Dave Baker

Should a plan document be prepared only by lawyers? Those interested in the "unlicensed practice of law" issue, in states where bar associations seek to apply those rules to plan document preparation by non-lawyers, will want to look at this site (which I just came across) for support or in horror, depending on your position: http://www.naldp.org/

It appears Eli Lilly has found yet another application for prescription drug Prozac (yes, the anti-depressant), and is hawking it to dog owners. Somewhere out there an employer probably provides veterinary benefits for employees, and now its costs will go up. -- Dave Baker --- Apr 25, 2007 08:00 ET Eli Lilly and Company Introduces Reconcile™ for Separation Anxiety in Dogs At-Home BOND™ Behavior Modification Training Plan Complements Drug's Efficacy INDIANAPOLIS, April 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) announced today it has received approval from the FDA to market Reconcile™ (fluoxetine hydrochloride), the first selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class of antidepressants approved by the FDA for treatment of canine separation anxiety in conjunction with behavior modification training. Reconcile™ is the first Lilly product approved by the FDA for dogs and is now available to U.S. veterinarians. "Lilly research shows that 10.7 million, or up to 17 percent of U.S. dogs(1) suffer from separation anxiety," said Steve Connell, D.V.M., manager of technical, academic and consumer services for companion animal health at Lilly. "We're thrilled that our first product for dogs can help restore the human-pet bond, which can be compromised when dogs suffer from separation anxiety." Reconcile™ is a once-daily, chewable, flavored tablet that may be prescribed by a veterinarian in weight-specific doses for use in conjunction with behavior modification training to treat canine separation anxiety. The drug is proven safe for dogs and puppies 6 months or older. In field studies of approximately 600 dogs, 73 percent of dogs receiving Reconcile™ showed improvement in separation anxiety-related behavior within eight weeks when compared with dogs receiving behavior modification training alone. Within one week of starting Reconcile™ treatment and behavior modification training, 42 percent of dogs showed improvement. During trials, the most common adverse reactions to Reconcile™ were calm or lethargy, reduced appetite, vomiting, shaking, diarrhea, restlessness, excessive vocalization, aggression and -- in infrequent cases -- seizures. Reconcile™ allows dogs to be more receptive to your training to help with anxiety Canine separation anxiety is a prevalent and often misunderstood behavior problem, according to Connell. It amounts to undesirable behavior that occurs when the dog is left alone even for short periods of time. The resulting anxiety may cause the dog to engage in inappropriate behavior, such as destruction, excess vocalization and inappropriate elimination. Anorexia and depression also may be observed in some cases. "Your family veterinarian may recommend certain tests before diagnosing separation anxiety," Connell added. "Such tests are used to rule out other potential physiological causes of inappropriate behavior." For dogs affected by separation anxiety, Reconcile™ reduces inappropriate behaviors, minimizes the pet's distress and increases receptivity to a simple training plan called the BOND™ modification training plan. The BOND™ behavior modification program is an easy-to-implement, at-home training plan developed by Lilly and a team of veterinary behaviorists as well as veterinarians. The simple plan allows dog owners to take an active role in the treatment of their pet's separation anxiety to help restore the human-pet bond. Dog owners whose veterinarians have prescribed Reconcile™ receive educational materials to enable them to follow an easy four-step training plan to reinforce positive pet behavior which helps to reduce or eliminate inappropriate responses to anxiety. Components include a take-home DVD, printed materials and in-home reminders so the whole family can reinforce behavior modification training for the dog. Debra F. Horwitz, D.V.M., and a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, was among the veterinary behaviorists involved in developing the BOND™ program. "Learning and memory are important in the formation and maintenance of anxieties," said Horwitz. "Decreasing anxiety can help pets learn and, through training, they can learn new responses to stimuli that have triggered separation anxiety in the past. The development of the BOND™ behavior modification plan is an important complement to Reconcile™ in the treatment of separation anxiety." For more information about Reconcile™ and the BOND™ behavior modification program, which are available only through veterinarians, visit http://www.reconcile.com/ . Important safety information and the product label also can be found at http://www.reconcile.com/ . Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growing portfolio of first-in-class and best-in-class pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Lilly provides answers -- through medicines and information -- for some of the world's most urgent medical needs. Additional information about Lilly is available at http://www.lilly.com/ . Information about Lilly products for pets is available at http://www.lillypet.com/ . ™ Reconcile and BOND are registered trademarks of Eli Lilly and Company. (1) Lilly Research 2006 Source: Eli Lilly and Company CONTACT: Joan Todd of Eli Lilly and Company, +1-317-433-0121; or John Dutcher of McCormick Co., +1-515-238-5051, for Eli Lilly and Company Web site: http://www.lilly.com/ http://www.lillypet.com/ http://www.reconcile.com/

An investment management firm has published a detailed 'fact check' of Tuesday's testimony to the House committee looking into disclosure to participants of fees charged on investments of 401(k) (basically, self-directed defined contribution) plans. Here's the text of the description and the hypertext link, from today's Benefits in the News page here on BenefitsLink.com: Opinion: 'Fact Check' Needed for Testimony Given to House Committee on 401(k) Fee Disclosure (PDF) 11 pages. Mr. Eisen provides comments on each key point presented by four witnesses at the March 6, 2007 hearing, and explains why he agrees or disagrees with each point. (Ron Eisen of Investment Management Consultants, Inc.) Comments? Note to new users of the message boards: everybody can view this discussion, but if you'd like to post a comment (called a "reply") -- and please do! -- you'll need to register (free, fast): click here to register.

