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Plan Sponsor Council of America Comment Letter to DOL on Lifetime Income Illustration in Pension Benefit Statements (PDF)

"PSCA does not support a mandate.... It will be helpful for the Department to explain how it determined that its authority under Section 505 permits this broad interpretation of Section 105.... The safe harbor in the intended regulation will result in a major reduction in the availability of other retirement income calculators, to the detriment of participants.... The ANPRM should be product neutral... Projections are critical to any lifetime income... [T]he Department should issue guidance relating to the provision of retirement income calculators similar to the guidance issued under Interpretive Bulletin 96-1 that relates to participant investment education."

PSCA Comment Letter to ERISA Advisory Council on Locating Missing and Lost Participants

Recommendations include: "The DOL should extend the safe harbor rules under ERISA Regulation Section 2550.404a-2 to missing beneficiaries in addition to participants ... The DOL should extend the safe harbor rules under ERISA Regulation Section 2550.404a-2 to distributions to missing or unresponsive participants, without regard to the size of the benefits, when benefits become payable after attaining the plan's normal retirement date.... As a practical matter, account balances of less than $1,000 continue to cause administrative headaches."

PSCA Encourages Plan Sponsors to Raise Their Voices About Tax Reform

"PSCA's recent survey of plan sponsors on the impact of tax reform ... found 90% are strongly or somewhat opposed the reduction of tax incentives for retirement savings."

PSCA Annual Survey of Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plans

"More participants made contributions in 2016 -- 84.9 percent. Roth availability increased again -- now offered at 63.1 percent of companies. Company contributions increased to an average of 4.8 percent of participants' pay. Target-date funds are now offered in nearly three-fourths of plans.... Sixty percent of plans use automatic enrollment. Three-fourths of those plans automatically increase default deferral rates over time."

PSCA Offers Free Membership to Producer of PBS Documentary

"The program revealed that producer Martin Smith is actually a small-company plan sponsor. [PSCA] congratulates him for this. However, it appears Mr. Smith is not aware of his responsibilities. In the show, Mr. Smith stated that he was too busy to look at the fine print in his own plan. When he eventually examined his plan's investment alternatives, he wondered, 'How did this get in here?' The answer, of course, can be found by looking in a mirror. We hope that Mr. Smith understands his responsibilities as a plan sponsor and a fiduciary."

2015 PSCA 403(b) Survey Finds Higher Contributions, Better Balances

"Average account values among 403(b) plan participants grew to $62,513 in 2014, compared to $54,600 in 2013. Participants contributed an average of 6 percent of their annual pay to their account, up from 5.8 percent in 2013. In addition to participant contributions, the survey shows nearly a quarter of 403(b) plan sponsors match employee contributions dollar for dollar on the first 5 percent or 6 percent deferred.... Just 16.2 percent of 403(b) plans use automatic enrollment, up slightly from last year's 16 percent."

ERIC and PSCA Join Forces to Ask for Delay in March 15 Deadline for NQDC Mirror and Excess Plans (PDF)

3 pages. Excerpt: [Posted] is a copy of joint letter sent today by The ERISA Industry Committee and the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America urgently asking that the Treasury and IRS modify Notice 2005-1 as soon as possible to extend the period that the Notice now gives to defined contribution mirror and excess plans to meet the requirements of the new law governing nonqualified deferred compensation.

Testimony of PSCA at DOL Hearing on Proposed Conflict of Interest Regs

"Plan sponsors are concerned that the availability of educational services will be limited or become more costly if the Proposed Rule is finalized without additional clarification. Our principal concern is that if investment education is deemed to be 'investment advice,' providers may no longer offer these services or will impose advisory-level fees, making the information unattainable for many employees."

ERIC, PSCA and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Comment Letter to PBGC on Proposed Missing Participant Program for Defined Contribution Plans (PDF)

"The program must [assure] fiduciaries of terminating plans that participate in the program that: (1) the funds will be handled appropriately; (2) the account will be charged no more than reasonable fees; (3) the participant (once found) will be able to obtain an accounting of the manner in which their funds have been handled by the PBGC; and (4) the fiduciaries will not face significant administrative burdens. Once the program is established, the PBGC should encourage the [DOL] to issue guidance providing that fiduciaries of terminating plans that participate in the program are relieved of fiduciary liability for the amounts transferred to the PBGC. However, the PBGC should not delay the creation of the program for the issuance of this guidance.... [P]articipating in the program should be optional and should be in addition to any private sector arrangements that provide similar services."

