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Steven Hall and Partners Comment Letter to SEC on the Proposed Pay Versus Performance Disclosure (PDF)

6 pages. "[T]he approach suggested ... is overly prescriptive, and represents a troubling move away from the principles-based approach of many of the Commission's other recent compensation disclosure proposals, including, notably, the rule-making that led to the current CD&A format. We believe that a principles-based approach to the pay versus performance disclosure would provide companies with the flexibility necessary to communicate their pay for performance story more fulsomely, and beyond the use of one metric, and would enhance the benefit to shareholders of the proposed disclosure."

Steven Hall & Partners Comment Letter to ISS on 2014 Draft Policies

"By continuing to use TSR as the sole quantitative benchmark for corporate performance and relegating an analysis of operational and financial performance metrics to the qualitative assessment, we believe that this policy puts many compensation committees in the position of having to choose between doing the right thing for the long-term value of the company and doing the right thing to secure favorable Say on Pay vote recommendations from ISS."

Steven Brill's Big Breakthrough

"High healthcare costs are spawned by a powerful ethic in American medicine that is too often nurtured by the press, an ethic that dictates that the medicine men -- doctors, hospitals, and drug companies -- sit at the right hand of God and deserve all they can get. Brill's article crashes right through that fence, in fact, and provides the stuff for further productive reporting."

Steven Brill's 26,000-Word Health Care Story, in One Sentence

"Steven Brill started his cover story in this week's Time magazine with a simple health-policy question: 'Why exactly are the bills so high?' His article is essentially a 26,000-word answer, the longest story that the magazine has ever run by a single author. It's worth reading in full, but if you're looking for a quick summary, the article seemed to me to boil down to one sentence: The American health-care system does not use rate-setting."

Transcript: Discussion with Wash. Post Business Columnist Steven Pearlstein on Health Care Reform

Excerpt: Sterling, Va. [speaks]: Regarding trends in cost, quality and access - Is the United States in a health care crisis? Steven Pearlstein [speaks]: For many of the 47 million Americans with no insurance, its a crisis. For employers who now consider rising health care costs their biggest problem, its not a crisis, but is headed that way.

SH&P Comment Letter to ISS on Proposed Equity Plan Scorecard Policy

"[Steven Hall & Partners is] very concerned about any approach which limits the ability of our clients to predict with certainty whether or not they are likely to secure a favorable vote recommendation from ISS before the proxy is filed.... An unexpected Against vote recommendation from ISS can be very disruptive, and requires a last minute mobilization of resources which is expensive, time-consuming and distracting. We believe shareholders would be better served by a process which permits companies to weigh plan design trade-offs in a thoughtful and deliberate way with full knowledge of how these choices will impact the ISS vote recommendation before making the decision which they believe to be in the best interests of shareholders. This would permit appropriate and timely engagement with shareholders, if required."

Testimony of Steven Brill at Senate Finance Committee Hearing on Health Care Costs (PDF)

"[B]y any definition this is no one's idea of a functioning marketplace. In a functioning marketplace prices are based on something that is explainable -- whether it's the cost of producing the product, the laws of supply and demand, or the quality of the product. In this marketplace, no one can explain a hospital's charge of $77 for a box of gauze pads, or $18 for a diabetes test strip that can be bought on Amazon for about 50 cents."

Steven Brill Explains His 'Bitter Pill'

"[D]uring the long debate over President Barack Obama's health insurance reform proposals, a question kept nagging at me: Everyone on all sides seemed to accept as a given that healthcare was wildly expensive, and the only debate seemed to be over who should pay for it. I wondered: Well, why is it so expensive in the first place?"

Featured Q&As from Recent COVID-19 Town Halls

"Here are some of the more novel and pressing questions asked during ERISAfire's weekly Tuesday COVID-19 town hall meetings. [This page] is updated weekly."

Panel Rules That Los Angeles City Hall Must Toss Out Pension Reforms

"[A] labor panel voted to toss out new retirement rules touted by budget officials as a way to save the city $4 billion over the next three decades. The five-member Employee Relations Board sided with a report concluding that the city of L.A. violated labor rules when City Hall officials enacted new pension rules, including raising the retirement age to age 65, without negotiating with the unions."

Ballot Measure May Replace Pensions with 401(k)s at Los Angeles City Hall

"Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan plans to submit language Friday for a May 2013 ballot measure that would eliminate government pensions for newly hired workers at City Hall, replacing them with 401(k)-style retirement benefits. Riordan's proposal also would freeze the size of pensions for existing employees even when their salaries go up -- unless they are promoted to a higher-paying job. The plan is designed to save hundreds of millions of dollars annually by 2017 and would apply to every city worker, including police officers, firefighters and employees of the Department of Water and Power[.]"

