Dave Baker

Tell me more about creating your own GPT!

@austin3515 It is pretty cool, I must say. I had written the program for fun before the web became a Thing, so it was almost an afterthought to put it online. I've never promoted it. It certainly could be improved (e.g., the ability to store the data so as to be able to rerun the program at some later date, or to adjust the employee census). Do you have administration software for an integrated profit-sharing plan, and could you confirm that it produces the same allocations that my program produces (if you enter the same employee census data and whatever integration level the program ends up applying to that data)?

It would be interesting for you to enter the numbers into this app I wrote a coupla decades ago, and see if it agrees that 80% + $1 is the optimal integration level: https://benefitslink.com/site/inte-greater/

This is to share with you the happy news that today is the 25th anniversary of the first day on which the BenefitsLink Newsletter began daily publication. I didn't see this coming when I decided to go daily in 1999, at age 41. (The newletters had begun four years earlier, but they weren't being published every day.) The free information must be helping employee benefits practitioners to help their clients, which translates to the ability of employers to effectively run and fund programs that improve the lives of so many millions of working people (and retirees, and beneficiaries), even if most of them wouldn't know (or want to know) the difference between an ERISA and an eraser. What a noble endeavor, to be an employee benefits practitioner! Some lawyers and TPAs and other benefits practitioners have found work through our job board that's been running since 1996, which means they've gone to new workplaces and sometimes new cities, which means some of them have met people they wouldn't have met otherwise, which means some of them have fallen in love and then had children... which means there are people walking around on the planet now who wouldn't be here but for this "web site" thingie that started in 1995, and then the idea of sending "newsletters" by "email." None of that would have been possible without readers. The existence of "BenefitsLink babies" didn't occur to me until one day about 10 years ago, but I kept it quiet -- at that time, they were still teenagers! True to form, I and my business partner and wife Lois Baker (formerly an employee benefits lawyer, whom I met on CompuServe in 1990 while trading ERISA questions using dial-up modems) have failed to do any marketing of this happy day. But as I sat here at the keyboard today I had the idea that we would get so much joy by celebrating the occasion with readers. I hope this hasn't come across as a commercial but instead is the lifting of an E-flute of cyber-champagne -- here's to employee benefits practitioners everywhere! It's a wonderful community, and for 25 years now and still counting, we are so happy to be a part of it.

Michael B. Preston, who was an enrolled actuary, was a giant in the pension field. He contributed so much to the employee benefits community. He posted 6,569 messages onto these message boards since he joined in 2001 (!) -- questions, answers and comments that helped to inform and educate hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his peers. They're all still here and on the search engines, so his wisdom and humor will continue long into the future. During the 1990s, Mike was a system operator of the PIX ("Pension Information eXchange") BBS (i.e., a "bulletin board system"). PIX basically was a server running proprietary software on a particular dedicated personal computer that had a dedicated telephone number. Members would use their PC (and a modem) to connect via a long distance phone call, so that the latest discussions could be downloaded for reading and for adding comments. Later, when the World Wide Web became popular and PIX closed, Mike become an active participant and later a "moderator" on these BenefitsLink message boards. An outstanding servant and leader in his profession, Mike was awarded the Edward E. Burrows Distinguished Service Award in 2017 by the ASPPA College of Pension Actuaries, which is "presented annually to a pension actuary who has gone above and beyond in forwarding ethics, education, beneficial legislation or regulations that enhance the private pension system or the professionalism of enrolled actuaries within the private pension system." We will miss him so much!

Here is another good link -- it's a list of our news items that have been tagged with "Retirement Plan Investment Costs" -- https://benefitslink.com/news/index.cgi?tag_id=73

There was no change in team name. No change in logo. Nope, didn't happen. No. No! There. Reality altered.

Watcha mean? Log?

https://benefitslink.com/m/integ.cgi -- might be fun for you.

