Dave Baker

Eeek. I don't think anything has changed at the BenefitsLink end.

From today's BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter: ---------------------------------------------------------- [Official Guidance] Text of LaRue Unanimous Supreme Court Opinion Upholding Damages Claim Against ERISA Fiduciaries for Participant's Investment Losses (PDF) http://benefitslink.com/cases/larue-06-856.pdf 18 pages; decided February 20, 2008. Excerpt (from the opinion's syllabus): "Held: Although §502(a)(2) does not provide a remedy for individual injuries distinct from plan injuries, it does authorize recovery for fiduciary breaches that impair the value of plan assets in a participant's individual account. . . . For defined contribution plans . . . fiduciary misconduct need not threaten the entire plan's solvency to reduce benefits below the amount that participants would otherwise receive. Whether a fiduciary breach diminishes plan assets payable to all participants or only to particular individuals, it creates the kind of harms that concerned §409's draftsmen. Thus, [the references in Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Russell to] 'entire plan' . . . which accurately reflect §409's operation in the defined benefit context, are beside the point in the defined contribution context." (United States Supreme Court)

Sure can! Thanks for asking. Log in Click on 'My Controls' In left-hand nav bar, under 'Options', click on Email Settings Scroll down and check the checkbox that's labeled 'Enable Email notification by default?' Use the drop-down box next to the checkbox; set it to 'Immediate email notification' Click the button that's just below that drop-down box, which is labeled 'Amend my email settings' Voila! I regret that the power (options, gee-gaws of various kinds) of this message board software arguably outweighs the cost in its complexity (which is compounded by a truly lousy help system and awful, uninformative and insulting error messages). The next 'major' upgrade will fix the error messages, I have been told. Thanks for participating! Dave

Lawyer Brooks Hamilton has authored a work entitled Proposition: The Inalienable Rights of We The People to Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness, Due Process of Law ... Trump Any Authority (Constitutional or Otherwise) Asserted by Congress to Mandate Uniform National Laws Preempting Such Inalienable Rights 11 pages. Mr. Hamilton is a longtime observer of retirement plans, especially 401(k) plans. Transcript of Frontline Interview with Brooks Hamilton Opinion: 401k Plans -- Is the Story Under-told or Over-sold? Opinion: Retirement Planning and 401(k) Decisions Others (click) Comments here are welcome!

The software is trying to give you a shortcut way to create a link to a particular post in a particular message topic, when you're composing the text of a reply message; the text of the post won't be dropped into the reply message, but you don't need to know any HTML or other stuff in order to create a hypertext link to the post. For example, now (as I type this reply message) I'll click on the "Insert: Post Link" in the Quick Access menu at left; Here's a link to a post by pmacduff in another message topic I did that by putting 157988 into one box and "Here's a link to a post by pmacduff in another message topic" in another box. It's not easy to know the post number (each post has a different number); it appears that one way is to click "Post #4" up towards the top right of any particular post (in this example it's the 4th post in a message topic), which generates a long URL that is actually the guts of the thing that the "Insert: Post Link" is trying to avoid. In my example, it's http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?s...st&p=157988 So you could get the post number from that URL: it's the number following p= This "Insert: Post Link" shortcut is more trouble than it's worth, I think. Maybe there's an easier way to determine a post number, though. To make this all the more complicated, a "post link" is a link to a particular post, and a "topic link" (also in that drop-down menu) is a link to a "topic," which is the name for the post that starts a particular message topic (to which reply posts are made). I don't know how to determine the topic number for any particular message topic, other than looking at its URL in the address bar of your browser while you're viewing that message topic. The company that makes the software used for these message boards seems to be imitating Microsoft in trying to add more and more features, but it with increased "power" comes increasing complexity.

The reason for the deletion of the cache -- only the checkbox marked "cache" in your Tools->Clear Private Data dialogue box (on Firefox), not the cookies, saved passwords or any other kind of private data -- is that the corrupted javascript files that were causing trouble have very possibly been cached on your machine and need to replaced with the corrected ones (which would happen the next time you use the message boards, if the cache has been emptied). That was an optimization technique to reduce load on the database server; I should have checked with the community before deleting it. I've restored it. Thanks very much for asking. Dave

Got ta bea t the sp am ro bots fr om scrap ing em ail addre ss in mess age Wond er wha t ever happ ened to ole Wal t

My fault! I have fixed that problem; could you please try again and let me know if you have any trouble (dave bak er @ ben efit slink . co m)? Thank you very much.

