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Cato Institute Files Amicus Brief in Sibelius v. Hobby Lobby Supreme Court Case

"These cases will determine whether individuals who wish to conduct their lives in accordance with their religious beliefs forfeit the right to do so when they engage in business activities, particularly through the corporate form. Cato has submitted a brief supporting Hobby Lobby and Conestoga. We argue that individuals should be able to order their professional lives according to their religious beliefs, that engaging in business doesn't demand the surrender of religious freedom, and that there's nothing inherent in the corporate form that requires denying the owners of a corporation the right to direct their business in a manner that comports with their religion."

Libertarian Cato Institute Opposes Ban on Drug Reimportation

Excerpt: The libertarian Cato Institute, in direct conflict with its allies in the Bush administration, will argue in a report to be released today that Congress ought to lift the ban on prescription drug imports and let the global marketplace sort out imbalances that leave Americans paying the highest prices in the world.

Cato Institute Study Calls for Privately Invested Accounts in Lieu of Traditional Social Security

"Instead of saving Social Security, we should begin the transition to a new and better retirement system based on individually owned, privately invested accounts."

Text of Amicus Brief of Texas Public Policy Foundation and Cato Institute, Arguing Against Severability in Constitutional Challenge to Mandated Health Insurance Coverage (PDF)

"Various provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act impede state sovereignty and individual liberty, limiting states' ability to chart their own course on matters relating to health care. Holding the entire Act unconstitutional would thus vindicate Amici Curiae's missions."

Cato Institute Scholars Have Been Writing About Need for Entitlement Reform for Almost Three Decades

Excerpt: Robert J. Samuelson challenges think tanks to come up with solutions to the 'huge budget costs of aging baby boomers.' We thought you'd never ask.

Statement of Cato Institute at Hearing on Privacy Concerns About Genetic Information

Sept. 12, 2002; Tom Miller, Director of Health Policy Studies. Excerpt: [T]here is little, if any, evidence that health insurers are using or likely to use presymptomatic genetic information in their medical underwriting. Evidence that employers try to obtain, let alone use, such information generally is limited to isolated anecdotes.

Kerry Mum on Social Security Reform

Press release. Excerpt: The Democratic Party platform approved during this week's national convention opposes Social Security 'privatization' or any reduction in Social Security benefits, but says nothing about how the party would deal with the program's looming financial crisis, according to Michael Tanner, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Social Security Choice ...

Technical Questions and Answers on SPARK Institute's 403(b) Plans Information Sharing -- Minimum and Comprehensive Data Elements, Updated December 1, 2008

"Following the release of Version 1.01 of The SPARK Institute's Information Sharing ?--Minimum and Comprehensive Data Elements ..., The SPARK Institute received a number of technical questions. The SPARK Institute has formed a standing panel, made up of representatives from various member companies that played a significant role in developing the Data Elements. The SPARK Institute and the panel reviewed the questions and developed answers which are posted below. This information is being made widely available in order to assist all others that are adhering to the Data Elements Best Practices. The SPARK Institute will maintain this site and update it periodically with answers to questions it receives."

Institutional Investors and Public Pension Funds Denounce SEC's Push for Forced Arbitration

"A coalition of more than 60 major institutional investors and pension systems, collectively managing trillions of dollars in direct assets and representing over $8 trillion globally through umbrella organizations and associations, released a letter this week strongly opposing the [SEC's] unprecedented policy reversal permitting companies to include forced arbitration provisions into their corporate charters and registration statements."

Text of IRS Notice 2020-6: Financial Institutions Can Issue Corrected Statements by April 15 to IRA Owners Turning 70-1/2 in 2020 (PDF)

Under pre-amended law, by January 31, 2020, financial institutions acting as IRA trustees, custodians or issuers were required to provide a statement to IRA owners who will turn 70-1/2 in 2020 notifying them about the required minimum distribution (RMD) which would have been needed by April 1, 2021. Under the SECURE Act, the new required beginning date for an IRA owner is April 1 of the calendar year following the calendar year in which the individual attains age 72, not 70-1/2. Hence Notice 2020-6 clarifies that such a statement is no longer due by January 31, 2020 to persons who will attain age 70-1/2 in 2020. In recognition of the short amount of time after the enactment of the SECURE Act that financial institutions have had to change their systems for furnishing the RMD statement, Notice 2020-6 provides that if an RMD statement is (or already has been) provided for 2020 to an IRA owner who will attain age 70-1/2 in 2020, the IRS will not consider such statement to be incorrect, if the financial institution notifies the IRA owner no later than April 15, 2020, that no RMD is due for 2020. The guidance notes that the SECURE Act did not change the required beginning date for IRA owners who attained age 70-1/2 prior to January 1, 2020 and encourages (but does not require) these financial institutions to remind IRA owners who attained age 70-1/2 in 2019, and have not yet taken their 2019 RMDs, that they are still required to take those distributions by April 1, 2020. (Additional guidance is being considered with respect to the SECURE Act, including guidance for plan administrators, payors, and distributees if a distribution to a plan participant or IRA owner who will attain age 70-1/2 in 2020 was treated as an RMD.)

SPARK Institute Comments on Nevada's Proposed Regs (PDF)

14 pages. "[T]he SPARK Institute believes that the fiduciary standard of care applicable to retirement plans and their participants should be established at the federal level, not the state level.... Second, the SPARK Institute is very concerned that the proposed regulations' definition of 'Investment Advice' would inappropriately extend Nevada's fiduciary standard of care and disclosure obligations to cover a wide range of beneficial conversations that our members routinely have with their customers to educate them and encourage them to save for retirement."

