Headlines about "Ret plans - design"

Gathered from the web by the editors at BenefitsLink.com.
Report of Council of Economic Advisers: 'Supporting Retirement for American Families' (PDF)
Feb. 2, 2012. 'While economic studies have established the benefits of annuitization for retirees -- including both immediate and longevity annuities -- many workers have only limited access to these products. The administrative guidance issued by the Treasury today, easing and simplifying certain regulatory requirements for retirement plans and IRAs, takes an important first step towards a more complete private market offering more attractive lifetime income options." (Council of Economic Advisers, Executive Office of the President)

Multiple Employer Plans Offer Retirement Security Advantages
"Some of those advantages are: 1. Cost reductions through plan aggregation, creating volume discounting. 2. Fiduciary risk transfer to the MEP sponsor and its named fiduciary. 3. Elimination of document maintenance by adopting employers. 4. Elimination of Form 5500 filings by adopting employers. 5. For larger adopting employers, elimination of expensive individual ERISA audits." (Employee Benefit News)

Providence Is Now on 'the Brink of Bankruptcy,' Mayor Taveras Warns
"Taveras said the city's retirees must accept reduced pension and health care benefits to save the city from financial ruin. A decree signed in 1991 by Mayor Buddy Cianci pushed the city's pension liability 'into the stratosphere' by giving annual cost-of-living increases of 5% and 6% to more than 600 retirees, he said." (WPRI.com)

401(k) Plan Sponsors Less Confident That Employees Will Be Financially Prepared for Retirement (PDF)
"84 percent of polled executives responsible for [401(k)] plans say only some or very few employees will be financially prepared for retirement, a new Deloitte survey reveals. . . . To encourage plan participants to make better use of their 401(k), nearly half of plan sponsors (49 percent) are offering features that automatically increase participants' contribution levels. However, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of plan sponsors report that fewer than 10 percent of participants take advantage of this opportunity." (Deloitte; International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans; International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists)

Deloitte's 2011 401(k) Benchmarking Survey (PDF)
68 pages. 'While plan sponsors and fiduciaries are generally aware of the fees charged for the administration of their plans, the possibility exists that many will be surprised by the sum total of costs." (Deloitte)

Association of Public Pension Plans Launches Web Site Promoting Extension of Coverage to Private-Sector Employees
"Retirement security for all Americans -- whether they work in the public or private sector -- must become a national priority. The Secure Choice Pension (SCP) plan would allow private companies and individuals to participate in a state-sponsored pension plan for the private sector. . . . The SCP benefits include having more taxpaying, productive retirees rather than senior citizens becoming wards of the state who rely upon public assistance." (National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS))

Providence, R.I., Mayor Proposes Benefit Cuts to Avert Bankruptcy
"Mayor Angel Taveras, a Democrat, outlined plans to reduce pensions for retired municipal workers and vowed to appeal a recent state court ruling preventing the city from forcing its retirees to switch to the federal Medicare health insurance program when they turned 65." (New York Times; free registration required)

[Opinion] A Closer Look at the Braden v. Wal-Mart Case: How Not to Run a 401(k) Plan
"The Wal-Mart case is the poster child for the way in which a 401(k) plan should not be run: plan investment options bearing excessive and entirely unnecessary costs, undisclosed conflicts of interest, lack of meaningful disclosure of costs to plan participants (which was actually part of the agreement between plan fiduciaries), and, I'd argue, an apparent absence of any serious fiduciary mindset on the part of the plan sponsor fiduciary and the trustee fiduciary." (Morningstar Advisor)

Baltimore Mayor Takes Stand in Pension Trial
"The Fraternal Order of Police and the firefighters union contend that the administration's plan, which delayed retirement for some and abolished a fluctuating cost-of-living increase, among other changes, violates their contracts with the city." (Baltimoresun.com)

