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171 Matching News Items

1.  The Law of Unintended Consequences As Applied to a Business Owner's Retirement Plan
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
June 23, 2008
Excerpt: [A 1936 article has since been popularized as The Law of Unintended Consequences, as] in case of a business owner using the tax laws to exclude Non-Highly Compensated Employees (Non-HCEs) from his or her retirement plan if asset protection is a key objective. Why? Because a retirement plan covering only the business owner and/or the owner's spouse is not an ERISA plan, and does not qualify for anti-alienation protections under Title I of ERISA.
2.  Don't Forget the EGTRRA Tax Credit When Setting Up a Retirement Plan
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Dec. 28, 2014
"The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) added a tax credit of up to 50% of the first $1,000 in retirement plan start up expenses for the first three years of a plan. An employer is an eligible employer if, during the preceding year, there were 100 or fewer employees who received at least $5,000 of compensation.... The employer must not have established or maintained any employer plan during the three tax-year period immediately preceding the first tax year in which the new plan is effective.... Eligible expenses include those incurred to establish the plan, administrative fees and costs incurred to educate employees about the plan."
3.  COVID-19 Extensions for Retirement Plan Filings and Payments: No 5500 Extension Yet
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Apr. 6, 2020
"An extension for the return of excess employee 401(k) contributions was not part of the compliance relief. The return of those excess contributions adjusted for earning are still due no later than April 15, 2020 in order to exclude the distributions from income.... The [DOL] now has expanded authority to postpone certain ERISA filing deadlines including Form 5500. To date, the DOL has not done so."
4.  Can You Put Your Retirement Plan on Autopilot?
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
July 21, 2017
"Having quality service providers is a good idea but they cannot relieve you, your company or your other in-house fiduciaries from all responsibility for investment and administrative decisions. Second, some financial advisory firms charge extra to act as 'investment managers.' You may find that the 'extra protection' afforded by this arrangement is not really worth the additional expense. Finally, consider other alternatives to mitigate fiduciary liability. This may include steps like adopting a suitable investment policy statement or obtaining fiduciary insurance."
5.  DOL Targets Retirement Plans with Missing Participants
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Nov. 8, 2017
"By examining Form 5500 annual reports, the DOL discovered that some plans were reporting a larger number of terminated vested participants who were not receiving benefits. Worse yet, the DOL was able to contact a significant number of these 'missing' participants by simply sending a certified letter to their last known address. As a result, the DOL has reportedly initiated a national audit campaign targeting plans with missing participants with a view towards treating lackadaisical efforts to locate them as a breach of fiduciary duty. And, the IRS can weigh in with additional penalties for failure to make RMDs to those ex-employees who have attained age 70-1/2."
6.  Are Corporate Retirement Plans a Bad Deal?
Russell Bailyn's Financial Planning Blog Link to more items from this source
Mar. 27, 2007
Excerpt: This is my first post in a new series which will analyze the retirement planning industry. I will cover 401(k), 403(b), and other (less popular) vehicles in my discussions. My hope is to unravel to some extent the cost structure of these plans and help corporate executives, business developers, and plan participants to gain a stronger understanding of how their retirement funds are being handled.
7.  The Unintentional Procrastinator: The Plan Sponsor Whose Retirement Plan Services Are Unbundled
The Principal Blog Link to more items from this source
Aug. 20, 2013
"Detailed employment data is crucial to correctly determining participant retirement benefits. In fact, an employee's entire employment history may be needed to determine their benefits. Without a professional service provider helping plan sponsors manage their participant data, it may not be current or easily accessible.... [P]lan sponsors in an unbundled environment commonly wait until the time of a participant's retirement to collect this information."
8.  Dividing Retirement Benefits on Divorce, and What ERISA Has to Say About It
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Sept. 11, 2007
Excerpt: [F]rom everyone's standpoint, it's best for the Plan Administrator to review a draft of the domestic relations before it gets filed with the court. Better to resolve issues before the order is filed than the Plan Adminstrator having to determine that the domestic relations order really isn't a QDRO.
9.  How Safe Is Your Retirement Nest Egg from Creditors?
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Sept. 15, 2014
"IRA funds dwarf the amount of retirement assets held in employer sponsored retirement plans. Those IRAs will offer tempting targets to creditors when they pass on death to beneficiaries other than a surviving spouse. Consider leaving retirement assets in your employer sponsored plans, where protection from creditors is assured, as long as possible. Alternatively, for assets currently held in an IRA, consider retaining the spouse as the primary beneficiary (that appears to be safe for now) and naming only a spendthrift trust as the alternative beneficiary[.]"
10.  The Retirement Equity Act and Beyond
Phyllis Borzi via Work in Progress, The Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Labor [DOL] Link to more items from this source
Sept. 3, 2013
"Women have made enormous strides over the past three decades, in the workplace and beyond -- and it's important to reflect on the men and women who fought for the changes that have led to greater gender equality. One of those changes was introduced 29 years ago: The Retirement Equity Act became law, ushering in important protections for America's workers and their families.... The act lowered the minimum age requirement for pension plan participation, it prevented plans from penalizing parents who took time off to raise families, it allowed pension plans to make court-ordered payments to former spouses and it mandated spousal consent for workers to waive survivor benefits. In short, it began to recognize the working patterns of women, who remain more likely to interrupt their careers to take care of a family member, and provided greater retirement protection for women throughout the country."
