WEB - Worldwide Employee Benefits Network

Benefits Coordinator
Arnold & Porter LLP
in DC

DC Plan Consultant
Independent Actuaries, Inc.
in OR

Documents Coordinator
Verisight, Inc.
in MN

Director of Operations
UNITE HERE HEALTH
in IL

Director, Trust Accounting
ATPA
in CA

Retirement Plan Administrator
Bates & Company, Inc.
in FL

Retirement Account Administrator
GuideStone Financial Resources
in TX

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Transitional Reinsurance Program: Supporting Documentation Job Aid Review and Updating Reinsurance Contribution Filings
September 19, 2014 WEBCAST
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor)

HATFA Guidance – What You Need to Know Now
September 23, 2014 WEBCAST
(ASPPA College of Pension Actuaries [ACOPA])

2014 Webinar: IRA Basics
October 2, 2014 WEBCAST
(Ascensus)

Intermittent Leave Under FMLA
October 23, 2014 WEBCAST
(Clear Law Institute)

It’s a New World for ESOPs: The Great Banc Settlement and Recent Court Decisions
October 28, 2014 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

Advanced Business Analytics
November 4, 2014 in IL
(Society of Actuaries)

Legislative Update: Year-End Review of Legal Changes Affecting Benefit Plans
November 20, 2014 in GA
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Atlanta Chapter)

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NIPA [National Institute of Pension Administrators]

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Issues HATFA Guidance for Pension Funding and Benefit Restrictions (PDF)
"Because the pension provisions in the law have retroactive effect, the guidance provides procedures for how elections that were specifically included in the legislation may be made and how elections made under prior law may be reversed. For many plans, action will be needed by the end of 2014 to take advantage of the special options under the notice." (Buck Consultants at Xerox)  

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[Guidance Overview]

IRS Releases Guidance on Employee 'Parking'
"Qualified parking is parking provided by an employer on or near the business premises of the employer. Parking is treated as provided by an employer if it is provided on property the employer owns or leases, the employer pays for parking at another location, or the employer reimburses the employee for parking. The exclusion [from employee taxable income] for qualified parking is not unlimited." [IRS Information Letter 2014-0017 (June 27, 2014).] (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)  

[Guidance Overview]

Text of JCT Summary of Present Law and Background Relating to Tax-Favored Retirement Savings (PDF)
87 pages. "The [Senate] Committee on Finance has scheduled a public hearing on September 16, 2014, entitled 'Retirement Savings 2.0: Updating Savings Policy for the Modern Economy.' This document, prepared by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, provides a summary of the present law tax rules applicable to tax-favored retirement savings arrangements, a discussion of economic issues, and data on tax-favored retirement savings." (Joint Committee on Taxation [JCT])  

[Guidance Overview]

Text of JCT Summary of Present Law and Background Relating to Qualified Defined Benefit Plans (PDF)
83 pages. "The Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives has scheduled a public hearing on September 17, 2014, on defined benefit plans offered by private-sector employers, including both multiemployer plans and single-employer plans. This document, prepared by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, provides a description of present law and data relating to retirement plans generally and to defined benefit plans in particular." (Joint Committee on Taxation [JCT])  

IRS Rules Verbal Request a Timely IRA or ESA Contribution
"The IRS has issued a private letter ruling (PLR) to a nonbank trustee that would permit the trustee' s clients to satisfy IRA and Coverdell education savings account (ESA) contribution deadline requirements by making timely written or oral requests to transfer funds from general accounts to IRAs or ESAs. PLR 201437023 was issued to a nonbank trustee whose clients commonly have IRAs or ESAs as well as general investment accounts with the organization. IRA and ESA contributions are often executed by the trustee transferring the appropriate amount from a client' s general account to his IRA or ESA." (Ascensus)  

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Reducing Pension Risk: Myths Holding Back Plan Sponsors (PDF)
"Partial LDI strategies have significantly reduced DB risk ... Companies are better off delaying the implementation of DB risk management solutions to benefit from further improvements in the financial markets ... Risk transfer solutions can only be executed once a company reaches or exceeds full funding ... Transferring DB risk to an insurer is too expensive and will become more expensive with new mortality tables ... Reducing DB risk, though prudent, reduces shareholder value." (Prudential)  