Unions Howl at Details of Jerry Brown's Pension Overhaul Proposal
"The details delivered to the Legislature on Thursday generally tracked with an outline he unveiled in October. Representatives of a union coalition hoped to negotiate what they consider a less severe package. On Thursday, they said they felt blindsided." (Sacramento Bee)

California Governor Jerry Brown Delivers Pension Reform Language to Legislators
"The governor's plan won't go forward without two-thirds of the Legislature voting to put the constitutional changes on the Nov. 6 ballot, which would then need voter approval from a majority." (Sacramento Bee)

New Treasury Rules Ease Purchase of Annuity With 401(k)
"J. Mark Iwry, an official at the Treasury department, said the department hoped in particular to foster a workplace market for 'longevity insurance,' something much discussed in policy circles but that employers rarely make available to workers when they retire." (New York Times; free registration required)

Treasury Eases Rules on Annuities in Retirement Plans
"Employers have been reluctant to adopt annuities in retirement plans they sponsor because of concern that fees are too high and that they would be held liable for their choice of insurers. Americans have resisted buying the insurance because they don't want to lock up their assets." (Bloomberg)

California Teachers' Pension Trims Investment Forecast to 7.5%
"The change means the plan will need larger contributions from taxpayers, teachers, school districts, or a combination of all three, to cover pension costs." (Businessweek)

Some Top Military Brass Making More in Pension Than Pay
"Previously, the maximum annual pension was based on an officer's pay at 26 years of service. Now, a four-star officer retiring in 2011 with 38 years' experience would get a yearly pension of about $219,600, a jump of $84,000, or 63% beyond what was once allowed." (USATODAY.com)

New 401(k) Policies Are a Mixed Bag
"Most workers won't see their companies offering annuities anytime soon, concedes David Wray of the Plan Sponsor Council of America, an employer group. He said employers would be concerned about choosing solid insurance companies and reasonably priced annuities for their workers." (Reuters)

Judge Rejects Law Seeking to Reform New Hampshire State Pensions
"A major component of the reform law was hiking the amount that all public employees contribute from their salary to support the state's retirement pension account. [The plaintiff] argued that it was against the law to increase the contributions for all employees who had worked for at least a year. Judge McNamara agreed." (New Hampshire Union Leader)