Mike, would you try hitting the "refresh" or "reload" button for your browser, and then see if the links start to work? If that doesn't work, could you empty your browser's "cached" files, and then see if the links start to work?

Surely! I now more than I ever thought I needed to know about the difference between ASCII and binary mode transfers of javascript files using the SSH2 and SFTP file transfer protocol. The problem also affected the ability to click on the "tabs" that appear after one clicks on his or her name (after "Logged in as:"); that's fixed, too.

This seems to be a bug in the upgraded software... sigh... I will report it to the vendor and see if I can get it cleared up quickly! My browser is reporting 11 javascript errors just in this reply page. :-( Dave Baker

(see attachment)

Tell it, brother. Information overload. How can I make it easier to digest, in the BenefitsLink retirement and health & welfare newsletters? Narrow the focus even further somehow, by topic or audience? One strategy I use is to create folders in my bookmarks, in the Steven Covey way (I think): I, II, III and IV. If I see something in a newsletter that I want to read and it's both urgent and important, I click on the item and then bookmark the resulting web page in the "I" folder. I need to go through it by the end of the day. (I haven't figured out a way to bookmark a "favorites" folder in Firefox, though. I'd like to stick a bookmark on my desk.) If it's important but not urgent (i.e., would increase business or be a valuable contribution to the community, but it doesn't have a short deadline), it goes in the II folder. I try to schedule time to go through the II folder. Stuff in "III" is urgent but not important... e.g., I can get a new piece of interesting software if I use the coupon by Monday (the software would be nice to have, but not really important to have). Maybe I'll get to it if I get through I and II, but I won't feel like I've missed an important opportunity if I don't get to it. And IV is stuff that's neither urgent nor important. Maybe it's something that caught my eye because one of these days I might find it to be important (if my business takes a different direction, etc.). I basically never get to stuff in III or IV, but it makes me feel good to have stuck it somewhere Of course, it's not necessary to click on every item. Skimming is perfectly OK; click on only a couple that look like candidates for the I folder. Don't get stressed out because you can't analyze every item. You can always use the search engine (http://benefitslink.com/search) if you want to circle back about some issue. (Though I need to improve it further, I know.) Another tip is to try to "handle" something only once. Putting stuff in a "look at this eventually" folder means you end up handling it twice.

Here is a link to the press release (PDF document) issued today by the ERISA Industry Committee about its proposal for a 'New Benefit Platform for Life Security,' which would include creation of firms called Benefit Administrators: (click here) Excerpt: "The New Benefit Platform recognizes that a secure retirement must include health care coverage and provides an opportunity for post employment coverage. It proposes a new structure for providing benefits through independent Benefit Administrators who would compete with each other based on quality, use of information technology, plan design and cost. Each Benefit Administrator would be required to offer plans for a core set of “lifetime security” benefits—health, retirement and short-term savings." The full proposal is online also, as a PDF document (62 pages): (click here)