IRS and Treasury to Hold Town Hall/ Consultation Listening Meetings On Possible Approaches to Governmental Plan Guidance

The issue is important to Federal, State, Local and Indian Tribal Governments, as well as their employees, because the statutory rules that apply to governmental plans are different from those that apply to nongovernmental plans. In addition, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 contained statutory changes related to plans maintained by Indian Tribal Governments. The IRS and Treasury are soliciting comments on proposed drafts issued in November 2011 of possible approaches to guidance in this area. Comments must be received by June 18, 2012. Input from the general public is also sought from discussions at town hall and consultation listening meetings.

Town Hall Meetings Beginning on Fixing Healthcare System

Excerpt: Seizing on the momentum of the presidential election and the promise of change on a historic scale, a grassroots 'conversation' about health care reform under the Obama administration began Thursday with town hall meetings around the nation, including several in the Bay Area.

Your Next Retirement Plan Could Be Run by City Hall

"A new rule would clear regulatory barriers that might otherwise stop large municipalities such as New York from setting up plans for all workers -- not just those who work for local government.... Out of almost 90,000 local governments in the U.S., the [DOL] estimates that only about 88 would be eligible. First, jurisdictions would need authority under state law to set up the program. They also couldn't overlap with an existing statewide retirement plan, ... Finally, they'd need to have a population greater than the least-populous state. (That's Wyoming, population 586,000.)"

Report from Anthem 'Town Hall Meeting' About Data Breach (PDF)

"Anthem said health plan sponsors using Anthem or an Anthem-member program as an insurer or third-party administrator will receive a list of affected members.... Anthem said it has determined that the phishing email it cautioned its members about was actually sent by a firm that sends innocuous phishing emails to individuals, to demonstrate to employers and others how vulnerable they may be to phishing expeditions. Unfortunately for that firm, the phishing email soon went viral. Anthem said individuals who clicked the link in the phishing email were simply directed to a site warning about the danger of phishing emails.... Anthem said that the breach compromised no insurance broker information or healthcare provider data."

Former Top City Hall Official Pleads Guilty in Detroit Pension Fund Bribery Case

"George Stanton, the former chief of staff to ex-Detroit City Councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, admitted in U.S. District Court that he accepted the bribes as a reward for supporting a proposed investment by businessman Roy Dixon, who is also facing charges. Stanton said he helped push Dixon's investment proposal before the Police and Fire Retirement System. Stanton faces up to 10 years in prison."

California Pension Wars Will Be Fought at City Hall

"The real issues of reform now shift from the weird world of Sacramento to California's cities and counties. Even legislators in the craziest of them ? San Francisco obviously comes to mind -- are more likely to pass needed reforms than those in the state Capitol, where interest-group politics trumps everything else."

Atlanta Public Pension Fund Documents Missing from City Hall

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is proposing major changes in the city's three pension funds -- for police, firefighters and general employees. The city approved generous increases for all three funds in 2001 and 2005, but most of the documents that were legally required before those changes could be approved -- are now nowhere to be found.

E-Mail Points to Jacksonville, FL City Hall Denying Pension Mistake

Excerpt: More than 30 corrections officers sued the city last month for being denied access to the pension plan because they didn't pass a physical -- mostly for having high blood pressure.... If employees didn't pass a physical, they were put in the Social Security system, rather than the city pension plan -- arguably the most lucrative benefit available to Jacksonville government employees. The city has since dropped the physical exam requirement. Keeping employees in Social Security makes a significant financial difference to the city -- both while employees are working and after they retire.

Daniels-Hall v. National Education Association: Text of Amicus Brief of DOL in Support of Defendants (PDF)

28 pages. Excerpt: The Secretary of Labor has primary authority to interpret and enforce the fiduciary, reporting and disclosure provisions of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ('ERISA'), 29 U.S.C. ? 1001 et seq. She submits this brief pursuant to this Court's July 14, 2009 order inviting the Department of Labor ('Department') to file an amicus brief on a question that may be answered primarily by reference to the Secretary's regulations and interpretations of Title I of ERISA, namely: Whether, in the subject case, the National Education Association was legally capable of establishing a plan subject to Title I of ERISA offering 26 U.S.C. [Internal Revenue Code] ? 403(b) annuities.