I'm having a great deal of trouble understanding the text of your question. Two letters were sent by the plan administrator -- to whom? Could you type (as a reply) the text of those letters (just put a blank line where names and addresses appear)? I am assuming that the wife is the participant here. Correct? The participant has been waiting 6 years, I see. Please explain when the 6-year period started. I'm not sure what the significance is. You say the attorney who did not file the QDRO; are you saying the attorney for the participant's husband did not provide a copy of the order, signed by a judge, to the plan until 5 days after the funds were distributed to the wife (via a rollover, I believe you said)? What do you mean by "funds to the plan that has been discharged per the letters" -- what does "discharged" mean here? And what do you mean by "per the letters"? I know the Department of Labor has published two documents for the general public about the 18-month rule -- https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/EBSA/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/faqs/qdro-determining-qualified-status-and-paying-benefits.pdf https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ebsa/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/publications/qdros.pdf

Yikes. Company files for bankruptcy. Bank account is corporate property (from the face of it, anyway). Creditors get some or all of the bank account. Participants hurt. "Please provide name and physical address of the fiduciaries, for service of process."

This is such a great thread. I'm so delighted that this kind of thinking and discussion can take place on these message boards. Such important stuff.

Is the report only available to members? (I'm seeing "This content is for members only" on the URL of the "report" link, above.)

With superpowers, @BG5150 !

Regarding the participants becoming entitled to distributions during the first six months of 2012 -- are these employees whose employment is terminating due to layoff or firing (not because they're quitting)?

I'd like to write up an article -- prolly six or seven paragraphs -- to attract new participants on these message boards. I'll advertise it on the daily and weekly BenefitsLink newsletters. What is it about the message boards that causes you to participate -- i.e., to ask questions and post reply/answers? What have been the benefits for you? Also, if you'd rather write the article instead (or co-write it), I'd be delighted to have a volunteer!

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Has anyone seen Dave (or Lois) Baker and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in the same room at the same time?

I've often thought that we should come up with a well-rounded caveat, and then people could put it in their sigs, or maybe have a link to a page or a message thread that contains its text, etc. "Of course, there are details, some of which might be important to your particular factual situation, which I certainly don't know, and as to which I haven't asked all the questions that one would need to ask in order to ferret out other potentially relevant issues (meaning my comments here and elsewhere on thesde message boards are intended to be helpful information, but you should not and cannot rely upon them as my legal or other professional advice)." (First draft)

Agree with Lou S. -- another situation is a spouse who becomes mentally incompetent. The competent spouse can continue to act. Might be important to ensure that the terms of the trust document allow either trustee to act without the involvement of the other.

The member reputation stat was lost during a recent upgrade, meaning it was no longer appearing under the member's name (in any message posted by the member). I've done some rewiring, and it's back now. Sure sorry for the unexpected change. I hate it when an upgrade causes some existing tool on the message boards to disappear or to be moved to a new location.

In 1974 when ERISA was enacted, there were very few provisions (any, as a practical matter?) that regulated the administration or mandatory benefits under health plans. The first big health plan provision didn't happen until the addition of COBRA rights for employees and their dependents, in 1985. Later amendments to ERISA added additional mandatory health benefits, especially the Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010. Both 'pension' and 'welfare' plans are employer-provided benefits, so they're under the same tent as a federal government regulatory matter.

Can you point me to the URL of the page you're calling your personal view? Happy and anxious to take a look. I'm still working through the new functionality, including adjusting the size and the kinds of message board pages on which the column of featured jobs appears. They're not on a page that displays a particular topic (message thread), for example. The featured jobs column also drops to the bottom of the page if you're using a cell phone, or if you narrow the size of the window on your desktop. I'm actually finding that it's easier to read and scroll down the new left-hand column of new messages when I'm using my desktop computer, because they don't stretch across the width of the entire screen. The text seems easier to read when each line isn't as long, which I guess is why newspaper articles are written in columns. Cue sad violins background: We lost most of our daily newsletter advertisers in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. (Most advertisers promote in-person conferences, which largely went away.) The job advertisements are what's keeping the site running and paying for personnel and all the other costs of the business, so we're looking for ways to increase job advertising (including the popular "featured job" upsell) in order to avoid going to some kind of paid subscription model.