ERIC, PSCA and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Comment Letter to DOL on FAB 2013-02, Participant Fee Disclosures (PDF)

"While the body of the FAB references the 'comparative chart,' we believe the FAB provides a one-time extension, for either 2013 or 2014, for plan administrators with respect to the delivery of all plan-related information described in paragraph (c) of the regulation and investment-related information described in paragraphs (d)(1) and (d)(2) (in effect, all annual notice requirements). We request that the Department confirm that the FAB's relief applies to all of the regulation's annual disclosures and not just the comparative chart. The FAB also indicates that the Department is considering revising the regulation's timing requirement to provide 'reasonable flexibility' to plan administrators on a permanent basis. We strongly encourage the Department to adopt these measures."

PSCA's Annual Survey Shows Company Contributions Are Bouncing Back

"[C]ompanies and participants are putting money into their plans, and they are doing so at higher rates than in previous years. The Annual Survey, which reports on the 2011 plan-year experience of 840 plans representing 10.3 million participants and $753 billion in assets, showed improvement in all key confidence indicators."

PSCA Comment Letter to DOL on Proposed Fiduciary Definition (PDF)

"[M]any concerns rest upon an overly broad reading of the Proposed Rule's scope. In clarifying that scope as limited to persons or entities rendering investment advice for a fee, it may be helpful if the final regulation includes additional examples or model language that sharpen s the distinction between investment 'recommendations' and mere 'neutral, informative descriptions' of plan or IRA operations, investment options or taxation."

Roth 401(k) Gaining Traction, PSCA Survey Finds

Excerpt: The Profit Sharing/401k Council of America's (PSCA) Roth 401(k) Survey 2007 found just over 22 percent of 401(k) plan sponsors currently offer Roth 401(k) features, and 61 percent are either planning to add or are considering adding such features in the future.

Summary: PSCA's 48th Annual Survey of Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plans

Excerpt: PSCA's 48th Annual Survey of Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plans reports on the 2004 plan year experience of 1,052 profit sharing and 401(k) plans. Together, these plans hold over $500 billion in plan assets and include more than 9 million participants. Of the 1,052 respondent plans, 72 are profit sharing plans, 520 are 401(k) plans, and 460 are combination profit sharing/401(k) plans.

PSCA Survey Shows 401(k) Savings and Participation Rates Rise (PDF)

"88% of eligible employees had an account balance in 2023 and 86.9% made deferrals.... Participants contributed an average of 7.8% of pay (up from 7.4%), and companies contributed 4.9% of pay (up from 4.7%) for a combined savings rate of 12.7% of pay.... [O]ptional provisions regarding distributions seem to be the most popular SECURE 2.0 provisions, with little uptake (so far) on most of the others."

PSCA: President's Proposals Will Reduce the Appeal of Employer Plans

Excerpt: PSCA believes that any proposal affecting retirement savings should address four questions. Will overall retirement savings increase? How will the at-risk population of lower paid workers be affected? Will leakage of retirement savings increase? Will non-savers be induced to save? While we are confident the administration believes their proposals will result in affirmative responses to these questions, we must disagree.

American Benefits Council Submission for the Record of Hearing on Economic Recovery, Job Creation and Investment in America (PDF)

7 pages. "We urge immediate action to reform defined benefit plan funding requirements in light of the unprecedented market, credit and liquidity crises affecting our economy. Absent action to address the unforeseeable and crippling funding shortfalls and funding obligations pension plan sponsors now confront, millions of employee pension plan participants will face benefit restrictions and freezes and the job losses and business contractions threatening many U.S. employers and workers will only be made worse."

ERIC and PSCA on Comment Letter to IRS on Proposed Regs on Automatic Contribution Arrangements (PDF)

5 pages.

PSCA Comments on SEC's Proposed Rules for Insider Trading During Blackout Periods (PDF)

3 pages. Excerpt: The proposed definition of securities acquired in connection with service or employment includes securities ... that he or she must hold to meet an issuer's minimum ownership requirements for directors ... These securities could be securities that were acquired years before becoming a director. PSCA believes that treating securities that were purchased prior to becoming a director as acquired in connection with service as a director is inconsistent the Act's intent ...

PSCA Publishes Section-by-Section Summary of House-Passed Pension Reform Bill (PDF)

5 pages; prepared April 12, 2002 by Edward Ferrigno, PSCA Vice President.