[Found on the net:] A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself, adds no quality to the coffee in most cases, just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. "What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... and then began eyeing each other's cups. "Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us." God brews the coffee, not the cups... enjoy your coffee.

I am very sorry I didn't post this on the boards and get some feedback ... the damned spammers have been registering as new users at the rate of about a dozen a day, which concerns me. All one has to do to become a user is enter a working email address, even if it's Russian or a freebie kind of server (hotmail.com, etc.), so the prospective user gets a "click here to confirm" email and then is fully registered. I clean out the new users once a week or so, looking for obviously spam-like usernames or suspicious (Russian, etc.) domain names in the email addresses. My thinking re the avatars is that I didn't want a new user to be able to post something obscene as an avatar; I also disabled the posting of graphics in messages for the same reason ... unfortunately the software doesn't give me a way to make exceptions for trusted users. I thought about having a pre-approval process by which prospective users couldn't actually become users until I cleared 'em, but that technique would seem to stop a lot of legitimate wanna-be users from participating. ("Oh great, now I have to wait some indefinite period of time until I get an email from the webmaster.") You think the avatars ought to be restored, and then leave it to moderators to delete any obscene or other kind of spam messages that appear?

Gud poynnt.

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! (This was sent to me in an email; I'm not sure if the 55% figure is accurate. I can read the darned thing almost as fast as usual! Wierd. -- Dave Baker)

I hope you'll subscribe to the free BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter (daily via email). Sign-up form is at http://benefitslink.com/newsletter/ Archived issues are at http://benefitslink.com/2006/ Best regards, Dave Baker BenefitsLink® Publisher

Wow! I see how you were misled! I'll pass this along to the software developers -- it really ought to say "No new replies posted yet" or something similar. Sure sorry you had this trouble.

You mean this particular thread (the original post and its replies) is saying no new posts? Can you tell me exactly what it is you're seeing, and where, that says no new posts?

One, two, three... check one, two

Test reply; please disregard; but would somebody else please post a test reply in this message thread?

Yikes; I upgraded the software for the message boards, to increase its security. I'll have to jump on this today and figger it out! I apologize for this trouble.

vebaguru, Thanks for your response! Please reply to this post and enter the exact text of the overflow message so I can help further.

Hi, gang -- I have a request from our site's sales manager to find more pages on which to display banner ads for advertisers who want to reach employee benefit professionals (you!). These ads on other pages of our site are an important part of our revenue (which goes to cover salaries and benefits for four employees, server costs, etc.). Could you live with seeing a banner ad in the top-right corner of the message board pages? The banners would involve only services or products for employee benefit professionals (no off-topic ads like computer products, etc.). It would be stuff that we think an employee benefit professional would like to know about. The load time would be practically nil for users with high-speed connections; even with dial-up connections they'd cause a delay of only a couple of seconds. The banners would not place a "cookie" on your computer or otherwise track you if you decide to click on one for more information. (Per our strict privacy policy.) Please let me know if this proposal causes stomach-churning for you (post a message in this thread or email me at davebaker <at-sign-here> benefitslink.com). And if you're OK with it, let me know that, too. THANKS! Dave Baker Webmeister

Try the Employee Benefit Research Institute site at http://www.ebri.org

It is my pleasure! Thanks for participating! Remember to use our Jobs board if you're ever in the market ... http://benefitslink.com/jobs/ Best regards, Dave

The attachment isn't working now for some reason-- Glen, could you possibly upload another spreadsheet into a reply message in this thread? Dave Baker

I am sorry to have to report that, after "upgrading" the software again to prevent attacks, the message boards have a new bug-- when a person tries to register as a new user, he or she is told that the username must be between 3 and 24 characters, no matter how many characters are in the username being submitted. So people are effectively prevented from registering, as it now stands. I am working on this and will let you know as soon as it has been fixed! I sincerely apologize for this trouble.

Lori, would you like to moderate the new message board? It gives you the ability to edit or delete messages, if any "bad" ones show up there in your discretion. Let me know if you'd rather not; it's already done! Thanks so much for your interest in the message boards and your active participation.

Haven't had my coffee yet, but wouldn't these discussions all properly fall under the "Nonqualified Deferred Comp" message board?

http://www.christopherhawkins.com/06-13-2005.htm#78 Start the new year bright

Thanks for your email, George. I've reset your password and performed some cookie magic at my end; please let me know if GBurns doesn't work for you now (log in with your email address, though). The reason you and others have had trouble is the new version of the software only allows one username per email address. Don't ask me why. (Why?) So when you create a new username sometimes it causes even more trouble. I'm happy to help anybody individually -- just email me at davebaker_at_benefitslink.com. Thanks!

Yow, couldn't this contribution disqualify the plan? The IRS doesn't want money invested in a tax-free trust any sooner than the Code allows... excessive contributions mean foregone tax revenue on recognized investment earnings. That's why section 415 is such a big deal, and why the 415 regulations are so explicit about the kinds of circumstances that permit the use of a suspense account (unallocated contributions effectively avoid the 415 limit). If you overcontribute because of a reasonable error in estimating someone's compensation for the remainder of the year, for example, you're OK under the 415 regulations -- if the plan document takes advantage of them. (I forget whether an incorporation by reference is permitted or whether the document has to spell out the suspense account procedures for such an overcontribution.) But the burden would be on the plan sponsor to show that the error was a reasonable one... if the plan sponsor knew or should have known that a particular participant's compensation wouldn't justify the funding being made on account of the rest of the plan year, that's taking illegal advantage of the trust as a tax shelter on the recognized investment earnings on the excess contribution and the trust's tax-exempt status goes KA-BOOM. I think.