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Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard OKs Domestic Partner Benefits

"After wavering on the issue for weeks, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard signed off Thursday on an ordinance providing domestic partner benefits for city and county workers. The mayor overcame his discomfort with the inclusion of employees' unmarried opposite-sex partners -- who, as Ballard had pointed out, already have the option of marrying."

Court Orders Fiduciaries to Restore $283,530 in Retirement Assets for Employees at Heartland Foods in Indianapolis

"The [DOL] announced that the owners of Heartland Foods Inc. will restore $283,530 to the Heartland Foods Inc. 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan under terms of a consent judgment and order. The decision follows an investigation by the [EBSA] that found [two] co-owners ... transferred assets from the plan to the company's checking account and failed to properly manage the plan's assets, comingling employee contributions with the company's general operating accounts in violation of [ERISA]."

Seventh Circuit Affirms Trial Judgment for Defendants in Indianapolis Power & Light 401(k) Stock-Drop Case (PDF)

5 pages. Excerpt: On January 2, 2008, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld a defense judgment in a 401(k) employer stock case following a bench trial on breach of fiduciary claims. Nelson v. Hodowal, ___ F.3d ____, 2008 WL 90057 (7th Cir. Jan. 2, 2008). The Seventh Circuit's decision is undoubtedly significant as only the second appellate decision following a trial on the merits of fiduciary breach claims arising out of the decline of employer stock in a defined contribution plan.

On Money Market Funds, False Promises and Faulty Premises from The Wall Street Journal

"There's little evidence to support the Journal's claims that its favored proposal for money market funds -- forcing them to float their per-share price -- would enhance financial stability. As the financial crisis demonstrated, floating-value funds are not immune to runs. Instead, this 'solution' would deprive investors and the economy of an efficient, diversified, well-regulated, and transparent tool for cash management, and a crucial channel for financing businesses, state and local governments, and nonprofit institutions."

Wall Street Journal Interviews Experts on Solutions to the 'Nest-Egg Blues'

Excerpt: For tips on how to regain financial and emotional equilibrium in scary economic times, The Wall Street Journal convened a panel at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The participants were: John L. McKeever III, a chartered financial consultant ... Olivia S. Mitchell, professor of insurance and risk management at the Wharton School [and] Jack L. VanDerhei, associate professor at the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University...

Journal of Pension Economics and Finance enters New Phase

Excerpt: The Journal of Pension Economics and Finance (JPEF), the only academic journal focusing on the economics and finance of pensions and retirement income programs, announces a new editorial structure and a broadening of its mission effective January 2010. Since 2002, the JPEF has provided an invaluable and influential forum for original research and international policy debate in the pensions area. Demographic aging and tumultuous capital markets are challenging the future of retirement around the globe. The JPEF will lead the way in exploring what these factors imply for retirement security and pension sustainability, and in demonstrating which new models will ensure resiliency in retirement systems. JPEF publishes original research papers; it also offers an Issues & Policy section with reviews of the state of debate on pension policies around the world. In addition, the journal includes reviews on publications of key interest to its readers. JPEF is co-sponsored by the International Organization of Pension Supervisors (IOPS) and the OECD.

New Academic Research Journal Launched for Pensions

"The journal is associated with the new International Network of Pension Regulators and Supervisors which has member organizations in over 60 countries. The journal publishes original academic research papers on the economics and finance of pensions, retirement income and ageing. Papers from actuarial science and other disciplines are welcome as long as there is a clear economics or finance context."

Indiana House Advances Bill for Offering 401(k)-Style Plan to New Teachers

"Under [the proposed] plan, teachers new to the system could choose the traditional hybrid plan or the 401(k)-style account. A teacher's employer would be required to contribute an amount equal to 3 percent of the teacher's salary to the new defined-contribution plan, and teachers could contribute up to 10 percent of their salary. The bill would also allow teachers to change their minds after three years and use the pension-style plan going forward."

Midwest Employers Are Actually Spending Less on Health Benefits

"In the first two quarters of this year, Midwest employers reduced their spending on health benefits compared with the same two quarters in 2014 ... The reduction was modest -- just 0.8 percent from the second quarter of 2014 to the second-quarter of 2015. But that's the first time benefits spending has gone down since the BLS started tracking these data in 2004."

Engineer Develops Wallet-Size Plan to Fix Health Care

"[Robert Higgs] has spent eight years and $25 million developing a medical-records technology that can put each patient's lifelong medical history and images onto a wallet-size card.... [He is] in talks with Louisville-based Humana Inc., one of the nation's largest health insurers, on a $475 million contract to deploy ICUcare's technology. Humana has estimated it can use ICUcare to pay doctors and hospitals faster, yet still save $20 million per year."