Dear users of the VEBA message board, I am the BenefitsLink.com, Inc. employee who acts as the "administrator" of these message boards. I want to keep the boards running as a valuable, free tool for employee benefits practitioners. I have taken an administrative action that some of you will not like, but which I believe to be in the best interests of every user of the message boards. I decided to remove a topic (a message thread) about a particular, named VEBA service-provider whose business practices were roundly criticized in messages in the thread. The service-provider contacted me by email and by phone this week and we discussed the message thread in some detail. Until then I had not read the message thread. The service-provider says that some of the statements posted in the message thread are false, and that they are damaging his reputation. I do not know whether the statements are true or false. If a statement is proven to be false and it harms the reputation of an individual, the individual has a legal cause of action for defamation against the person making the statement. Per the ground rules that are displayed when a new user registers, a message can be taken down if a person complains that it is "objectionable" to him. (Also, users agree not to post defamatory statements.) As the administrator of the message boards it falls to me to determine in my discretion what's "objectionable" when a party complains. If you or some other user say to me as administrator that a statement about you in a message is defamatory, I believe you've pointed out a message that's objectionable to you, and that the message should be taken down. My reasoning is that you wouldn't want to have to defend yourself by rebutting such statements via a public "point-counterpoint" exchange in a thread on the message boards. Among other reasons, it would be hard and time-consuming to put down into text all of the things you would want to say in response, especially responses to claims made by anonymous posters. Damage to your reputation could be catastrophic and perhaps irreparable, because a Google search on your name by a potential client might easily include a link to the message thread. Naturally, when one believes that people are being harmed by a service-provider, he wants to be helpful by warning others. I can appreciate how very strongly you could feel about another service-provider's business practices, especially if based on your first-hand experience or on other information that you believe to be certainly and provably true. The question, though, is whether these public message boards ought to be available to do that. You would have other opportunities to share your opinion, such as conversations in person, via private email, or via some other medium that is not publicly viewable. You also could write and publish an article on a web site that you own or operate, if you wish to publish your opinion on the Web. I would like to emphasize that BenefitsLink.com, Inc. has not made any investigation into whether various statements that were made in the message thread are true or false. That's not a role the company has taken on. BenefitsLink.com, Inc. is not the "publisher" of messages posted to this public message board, pursuant to interpretations of defamation law made by several courts, and we do not monitor messages to determine whether or not they might be considered defamatory. But we have agreed to take down messages that a party finds to be objectionable if the party complains. I know this action might offend you, especially if you put time and thought into making one or more posts in the message thread. I can see how you would feel offended and disappointed by this action affecting your already-posted messages, and for that I sincerely apologize. I am not questioning the good faith of any of the folks who posted messages in the thread. Also, I do not mean to imply that posts made anonymously are unwelcome. Thank you very much for all the great help you provide to practitioners and plan participants through your posts on these message boards. I hope you continue to find them to be valuable in your practice. Dave Baker Email: davebaker at benefitslink.com

Success! All 5,147 of the circle-Cs in the 144,628 posts have been converted to the intended ©.

Ah, I found the problem in the software and fixed it ... for messages that are posted in the future (after about 3:35 p.m. Eastern time, June 4, 2007). I am sorry for this annoyance. I must admit that I have known about it for a while, but I had not yet obtained any round tuits ... Now I will get under the hood again and see if I can fix the copyright symbols that are showing in already-posted messages. Film at 11.

Testing, one, two, three... A tax-exempt organization that is eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions is one that qualifies under section 501©(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Call (800) GOOG-411 and it will look up any business number for you, purely by voice recognition, and connect you, for free. No ads. No buttons to punch. We'll all be working for Google eventually, it seems.

Can you reinstall IE6?