Unions Confronting Employer Spinoff and Joint Venture Transactions Need to Understand Pension Funding Ramifications (PDF)
"[A] spinoff is sometimes followed by a joint venture transaction which adds an additional layer of separation and more discomfort concerning pension funding. To address this vulnerability, the union should exercise its rights either under a successorship clause or effects bargaining to secure a Memorandum of Agreement addressing, among other things, pension funding." (Blitman & King LLP, via Bloomberg BNA Pension & Benefits Daily)  

DHL Pension Transfer Option Elimination Doesn't Violate ERISA Anti-Cutback Rules
"Shipping company DHL didn't illegally take away its employees' pension benefits when it eliminated their ability to transfer an account balance from the company's defined contribution plan to its defined benefit plan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled....Although the court affirmed a ruling in favor of DHL, it expressed its concern for the reduction in actual benefit payments that plan participants experienced as a result of the amendment. However, the court said, this reduction was less a function of the removal of an accrued benefit and more the work of the different actuarial assumptions used by the two plans." [Anderson v. DHL Retirement Pension Plan, No. 1236051 (9th Cir. Sept. 15, 2014)] (Bloomberg BNA)  

Shining a Light on ERISA Budget Accounts
"This commentary discusses the historical practice of paying plan expenses from revenue sharing and the fiduciary and administrative considerations of using an ERISA budget account for managing recordkeeping revenue." (Vanguard)  

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Oregon Retirement Security Task Force Recommends State-Sponsored DC Plan for Private-Sector Employees
"The Task Force recommends developing and making available a retirement savings plan to all Oregonians lacking access to a plan at their workplace. The recommendations envision a plan with a minimum employer role, automatic enrollment for the employee (with an option to opt-out), payroll deduction, and annual automatic escalation (with opt-out) of monthly contribution, among other factors.... The plan will be part of an overall retirement security program directed by a state board aimed at increasing enrollment in retirement security accounts. " [Full 3-page text of the recommendations is available online. (Oregon State Treasury)  

401(k)/IRA Holdings in 2013: An Update from the Federal Reserve
"The Federal Reserve's 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances provides an opportunity to examine trends in retirement savings over the past few years. The good news is increased use of target date funds; the bad news is no improvement in participation rates, significant leakages, and high fees. Surprisingly, for working households nearing retirement, median combined 401(k)/IRA balances actually fell from $120,000 in 2010 to $111,000 in 2013. Younger households did see rising balances but retirement savings levels are clearly inadequate, and about half of all households have no 401(k) assets at all." (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)  

Text of GAO Report: Preliminary Information on IRA Balances Accumulated as of 2011
"For tax year 2011 (the most recent year available), an estimated 43 million taxpayers had individual retirement accounts (IRA) with total reported fair market value of $5.2 trillion. About 99 percent of those taxpayers had aggregate IRA balances (including inherited IRAs) of $1 million or less.... [F]ew taxpayers had aggregated balances exceeding $5 million as of 2011." (U.S. Government Accountability Office [GAO])  

SSA Resumes Mailing Social Security Statements, Encourages People to Create a Secure My Social Security Account to View Their Statements Online
"'We have listened to our customers, advocates, and Congress; and renewing the mailing of the Statement reinforces our commitment to provide the public with an easy, efficient way to obtain an estimate of their future Social Security benefits,' Acting Commissioner Colvin said. 'I encourage everyone to create their own secure my Social Security account to obtain immediate access to their Statement online, anytime.'" (U.S. Social Security Administration [SSA])  

Sixth Circuit Grants Enhanced Benefits After Corporate Takeover, Even Though Employment Continued with Successor Employer
"A recent court decision reminds plan sponsors that mergers and acquisitions can trigger unexpected or complex changes to participant benefits that rely on careful plan language interpretation. In the case, some former employees of an Anheuser-Busch subsidiary were granted enhanced pension benefits as a result of the controlling company's purchase by InBev because their employment with a controlled group was involuntarily terminated in the takeover -- even though they secured jobs with the successor corporation." [Adams v. Anheuser Busch, No. 13-3149 (6th Cir. July 11, 2014)] (Thompson SmartHR Manager)  

CalPERS Eliminates Hedge Fund Program in Effort to Reduce Complexity and Costs in Investment Portfolio
"The staff recommendation, supported by the Investment Committee, will exit 24 hedge funds and six hedge fund-of-funds valued at approximately $4 billion.... CalPERS will spend approximately the next year strategically exiting current investments in a manner that best serves the interests of the portfolio." (CalPERS)  