Anthem's Brand Suffers Small Ding After Data Breach

"Anthem Inc.'s brand has taken a noticeable hit since hackers stole nearly 79 million customer records from the health insurer's computer systems earlier this year. But the impact was blunted by positive perceptions of the way the company handled the breach ... Before the data breach 51 percent of consumers said Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield was a better brand than other insurers and After the breach, that figure dropped to 45 percent."

Connecticut Journal Register Is Bankrupt Again, Pension Costs Partly to Blame

"Journal Register said print advertising has dropped 19 percent since 2009 and that it represents more than half of total revenue. Additionally the New York-based company is saddled with too much debt stemming in part from pensions. A retirement plan trust with a $3.2 million pension-related claim is the company's second-largest unsecured creditor, trailing only the State of Connecticut, according to the bankruptcy petition."

Wall Street Journal and Credit Suisse 'Union Pension Bomb' Is Long on Drama, Short on Insight (PDF)

"The May 15, 2012 Wall Street Journal editorial entitled 'The Union Pension Bomb' and the Credit Suisse report to which it refers may provide an eye-catching headline, but it contains numerous factual inaccuracies and misleading statements regarding multiemployer plans.... Rather than acknowledging the long-term nature of pension obligations and the market fluctuations that will produce periodic and transitory periods of over- or underfunding, [the editorial] chose to capitalize on the anomalies produced by artificially low interest rates, overly influenced by monetary policies intended to stimulate low-cost borrowing, at the expense of those institutions and individuals whose long-term financial survival is dependent on savings and historically dependable fixed income instruments. The sensationalism of these conclusions may play well to those whose interests are served by eliminating any sense of corporate responsibility to the workers whose efforts are as much a contributing factor to the companies' success as those who provide the capital, but no one should be fooled by this shameless and opportunistic characterization of the current rates as market driven 'risk-free' rates, appropriate for such conclusions."

The Wall Street Journal's Contribution to the Fiduciary Argument

"[I] was particularly dismayed to read the August 12 WSJ editorial entitled 'The Borzi Savings Bomb,' with the tagline: 'An Obama appointee concocts a fictional crisis that will have real costs.' Apparently, in today's highly charged political environment, even the Journal editorial staff is unable to look beyond partisanship to examine an important issue on its merits, alone. As the title and tagline suggest, WSJ editors are upset with Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis Borzi's attempt to provide IRA investors with the same protections that other retirement savers have in pension plans including defined benefit plans, 401(k)s, and 403(b)s."

Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance Back Issue Set

The NCEO's Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance, published from 1989 to 2010, was the only professional journal in the U.S. devoted to employee ownership, ranging from ESOPs to stock options and more. This is a set of the back issues that are still in print (see the link for a list).

Wall Street Journal v. The Facts on Money Market Funds: Response to Wall Street Journal Feb. 3 Editorial

Excerpt: ICI President and CEO Paul Schott Stevens sent the following Letter to the Editor to the Wall Street Journal on February 3, 2010. Your editorial, 'The SEC v. Investors' (Feb. 3), got it wrong. Wrong on the facts, wrong on the analysis, wrong on the strength of the SEC's rules, and wrong on the mutual fund industry's commitment to its investors.

Overview of The Wall Street Journal's Retirement-Planning Guide

Excerpt: This guidebook is ... a blueprint for building a successful retirement. We'll show you how the various pieces -- retirement savings, Social Security, relocation, new careers, volunteer work, estate planning, health care, leisure and more -- come together as you create your plan for a personally fulfilling retirement.

ERIC Letter to the Wall Street Journal in Response to Cash Balance Article of August 15, 2006

Excerpt: ERIC submitted the ... letter to the Wall Street Journal for inclusion on August 15. The Journal subsequently declined to publish the letter.

Wall Street Journal Columnist Takes Aim at Target Date Funds

"Author Mark Hulbert's gripe is that glidepaths consider too few variables, something reflected in the research.... While not perfect, some critics countered target-date funds are adequate for most savers and better than the do-it-yourself allocation and rebalancing alternative. Others claimed the criticism stems from a desire on the part of advisors to use more expensive managed accounts."

Journal of Health Promotion Touts Wellness Gains But Data Better Interpreted as Admission of Massive Losses

"[W]hile per-employee losses from wellness based purely on added healthcare spending and program expense are 'only' in the three figures, the net reduction in productivity from a (speculative) 1% increase less a (certain) 3.75% decrease due to lost work time amount to a mind-boggling $5210/year. And that is probably an understatement."