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May 28, 2003 - 13,225 subscribers
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FASB Names Key Pension Details Companies Should Disclose
Excerpt: "Companies would have to tell more about their pension assets, benefit payments and the amount they plan to contribute to retirement trusts under a series of decisions made Tuesday by the board of the Financial Accounting Standards Board." (Dow Jones Business News via Yahoo! News)
2003 Retirement Confidence Survey: Summary, Fact Sheets Now Online
Excerpt: "Despite continuing financial uncertainty and worsening consumer confidence overall, the 13th annual wave of the Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) finds that retirement confidence has decreased only slightly. The 2003 RCS points to several reasons for this lack of change, while revealing an underlying and growing unease among some Americans about specific aspects of their retirement." (Employee Benefit Research Institute)
Cash Balance Plan Design Makes a Comeback
Excerpt: "Despite bad press, cash balance plans are experiencing a renaissance. Many companies are thinking about converting. FedEx and Delta are already there." (Workforce.com)
Watson Wyatt's Letter to FASB on Proposed Cash Balance Plan Accounting Rules
Excerpt: "Standard methodology for determining the appropriate discount rate for all types of defined benefit plans is a two-step process.... Establishing a different methodology for cash balance plans that use a market-based interest rate would undermine the comparability of financial statements, thereby violating one of the primary principles of financial accounting as the examples below illustrate." (Watson Wyatt)
Retirements Prompt Fears of Loss in Expertise in Connecticut State Government
Excerpt: "Early retirements that are intended to save [Connecticut] state government as much as $330 million over three years will come at a cost. Among the more than 4,000 state workers who are expected to take advantage of the offer to quit ... have decades of experience as budget analysts, computer programmers, university professors and other jobs. They will not be easily replaced." (Newsday.com)
Participant Who Waited Nine Years To Apply For Pension Benefits Not Entitled To Interest
A pension plan participant who waited nine years to apply for his retirement benefits was not entitled to interest and lost profits on those benefits for the nine-year period. This was the decision of the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Twomey v. Delta Airlines Pilots Pension Plan, et al. (Nos. 02-1968 and 02-2271). (Spencer Benefits Reports)
Plan to Remove Millions from State Pension Fund Raises Questions in Indiana
Excerpt: "Lawmakers will remove $380 million set aside for future pension payments to help pay the state's share of teachers' retirement benefits during the next two years." (The Indianapolis Star via NewsAlert.com)
Milwaukee County Pension Board's Perks Prompt Ethics Concerns
Excerpt: "For a government position that pays a pittance, a spot on the Milwaukee County Pension Board offers its share of other rewards. Limousine rides to Chicago. Pricey dinners with spouses. $250 floor seats for NBA playoffs. Free lodging at meetings in Bermuda, California and Florida. All-Star baseball tickets. Spa visits. Those are just some of the 160 gifts members of the Pension Board and its legal counsel reported taking over a recent five-year period." (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via NewsAlert.com)
Overview: FAB Tells How to Allocate Expenses in a Defined Contribution Plan
Excerpt: "In a field assistance bulletin, DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) stated that plan sponsors and fiduciaries have considerable discretion in determining the method of expense allocation among participants in a defined contribution plan, and that fiduciaries must follow a method of allocation set forth in a plan document." (RIA Tax News)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Employee Stock Purchase Plans Could Be Hurt by New Option Accounting Rules
Excerpt: "Just as dolphins get caught in a tuna net, popular stock-purchase programs offered to employees at most of the nation's largest companies could become the unintended victims entangled in looming accounting-rule changes for stock options." (Knight Ridder Newspapers via The [Columbia, S.C] State)
Text of 2003 Annual Report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) (PDF)
12 pages. Excerpt: "Established in 1978, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI®) is the only nonprofit, nonpartisan organization in the United States totally committed to original public policy research and education on economic security and employee benefits. EBRI's overall mission is to contribute to, to encourage, and to enhance the development of sound employee benefit programs and sound public policy through objective research and education." (Employee Benefit Research Institute)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Pension Administrators
for Associated Pension Consultants
in CA
Employee Benefits Administrator
for Branch Banking & Trust Co.
in NC
Health Management Consultant
for Hewitt Associates LLC
in NC
Benefit Analyst III
for GreenPoint Financial
in NY
(401k) Enroller/Contractor
for Transamerica-The Winning Organization
in ALL STATES
Newly Posted Webcasts
(Post Yours!)
HIPAA Best Tips from Employee Benefits Security Administration
on May 29, 2003
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
Recent Treasury Action on HRAs and Cash Balance Plans: How Does It Affect Your Small Business Clients?
in ALL STATES
June 17, 2003
ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits
ERISA Basics
in IL
June 4, 2003
ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits
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- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
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