CalPERS to Exit Hedge Funds, Divest $4 Billion Stake
"The decision to eliminate 24 hedge funds and six hedge fund-of-funds, isn't related to the performance of the program, said Ted Eliopoulos, the interim chief investment officer.... 'We concluded that we would eliminate the hedge fund program in order to reduce the complexity, reduce the costs in the program, particularly in relation to our view that given the scale of CalPERS, we would not be able to scale a hedge fund program to a size that would really move the needle,' Eliopoulos said[.]" (Bloomberg)  

ESOP Companies Report Economic Growth in 2013
"The survey asked companies to indicate their performance in 2013 relative to 2012: 65% indicated a better performance ... 70% indicated revenue increased ... 64% of companies have created an ESOP education program or ESOP advisory committee since establishing the ESOP." (The ESOP Association)  

Text of PBGC 'Open Government Plan 3.0' (PDF)
14 pages. "PBGC's Open Government Plan serves as a public roadmap detailing [the agency's] progress in integrating this administration' s open government principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration into PBGC' s core mission of protecting retirement security ... The [Pension Insurance Data Book was previously] available on PBGC's Open Government website ... but only as a PDF. The goal of the flagship initiative was to bring that very valuable data sets online, and provide it in a machine-readable format. [PBGC[ achieved that goal in 2010 and the data has been available and updated annually ever since. It has been downloaded over 700 times.... PBGC will continue to identify, vet, and add additional data to data listing." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])  

[Opinion]

Text of ICI Statement for Hearing on 'Retirement Savings 2.0: Updating Savings Policy for the Modern Economy' (PDF)
"For most households, .... employer-sponsored retirement plans are crucial: about 8 in 10 near-retiree households have retirement assets (DC plans or IRAs), DB benefits, or both. Thanks to this multi-faceted system, successive generations of American retirees have been better off than previous generations. Even with its many successes, the U.S. retirement system can be strengthened further to help even more Americans achieve a secure retirement." (Investment Company Institute [ICI])  

[Opinion]

Here's What the Senate Finance Committee Should Address to Help Small Business Retirement Plans
"Congress should consider greater tax incentives for employers to offer a match to employees.... Congress also should address incenting workers to save at a higher rate.... Congress should consider making withdrawals from retirement plans more difficult.... Congress should consider legislation directing the DOL to establish index investment standards related to underlying index, acceptable tracking error and transparent pricing.... And we need target date fund standards." (Employee Fiduciary)  

[Opinion]

Text of Comments by American Benefits Council to IRS on Suspension or Reduction of Safe Harbor Nonelective Contributions (PDF)
"The suggestions include [1] permitting changes that do not affect safe harbor features or any information contained in the notice, [2] allowing certain corrective and other amendments designed to maintain plan qualification, and [3] allowing certain amendments but only in connection with mergers and acquisition." (American Benefits Council)  

Signature Authority Triggered ERISA Fiduciary Responsibility
"[T]he court held that Taneja' s signature authority made him a plan fiduciary because, among other things, ERISA provides that a person can become a plan fiduciary by exercising any authority or control over the management or disposition of plan assets, even without discretion. The court declined to decide whether discretion was an ERISA fiduciary requirement at this stage, but noted that at least one Circuit (the 11th) has suggested that discretion is a necessary prerequisite for ERISA fiduciary status." [Perez v. Geopharma, No. 8:14-cv-66-T-33T (M.D. Fla. July 25, 2014)] (Thompson SmartHR Manager)  

Why Any Plan Sponsor Fiduciary Needs to Give HSAs Another Look
"Banks, insurance companies, and investment firms with active IRA programs may be interested in making their programs friendly for employers that want to make the HSAs widely available to employees with education as to the advantages of keeping the HSA accounts invested.... It will be critical for anyone marketing or offering these programs to be very sensitive to the conditions for exemption from ERISA. Some employers may be willing to offer HSAs as a fully ERISA-covered benefit, but most will want to stay ERISA-exempt, and for the latter category it will be necessary to keep the program simple and be very careful with the handling of investment options." (Fiduciary News)  

Executive Compensation Practices in ESOP Companies
"[T]he median total pay for CEOs among responding companies was $307,875, with a breakdown of $240,000 among companies with 100 or fewer employees and $378,863 at larger companies (more than 100 employees).... Stock-based compensation is much more prevalent among larger responding companies[.]" (National Center for Employee Ownership [NCEO])  

CFO Pay Rises 7% in 2013, New Mercer Study Finds
Mercer

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