster the Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool with New Features and Improved Functionality U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Hub International Acquires the Assets of Oklahoma-Based Jones Retirement Plan Advisors HUB International

Federal Court Appoints Successor Fiduciary to Oversee Distribution of $46,371 to Participants of Abandoned Profit Sharing Plan Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

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