ASPPA Urges Practitioners to Contact U.S. Senators Urging Passage of PPA Corrections, Pension Funding and Minimum Distribution Relief

(December 10) - Pension practitioners are urged to contact their U.S. senators to push for approval of a pension funding relief bill that might be considered by the Senate on Thursday, December 11.

Brian Graff, the executive director of ASPPA, the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries, sent an email to ASPPA members about the matter. A clickable link enables practitioners to file comments via the web. The link can be used by practioners who are not ASPPA members.

One of the trade association's stated purposes is the "preservation and enhancement of the private pension system." It maintains a Government Affairs department that monitors proposed laws and regulations affecting private retirement plans; members receive several publications about ASPPA's positions, including fax alerts and emails. Membership is open to all types of pension professionals, including administrators.

The full text of Graff's December 10 message to ASPPA members is reprinted with permission below, including links to the web page that practitioners can use to send comments to their U.S. senators.

Urge the Senate to Pass Targeted Pension Reform

Contact your Senators Today!

December 10, 2008

ASPPA Members:

The 110th Congress is poised to act on a badly-needed, much-delayed targeted pension package. We need you to contact your own Senators, right now, to ask him or her to support the package.

The package contains several crucial provisions, including:

• The PPA corrections package (including authority for Treasury to issue rules for plans with end-of-year valuation dates, asset smoothing and a fixed 5.5 percent rate for calculating section 415 limited lump sums);
• Modest and urgently-needed funding relief to help plan sponsors to deal with the steep slide in asset values plans are experiencing this year, and
• Relief from minimum required distribution rules for 2009.

Please respond RIGHT NOW -- time is of the essence. The Senate will either act today or tomorrow, or not at all -- and it will require unanimous consent for the Senate to act!

It is imperative that you contact your Senator today asking for their support of this pension relief package. Your participation in this effort could very well mean the difference between success and failure. Thank you.

Click Here to contact your Senators today!

Brian H. Graff
Executive Director/CEO