Text of IRS Chief Counsel Memo 2017-18: Rollover of IRA Distributions from Failed Financial Institution (PDF)

"[An] IRA distribution made from a failed financial institution by the FDIC as receiver is disregarded for purposes of applying the one-rollover-per-year limitation, provided: [1] neither the failed financial institution nor the depositor initiated the distribution, and [2] no financial institution has assumed the IRAs of the failed financial institution."

Agencies Release New Proposed Rules for Incentive-Based Compensation at Financial Institutions

"The proposed rules replace the proposed rules issued by the agencies in 2011. The new rules will likely not be effective until at least January 2019 ... However, these rules introduce new concepts and rules that Covered Institutions should begin to address sooner, rather than later, to ensure compliance when the rules ultimately become effective.... Generally, the Proposed Rules prohibit Covered Institutions from providing incentive-based compensation arrangements that encourage inappropriate risk-taking by providing a Covered Person with excessive compensation, fees, or benefits; or that could lead to material financial loss to a Covered Institution."

Agencies Invite Comment on Proposed Rule to Prohibit Incentive-Based Pay That Encourages Inappropriate Risk-Taking in Financial Institutions

"Six federal agencies are inviting public comment on a proposed rule to prohibit incentive-based compensation arrangements that encourage inappropriate risks at covered financial institutions. The deadline for comments on the proposed rule ... is July 22, 2016.... Much of the proposed rules would address requirements for senior executive officers and employees who are significant risk-takers at Level 1 and Level 2 institutions. All institutions that would be covered by the proposed rules would be required to annually document the structure of incentive-based compensation arrangements and retain those records for seven years."

Institutionally Priced Retirement Income Solutions Deliver More Income (PDF)

"Plan sponsors can use their bargaining power, scale, ability to standardize, and distribution efficiency to improve the retirement security of plan participants by offering their retiring plan participants a limited selection of retirement income generators (RIGs) that take advantage of institutional pricing rather than retail pricing.... This article examines three RIGs that can be offered in employer-sponsored DC plans: systematic withdrawals, immediate annuities, and guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits (GLWB, which are also known as guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits, or GMWB).... [The authors] compare how each RIG performs assuming institutional pricing typically available within a DC plan relative to retail pricing typically available outside a DC plan."

History of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, Part 1 (PDF)

"This is the first part of a history of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), which the EBRI board has asked Dallas Salisbury to fully document between now and his move from EBRI President (after 37 years in that position) to EBRI President Emeritus in 2016.... EBRI opened its doors on December 4, 1978. The Institute's early work supported the 1978 President's Commission on Pension Policy, which generated visibility for both retirement issues and EBRI and led to an expansion of EBRI's membership and horizons."

Text of Testimony of Urban Institute to House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security: 'What Every Worker Needs to Know About an Unreformed Social Security System' (PDF)

"In this testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee Subcommittee on Social Security, Eugene Steuerle, Institute Fellow and Richard B. Fisher Chair at the Urban Institute discusses the fairness, efficiency and adequacy questions that arise almost no matter how much growth Congress maintains in Social Security. In particular he addresses three troubling aspects of an otherwise successful program: unequal justice; middle age retirement; and impact on the young."

Notice to Financial Institutions: Solicitation of Financial Agent for Department of the Treasury Retirement Savings Bond Program (myRAs) (PDF)

"The United States Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service ('Fiscal Service'), is requesting applications from Financial Institutions ('FIs') interested in becoming a Financial Agent of the United States to support the issuance of a new type of retirement savings bond. Fiscal Service plans to designate one Financial Agent to support all aspects of the bond program. The bonds will be made available to the public through Treasury-branded Roth IRAs ('myRAs') maintained by the Financial Agent.... Fiscal Service plans to hold an information session in March for eligible FIs interested in providing these services and requests that FIs who would like to be invited to the information session notify Fiscal Service no later than ... Friday, March 7 of their interest in attending. Applications are due by ... March 31, 2014. Eligible FIs are limited to financial institutions that meet the requirements set forth in 31 C.F.R. Part 202."

Investment Company Institute Comment Letter to SEC on the Results of Investor Testing Regarding Target Date Funds in Connection with the Target Date Retirement Fund Names and Marketing Proposal (PDF)

"The Institute strongly supports the spirit and core of the Commission's Proposal that focuses on communicating key pieces of information about target date funds to investors and requires a prominent table, chart, or graph ('glide path illustration') to convey the idea of the changing asset allocation of the target date fund over the entire life of the fund, including at the target date and the point where the fund arrives at its final asset allocation. The Institute opposes, however, as unnecessary and potentially confusing to investors, a proposed requirement that a target date fund disclose, immediately adjacent to the first use of the fund's name, the fund's asset allocation at the target date ('tagline disclosure')."

Insured Retirement Institute Comment Letter to IRS on Proposed Regs on Longevity Annuity Contracts (PDF)

"First, it is [the Institute's] understanding that, under the regulation, the failure to comply with the 25% or $100,000 limits would void the entire contact as a QLAC. [The Institute suggests] that a system could be developed that would allow for a correction to a mistake in calculations. The amount that would be over the limits would be applied to the participant's required minimum distribution calculation. However, the remainder of the QLAC would remain intact and would still ensure longevity protection for the participant."