[Official Guidance] Rev. Rul. 2012-3: Application of Survivor Annuity Requirements to Deferred Annuity Contracts Under a Defined Contribution Plan (PDF)
"Issue: How do the qualified joint and survivor annuity ('QJSA') and the qualified preretirement survivor annuity ('QPSA') rules, described in ?? 401(a)(11) and 417 of the Internal Revenue Code, apply when a deferred annuity contract is purchased under a profit-sharing plan in the situations described below?" (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[Official Guidance] Rev. Rul. 2012-2: Rollover from Qualified Defined Contribution Plan to Qualified Defined Benefit Plan to Obtain Additional Annuity (PDF)
"Issues: [1] Does a qualified defined benefit pension plan that accepts a direct rollover of an eligible rollover distribution from a qualified defined contribution plan maintained by the same employer satisfy ?? 411 and 415 of the Internal Revenue Code in a case in which the defined benefit plan provides an annuity resulting from the direct rollover that is determined by converting the amount directly rolled over into an actuarially equivalent immediate annuity using the applicable interest rate and the applicable mortality table under ? 417(e)? [2] How does the result vary if the defined benefit plan applies different conversion factors for purposes of calculating the annuity resulting from the amount directly rolled over?" (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[Official Guidance] Text of IRS Notice of Hearing on Discussion Draft of IRS Regs on 'Indian Tribal Government Plan' Status
Reschedules a public hearing from June 5 to be July 10, and extends the period for the submission of public comments. (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[Official Guidance] Text of IRS Notice of Hearing on Discussion Draft of IRS Regs on 'Governmental Plan' Status
Reschedules a public hearing from June 5 to be July 9, and extends the period for the submission of public comments. (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[Official Guidance] Proposed IRS Regs on Longevity Annuity Contracts
"This document contains proposed regulations relating to the purchase of longevity annuity contracts under tax-qualified defined contribution plans under section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code), section 403(b) plans, individual retirement annuities and accounts (IRAs) under section 408, and eligible governmental section 457 plans. These regulations will provide the public with guidance necessary to comply with the required minimum distribution rules under section 401(a)(9). The regulations will affect individuals for whom a longevity annuity contract is purchased under these plans and IRAs (and their beneficiaries), sponsors and administrators of these plans, trustees and custodians of these IRAs, and insurance companies that issue longevity annuity contracts under these plans and IRAs." (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[Official Guidance] Treasury Fact Sheet: Helping American Families Achieve Retirement Security by Expanding Lifetime Income Choices (PDF)
"[T]he new package of proposed regulations and rulings makes it easier for pension plans to offer workers a wider range of choices as to how to receive their retirement benefits by [1] Making it easier to offer combination options that avoid an 'all-or-nothing' choice, such as the option to take a portion of an individual's plan benefit as a stream of regular monthly income payable for life, while perhaps taking the remainder in a single lump-sum cash payment; [2] Enabling employer plans and IRAs to offer an additional option in the form of 'longevity annuities' -- which permit employees to use a limited portion of their account balance to provide lifelong retirement income beginning at age 80 or 85, protecting those who live beyond average life expectancy from running out of savings; [3] Making clear that employees receiving lump-sum cash payouts from their employer's 401(k) plan can transfer some or all of those amounts to the employer's defined benefit pension plan (if the employer has one and is willing to allow this) in order to receive an annuity from that plan (giving employees access to the defined benefit plans' relatively low-cost annuity purchase rates); and [4] Resolving uncertainty as to how the 401(k) plan spousal protection rules apply when employees choose deferred annuities (including longevity annuities) from their plans." (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[Official Guidance] Proposed IRS Regs on Modifications to Minimum Present Value Requirements for Partial Annuity Distribution Options under Defined Benefit Pension Plans
"These proposed regulations would change the regulations regarding the minimum present value requirements for defined benefit plan distributions to permit plans to simplify the treatment of certain optional forms of benefit that are paid partly in the form of an annuity and partly in a more accelerated form. These regulations would affect sponsors, administrators, participants, and beneficiaries of defined benefit pension plans." (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[Official Guidance] Text of Final 408(b)(2) Regs on Fee Disclosures to Plan Fiduciaries by Covered Service Providers (PDF)
109 pages. 'This document contains a final regulation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA or the Act) requiring that certain service providers to pension plans disclose information about the service providers' compensation and potential conflicts of interest. These disclosure requirements are established as part of a statutory exemption from ERISA's prohibited transaction provisions. This regulation will affect pension plan sponsors and fiduciaries and certain service providers to such plans." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)

[Guidance Overview] Second DOL 'Fact Sheet'; Description of Major Changes to Final Fee Disclosure Rule
"The final rule's effective date has been extended to July 1, 2012, to allow additional time for compliance." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)

[Official Guidance] DOL 'Fact Sheet' on Final Regs on Service Provider Disclosures Under ERISA Section 408(b)(2)
"The final rule reflects a number of technical and other changes . . . including the following: . . . Expansion of the information that must be disclosed concerning a [Covered Service Provider's] receipt of indirect compensation to include a description of the arrangement between the payer and the CSP pursuant to which indirect compensation will be paid; Conformance of investment-related disclosures for covered plans' designated investment alternatives to the requirements of the Department's participant-level disclosure regulation; and A separate provision for the disclosure of changes to investment-related information, which must be updated at least annually." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)