11.  Inside the Cash Balance Plan Black Box
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Aug. 16, 2016
"Here a few considerations in deciding whether to adopt a Cash Balance plan. First and foremost, an employer should consider a Cash Balance plan if it is profitable and has predictable revenue. It is a retirement plan with recurring contributions. Second, the owners or partners are generally 40 year old and earn at least $100,000 per year. Third, they want to accelerate their retirement savings by contributing more than the annual maximum of $53,000 ($59,000 if age 50 or older) to a 401(k) and profit sharing plan."
12.  The Restatement Requirement for Defined Benefit Plans: FAQs for Employers Adopting a Pre-Approved Plan
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Oct. 1, 2019
"If you're an employer who has adopted a pre-approved defined benefit pension plan, it's time to amend and restate your plan. All defined benefit plans using pre-approved plan documents must restate their plan before April 30, 2020. It's important that you understand why your plan document must be restated. [This article provides] a non-technical explanation in Question and Answer format."
13.  Pension Plan Procrastination Perils Proper Personal Planning
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
June 21, 2017
"The conventional wisdom is that you can wait until the end of the year to put a retirement plan in place since you can still get the tax benefits for the whole year.... Let's say you're a shareholder-employee of an S-corporation; and you're one of those shareholder-employees who minimizes W-2 compensation for payroll tax reasons. The remaining available dollars ... are not subject to FICA tax and are not considered self-employment income subject to self-employment tax. Thus, minimizing W-2 income also minimizes the basis upon which retirement benefits can be provided."
14.  Fourth Circuit Says County's Retirement Plan Violated ADEA by Requiring Age-Based Employee Contributions
ERISA Lawyer Blog Link to more items from this source
Apr. 24, 2014
"The Plan mandated different contribution rates that escalated explicitly in accordance with employees' ages at the time of their enrollment in the Plan. The Court found no merit in the County's argument that the employee contribution rates lawfully were based on a reasonable factor other than age, such as the 'time value of money.' The Court said that its conclusion is not altered by the County's reliance on the ADEA's 'safe harbor provision' ... The safe harbor provision permits an employer to subsidize early retirement benefits without violating the ADEA. However, the provision does not address employee contribution rates nor does it permit employers to impose contribution rates that increase with the employee's age at the time of plan enrollment."
15.  Successful 401(k) Plan Design: Putting the Em-PHA-sis on the Wrong Syl-LA-ble
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Apr. 8, 2013
"[M]any plan sponsors are not emphasizing what really drives retirement plan success for participants. While much of the attention has understandably been on fees, the most important drivers are deferral rates and plan design."
16.  How Do You Know Where Your 401(k) Plan Is Going, If You Don't Know Where You Are?
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Jan. 14, 2013
"The primary gauge of retirement readiness should no longer the amount accumulated at retirement. Rather, it is the extent to which there is an adequate income replacement. The metrics you need to measure, historically track, focus upon, and improve the key retirement readiness metrics include: Plan participation rates; Employee contribution rates; Monthly income projected at retirement; [and] Income replacement ratio."
17.  When Your SIMPLE IRA No Longer Fits, Maybe It's Time for a 401(k) Plan
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Oct. 23, 2023
"If you have a SIMPLE IRA, ... [but] want to change to a 401(k) plan in 2024, you need to take action by November 2. That's the date that employers must provide notice to their employees that 2023 will be the last year for the SIMPLE IRA, and that it will be replaced by a 401(k) plan in 2024."
18.  Missed the 401(k) Restatement Deadline? Here's Your Plan B for Compliance
The Retirement Plan Blog Link to more items from this source
Mar. 29, 2023
"The good news is that the IRS does not consider that the failure to timely restate the plan will itself disqualify it from favorable tax treatment. The not-so-good news is that the failure transforms that pre-approved plan into an individually designed plan upon which the employer can no longer rely as a qualified plan."
19.  DOL Describes Retirement Plan Expansion Proposals, Including Open MEPs
U.S. Department of Labor [DOL] Blog Link to more items from this source
Jan. 26, 2016
"[The administration is] proposing legislation to allow multiple unrelated employers to come together and form pooled 401(k)s, resulting in lower costs and less burden for each employer. Through these 'open multiple employer plans' (open MEPs), more small businesses should be able to offer cost-effective plans to their employees, while certain nonprofits and other intermediaries could create pooled plans for contractors and other self-employed workers. As an added benefit, employees moving between employers participating in the same open MEP can continue contributing to the same plan -- and receiving employer contributions -- even if they switch jobs. And independent contractors participating in a pooled plan using that structure can contribute no matter which client is paying them."
20.  Six Insights into Higher Education Retirement Plan Opportunities
The Principal Blog Link to more items from this source
Apr. 4, 2013
"With a couple years of final 403(b) regulations behind us, plan sponsors are realizing many of their administrative headaches and compliance concerns come from dealing with multiple providers.... Many studies have shown that too many options actually hinder effective retirement savings and investment. Financial professionals can help pare down the choices to a responsible number and mix."
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