SUBSCRIBING TO A PARTICULAR MESSAGE BOARD Problem: You are especially interested to read questions and answers posted in a particular message board. You only have time to visit that message board once a day or every couple of days, or you sometimes forget to check it. Solution: "Subscribe" to that message board so that you get an email each time a new topic is posted. For example, say you'd like to monitor the Church Plans message board; your legal practice includes many such plans. 1. Go to the home page of the message boards ( http://benefitslink.com/boards ). 2. Click on Church Plans. 3. Look for "Forum Options" at the top right corner of the box that lists the currently posted topics. Click on it. You'll get a drop-down menu of options... one is "Subscribe to this Forum." Select it by highlighting that option. (If you don't get a drop-down menu, you probably have Javascript disabled on your web browser. Javascript must be enabled to make this work.) 4. Now you get a screen showing various settings for your subscription. You can specify that you want an email every time a topic is posted (the "Immediate Email Notification" option). Or, you can specify that you want an email that contains a cumulative list of the new topics (called a "digest"), to be sent to you once a day or once a week. -- Note: An alternative to immediate notifications that is useful if you come online often to view the particular message board is to select "Delayed Email Notification." In that case the message boards software will not send you immediate email notice of each new topic. Instead it will wait to see if you visit the particular message board within a certain period of time after the new topic was posted (it's smart enough to know this). If you don't, then an email notice about the new topic is sent to you (hence the use of the word "delayed"). But if you do visit that message board within a certain period of time, you won't get an email about any new topics that are listed when you visit the message board (you don't need an email because you'll have found out about those new topics by seeing them listed on the message board). -- Another note: After you go online and read the new topic, the software is smart enough to reset itself so that it automatically emails you when someone later posts a new message (a "reply") in that topic. See also: HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM A MESSAGE BOARD TO WHICH YOU'VE SUBSCRIBED, below. ---- SUBSCRIBING TO A PARTICULAR TOPIC Problem: You find a particularly interesting topic on one of the message boards. You want to monitor the topic to see when someone posts a reply message (e.g., an answer to the question that the topic starter asked). You don't want to have to bookmark the topic and then remember to check that bookmark. Solution: "Subscribe" to that topic so that you get an email when a reply is posted. 1. To subscribe to a particular topic, open that topic by clicking on its title. 2. Click on the button that says "Options" (at the top right corner of the resulting screen showing the original post in the topic and any replies). You'll get a drop-down options list that says "Track This Topic." Select it by highlighting it. -- Note: Unfortunately, the terminology is not consistent here; it ought to say "subscribe" instead of "track" -- it's the same thing. -- Another note: You'll get a poorly-worded "error" message if you do this for a topic that's in a message board to which you've already subscribed as described earlier, because you already would be getting an email notice when a reply is posted in such a topic, as described earlier. Now you can go away from the message boards and go about your business. If you check your email frequently during the day you'll find an email notice whenever someone posts a reply message in the topic to which you've subscribed. (This presumes you have selected the "immediate" notification option.) If you wish, you can jump online (using the link you'll see in in the email notification) to read the new reply message. For example, someone might have just posted an answer to your question, if you started the topic with a question. If the person who posted the reply also has subscribed to this topic, then the two of you in effect can have an online dialog during the day. Sometimes it's remarkable how fast a question is answered, especially if several people already have subscribed to the message board in which the topic appears and have specified immediate email notices. The topic can become an accelerated three-way (or four-way, etc.) online discussion that blooms like a flower in time-lapse photography! (OK, perhaps I'm getting too enthusiastic here. ) See also: HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM A TOPIC TO WHICH YOU'VE SUBSCRIBED, below. ---- HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM A MESSAGE BOARD TO WHICH YOU'VE SUBSCRIBED; HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM A TOPIC TO WHICH YOU'VE SUBSCRIBED If you decide you've had a bellyfull of email notices about new topics in a message board or new replies in a particular topic, you're able to stop those emails by "unsubscribing." 1. Click on "My Controls," which appears towards the top right side of any page while you're visiting the message boards. It's on the same line that starts with "Logged in as [your username here]." 2. Scroll down the "Menu" at the left side of the resulting page. 3. Click on "View Topics" to see the particular topics to which you're subscribed, or click on "View Forums" to see the particular message boards to which you're subscribed. 4. Check the box next to any item to which you'd like to unsubscribe. 5. Click on the "With Selected" button you'll see at the bottom of the list of items. (It will have the word "Unsubscribe" in front of it, by default).

Brian's contact info (from www.asppa.org): Brian H. Graff, Esq., APM Executive Director/CEO 703.516.9300 x110 bgraff@asppa.org

Thanks for asking, oriecat! Any spam message can be deleted by any Sitewide Administrator ... we have 21 of them now. These are people who use the board a great deal: 500 or more posts! Also, the moderator of any particular message board can delete spam messages in his or her message board. I'm looking forward to seeing if this idea works. It'll be a success if nonregistered users post helpful, interesting reply messages.

The registration process is so tedious that I think it is worth trying out the ability of nonregistered users to post a reply to an existing topic. A nonregistered user does not have the ability to start a topic, however. Nor does he or she have the ability to edit his or her message once it is posted. Let's see if this new reply feature is abused. The motivation for the experiment is that I'd like to be able to add items in the BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter or the BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter that would be links to particular topics of interest on the message boards. Many newsletter readers wouldn't be registered already but probably would want to be able to post a reply to the topic to which they'd been brought (in order to contribute to the discussion). Getting those people involved should mean some valuable contributions to the board and I hope many of them will register in order to get the benefits of being a registered user. (I need to make those benefits more clear, also. For example, the ability to "subscribe" to a particular message topic in order to be alerted to new posts in that topic, or to subscribe to entire message boards.) What do you think? Dave