[Guidance Overview] DOL Publishes Final 408(b)(2) Fee Disclosure Regs; Treasury Publishes Regs on 'Lifetime Income' Options
"[T]he U.S. Departments of Labor and the Treasury today announced two executive actions designed to help enhance security for millions of Americans saving for retirement. The measures will expand transparency in the 401(k) plan marketplace and broaden the availability of retirement plan options so that Americans can maximize their ability to save responsibly and securely." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)

An Introduction to International Retirement Plan Design (PDF)
"To attract and retain the right talent willing to move across borders, whether on a temporary or permanent basis, employers need to provide competitive compensation packages that include a retirement savings component. This paper details how to address retirement security for a mobile workforce." (Buck Consultants)

Retirement Benefits, Pay, Duties, And Attrition of United States Capitol Police, Compared to Other Federal Police Forces
"USCP generally has enhanced retirement benefits, a higher minimum starting salary, and a wider variety of protective duties than other federal police forces in the DC metro area that GAO reviewed . . . . In 2010, the USCP Labor Committee presented six proposals that would enhance the current USCP benefit structure. GAO's analysis shows that five of the six would increase existing costs . . . ." (U.S. Government Accountability Office)

[Opinion] 401(k) Plan Leakage: Blame Hardship Distributions, Not Loans
"Based on 30-plus years of plan sponsor experience, I believe negative press about 401(k) loans are aimed at the wrong target. Rather, hardship withdrawals should be in the crosshairs, not loans." (Employee Benefit News)

Interview With Prof. Ron Rhoades on Revenue Sharing
"I would advise plan sponsors to avoid any revenue-sharing arrangements, of any type, between the advisors and other vendors of the plan. This includes not only payment for shelf space, but also soft dollar compensation and other 'back-channel' payments. Establish the compensation of the investment adviser in advance -- before any investment recommendations are made -- either as a flat fee, hourly fee, or percentage of assets (or some combination thereof)." (Fiduciary News)

[Opinion] The Savings Crisis of Working Americans: The Retirement Industry Call to Action
"[I]f our society does not acknowledge and address the coming retirement savings shortfall, the American dream of retirement will most certainly become a nightmare. . . . Americans must save more for their retirement." (Legg Mason Retirement Advisory Council)

Public-private Pay Gap Varies Greatly By Education Level
"Federal civilian workers with only a high school diploma or less fared much better than private sector employees with the same: They earned 21 percent more wages, 72 percent higher benefits and 36 percent more in total compensation. . . . In contrast, among employees with a professional degree or doctorate, federal workers earned 23 percent less in wages and 18 percent lower total compensation, while receiving about the same benefits as the private sector employees with identical degrees." (GovExec.com)

Alaska Senator Advocates Creation of Optional Defined Benefit Plan for State Employees
"The bill calls for a new defined benefit plan tier following backlash from 2006 legislation that made Alaska the first state to switch to an all defined contribution plan structure for new employees. . . . [M]unicipalities are concerned with the potential of training and employing police officers for five years, only to see them bolt with their [defined contribution plan] assets to another state that can offer a pension." (Pensions & Investments, reprinted in Business Insurance)

Pushback from Disclosure of Costs to Participants: Too Much 401(k) Sunshine?
"[R]ecord keepers for some plans are already experimenting with new ways to explain fees to retirement savers. And in at least one case, those disclosures are raising more questions than employers or investment advisers want to answer." (Wall Street Journal)

[Guidance Overview] What Is a Fiduciary (and Why Should We Care)?
"Advisers, as fiduciaries, have a legal mandate to place client interests first. Advisors, on the other hand, must only provide 'suitable' investments to clients while placing their firm's interests first. This means a lot of those 'self-dealing' types of transactions." (BenefitsPro)

Baby Boomers Are Reaching Age 65, But Are They Actually Retiring?
"Health care is another issue that is causing many baby boomers to delay retirement . . . especially for those who are under the age of 65 and not yet eligible for Medicare. For pre-Medicare retirees, although 80 percent of employers offer a pre-Medicare subsidy, 51 percent of those employers have a subsidy cap . . . ." (BenefitsPro)

