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October 2, 2003 - 13,400 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Actuarial Systems Corporation
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
ASC - QUALITY SOFTWARE FOR THE PENSION INDUSTRY FOR OVER 20 YEARS ASC provides complete automation for the pension office, including: DC/401(k) and DB administration and valuation systems, sophisticated Compliance Testing, DV Direct Daily Valuation, Advanced Information Manager Database (AIM), and Single-Step Processing. All ASC Technical Support Members were experienced Pension Administrators or Actuaries before joining ASC -- and most have been with ASC for over 10 years.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Judge: Enron Pension Suit Can Go Forward
Excerpt: "Current and former Enron Corp. employees will be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit that contends the bankrupt energy trader didn't meet its duties in administering the company's pension plan. In a 329-page order released Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon denied motions by Enron and its former chief executive, Kenneth Lay, requesting the claims against them be dismissed." (AP via New York Times; one-time registration required)
Deepest Pockets Out of Enron Pension Case, Including Houston Law Firm
Excerpt: "U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon late Tuesday dismissed from the employee lawsuit most of the banks, the prominent Houston law firm Vinson & Elkins, the outside directors of Enron's board, former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, ex-official Michael Kopper and others, according to attorneys working on the case who reviewed the judge's order." (The Houston Chronicle)
Fixing Sick Pension Plans: Funding Waivers, Freezing of Accruals, Distress Terminations
Excerpt: "While Congress considers legislative solutions and actuaries continue to tinker with actuarial assumptions to reduce near-term funding requirements, plan sponsors can take a number of steps that will provide immediate relief from pension plan funding requirements." (Buchanan Ingersoll PC)
Watson Wyatt: Pension Underfunding Remains Widespread But Represents Just 4% of Corporate Assets
Press release. Excerpt: "Underfunding in corporate pension plans is widespread but perhaps not as troublesome as recent reports suggest, according to an analysis by Watson Wyatt Worldwide." (Watson Wyatt)
California Fiscal Crisis Partly Due to Public Employee Pension Enhancements During Boom Times
Excerpt: "For nearly three years, the nation's most populous state has spent roughly $1 billion a month more than it has taken in.... California improved state employee pensions in 2000, expecting pension fund investments in the stock market to pay for new benefits. Instead, stock prices fell." (USA Today)
Do We Have a Retirement Crisis in America?
(Click on 'PDF Version' button in target page.) Excerpt: "This article summarizes findings on the state of the retirement income security of Americans. Trends in pension coverage and participation are documented, as well as the saving rate and net worth of American households. In addition, the composition of federal government expenditures is discussed, and future trends in social insurance programs are detailed." (TIAA-CREF Institute)
Boomers, Gen-Xers Head for High Noon Showdown at Actuarial Gulch
Excerpt: "In the interest of establishing bridges of communication with these younger readers, allow me to offer this message: What the hell you doing wasting time reading this? Get back to work, you slackers. Get out there and earn some money, dammit! Because, if you're not earning money, then you're not paying taxes, and if you're not paying taxes then there won't be any money to pay my Social Security ..." (Bill Virgin in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Pension Gamble
Excerpt: "America's pension system is in trouble. A prime example: A pension move made recently by General Motors. We're going to use the classic business board game, Monopoly, to help explain it." (PBS Online NewsHour)
Retirement and the Evolution of Pension Structure
Excerpt: "Defined benefit pension plans have become considerably less common since the early 1980s, while defined contribution plans have spread. Previous research showed that defined benefit plans, with sharp incentives encouraging retirement after a certain point, contributed to the striking postwar decline in American retirement ages. In this paper we find that the absence of age-related incentives in defined contribution plans leads workers to retire almost two years later on average ..." (Leora Friedberg and Anthony Webb, available through National Bureau of Economic Research)
Opinion: VCs Can Run But They Can't Hide Results
Excerpt: "The University of California's quest for secrecy has reached a dead end, and rightly so. A Superior Court judge had already ruled that as a public institution, UC has the obligation to reveal details of its investments in venture capital firms.... VCs can't have it both ways. They can't both take public money and continue to demand secrecy." (The [San Jose] Mercury News)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Can a Work Organization Have an Attitude Problem?
Working paper. Excerpt: "In this study we examine whether a workplace can induce good or bad attitudes among its employees ... The results document the existence and persistence of a genuine workplace effect in how workers view their jobs and organizations.... The study's results show that there are happy and unhappy workplaces, as well as happy and unhappy workers, with very different patterns of turnover and productivity in these workplaces." (Ann Bartel, Richard Freeman, Casey Ichniowski and Morris M. Kleiner; available from National Bureau of Economic Research)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Employee Benefits Sales Representative
for Great-West Healthcare
in MI, NY, OH, WA
Senior Employee Benefits Attorney
for Briggs and Morgan, P.A.
in MN
Retirement Plan Administrator/Consultant
for Summit Financial Corporation
in MA
401(k) DC Plan Administrator
for Printz & Associates
in CA
Conversion & Distribution Specialist
for Decimal, Inc. - The Online 401(k)
in CA
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
Compliance Update
in AZ
October 9, 2003
Garner Consulting
21st Annual Fall Conference
in CA
October 22, 2003
Western Pension & Benefits Conference, San Francisco Chapter
Recent Developments Affecting Executive Benefits
in MD
October 15, 2003
Baltimore Chapter of ISCEBS
Complying with the Wage-Hour Requirements of the Service Contract Act
in ALL STATES
October 23, 2003
Thompson Publishing Group, Inc.
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
Washington State Trends: Medical +15.2%; Prescription Drug +21.3%
(Michael Greve & Associates)
ICC Plan Solutions Retains Services of National Advisory Firm
(ICC Plan Solutions)
Benefit Software Inc. Helps First Federal Communicate the High Cost of Health Insurance and Other Employee Benefits
(Benefit Software Inc.)
Handy Links:
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- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
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