San Diego Pension Measure Headed for June Ballot
"An initiative that would eliminate guaranteed pensions for most new city hires and replace them with a 401(k)-style plan is officially headed for the June 5 ballot." (The San Diego Union-Tribune, LLC)

Retirement Income in DC Plans: What Our Experience with DB Plans Tells Us (PDF)
"The potential for improvement in DC plans' ability to provide a steady stream of income has caught the eye of the financial services industry. While the marketplace races to deliver an array of possible solutions, employers and regulators are grappling with how these products fit within qualified retirement plans." (Institutional Retirement Income Council)

Washington State Bill Would Put New Hires in State and Local Governments Into Hybrid Pension Plans
"[The Senate Bill gets a hearing] Thursday in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The bill has two other pieces: letting the state skip a $130 million payment in the Plan 1 retirement accounts next year, and eliminating the early retirement benefit for newly hired workers." (Tacoma News, Inc.)

Checklist of State DB, DC, and Other Retirement Plans
"This compilation of state defined benefit, defined contribution, and hybrid plans includes plans that cover general state employees and teachers in K-12 education (although some of the plans counted here may cover additional categories of employees). The lists exclude plans limited to public safety employees, judges, elected officials and employees of higher education, for whom many states have separate plans or provisions. In some of the states listed below, the plans cover all public employees in a state, including local government employees." (National Conference of State Legislatures)

[Opinion] Teachers' Pension Issue: The state of Maryland vs. the Counties
"[The governor's] proposal to shift 50 percent of the cost of teachers' pensions from the state to the counties in which they are employed has county officials scrambling --and the budget isn't even approved yet." (www.delmarvanow.com)

Rhode Island Treasurer Says Move 36 Local Pension Plans Into State-Run System
"The 36 local plans have a combined unfunded liability of $2.1 billion, but about 40% of that shortfall is in one city: Providence, where [the mayor has clashed with the state treasurer] over whether the General Assembly should pass legislation giving communities the green light to freeze pension cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs)." (WPRI)

Creating Your Own Private Pension Plan
"Under tax laws, high earners who are self-employed or the only employee of their own small business can create a personal pension plan and deduct hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from their taxes while squirreling away up to about $2.5 million in additional money for retirement." (The Wall Street Journal)

Local Ohio Businesses Keep Employees Happy with Wide Range of Perks
"Companies in the Dayton area work to keep their employees happy, offering benefit packages that include health and disability insurance, 401(k) retirement plans, and paid vacation and holidays. Some businesses take it a step further, showering their staff with luncheons, treats in the break room, and free trips to sporting events and amusement parks." (Cox Ohio Publishing)

[Guidance Overview] District Court Must Order Plan Committee to Apply Correct Legal Standard to Top-Hat Plan Issue
"A district court erred when it failed to order a retirement plan committee to use the correct legal standard to determine whether the plan met ERISA's requirements for a top-hat plan, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati . . . has ruled. The appellate court reversed the district court's ruling that, because the plan was not a top-hat plan, the employer had violated ERISA's vesting and other substantive requirements." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business / CCH)

A Primer on 401(k) Plan Design Alternatives (PDF)
"Many times a Plan Sponsor simply wants to make a 401(k) plan available toemployees so that the employees have the ability to do personal salary deferrals on either a Roth or traditional pre-tax basis. This might be necessary because employees are demanding it or the company needs the 401(k) plan for recruiting purposes." (Plan Design Consultants, Inc.)

Readers Rate Their 401(k) Plans
"In assessing the quality of their plans, the investment lineup was the biggest determinant of participant satisfaction." (Morningstar, Inc.)

The Sonoma County, California, Pension Crisis (PDF)
"As a result of its overly generous salaries and pension benefits, Sonoma County now has the highest pension debt per capita of any county in California and maybe the nation. And even with all this debt, which stands at over $500 million, the pension fund is underfunded by $380 million and the health insurance fund is underfunded by $250 million. In the last 4 years alone, due to the poor performance of its investments, the unfunded liability has increased by $600 million." (Sonoma County Tax Payers Association)

Annual Survey of Public-Employee Retirement Systems: 222 State Administered Defined Benefit Public Employee Retirement Systems
"The [survey] provides revenues, expenditures, financial assets, and membership information for defined benefit public employee retirement systems." (U.S. Census Bureau)

Bill Would Allow Alaska Public Employees to Switch to DB Pension Plan
"A bill that will allow Alaska public employees to choose between a 401(k)-like retirement account or a traditional pension is being considered in the state legislature." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Lawmakers Wary of Military Retirement Commission Plan
"The DOD proposal calls for authority similar to what has been provided to past base closure and realignment commissions, so that Congress could only give an up-or-down vote on the commission's final recommendations, with no ability to make any changes." (Gannett Government Media Corporation)

Low-Cost Entries Shake Up Small Retirement Plan Market
"If you own a small business, the time to comparison-shop for 401k plans has never been better. Low-cost plans are cropping up, as new federal regulations kicking in this year call for greater disclosure of feeinformation to plan participants and sponsors." (Thomson Reuters)

The Number of Working Americans Covered by a Workplace Retirement Plan
"One of the more pervasive statistics bandied around about the voluntary retirement system is that only about half of working Americans are covered by a workplace retirement plan. It's a data point that is widely and openly presented as fact -- not only by those inclined to dismiss the current system as inadequate, but even by some of its most ardent champions, who see that result as a call to action for expanded access to these programs. There's only one problem: It doesn't tell the whole story." (Employee Benefit Research Institute)

The Best Way 401(k) Plan Sponsors Can Benchmark Their Plans
"We've established the concept of creating a Fiduciary Report Card to facilitate this process. Now comes the question of exactly what kinds of structures and procedures should a 401k plan sponsor invoke to benchmark their plans." (Fiduciary News)

[Guidance Overview] Court Finds No Proof of Benefits Interference by Duke Energy
"The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has found no proof that Duke Energy interfered with the early retirement benefits of a laid off employee. In affirming a lower court's summary judgment ruling, the appellate court found [the] claim under [ERISA] fails because he did not made a prima facie showing of 'the existence of (1) prohibited employer conduct (2) taken for the purpose of interfering (3) with the attainment of any right to which the employee may become entitled.'" (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

ERISA Claim Based on Wal-Mart Gender Discrimination Dismissed
"A federal court dismissed a claim that Wal-Mart Stores breached its fiduciary duties in underpaying retirement plan contributions based on wages that were discriminatory against women." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Louisiana Governor Proposes Pension Overhaul
"[T]he governor unveiled a detailed plan he says would both ease taxpayer burden and ensure that workers will receive promised benefits . . . . Jindal said the state's unfunded accrued liability has tripled to $18.5 billion over the past two decades, three times the current total payroll. For new hires, Jindal proposed a switch from a defined benefit plan to a cash-balance plan." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Workers Fight Switch to 'Church Plan' Status of Pension Plans
"[A] growing number of plan sponsors with less-direct ties to religious organizations have been declaring themselves church plans and asking the Internal Revenue Service to issue private-letter rulings confirming the exemptions, which free the plans from federal funding requirements. They can stop paying PBGC insurance premiums and can even receive a refund of up to six years of insurance premiums . . . ." (Reuters)

The links shown above have been gathered from the web by the editors at BenefitsLink.com. Each article's publisher is shown above in parentheses. Opinions expressed in each article are those of the article's publisher, not necessarily those of BenefitsLink.com, Inc. or any web site that displays these headlines in a "frame." You should contact the listed publisher for copyright information about any particular article or to inquire into the right to use the article in any manner.