"The grocers and the UFCW created the UFCW and Employer's Variable Annuity Pension Plan for future benefits ... The UFCW International Union-Industry Pension Fund, Mokena, Ill., had $6.1 billion in assets as of June 30, 2019, and was 53.5% funded, according to the most recent Form 5500, which showed 83,656 participants, mostly active. Kroger and Stop and Shop are listed as the largest annual contributors, at $44.7 million and $23.4 million, respectively, followed by Albertsons at $10.6 million."

38 presentation slides. Summary of Act introduced on October 27 by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Neal and Ranking Member Brady.

"Beginning in 2020 and running through 2022, small businesses with more than 5 employees are required to offer a retirement savings option to their employees. Employers can either sponsor their own plan, e.g. a 401(k) plan, or register for CalSavers. It is important to take action as noncompliance can result in fines ranging from $250 to $500 per employee. What if you already offer your employees an employer sponsored plan? ... You will need to notify the state by certifying your plan exemption online[.]"

"Only Baby Boomers are counting on Social Security as a meaningful contribution to their retirement income. All three generations believe their participation in a 401(k) or similar plan will provide a significant portion of their retirement income, but ... no generation is currently participating in their defined contribution plans at a level that supports [their] income expectations[.]"

"Building on the framework of the SECURE Act, Representatives Richard Neal and Kevin Brady have introduced the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2020, already being referred to as SECURE Act 2.0. [The proposal] contains changes that would further encourage plan adoption and retirement savings, as well as solutions to operational problems that have bedeviled plan sponsors for many years."

21 pages. "The sole focus of DC plans has historically been to accumulate assets during the working years, with little support provided to participants in retirement.... The 'landing gear' of our DC system are solutions designed to help participants convert their accumulated retirement balances into lifetime income. This paper provides a review of product types available to do so."

"[An] alternative definition of compensation ... can be a powerful tool to enhance plan design and target your retirement plan dollars according to your overall goals. As with any plan design, it's important that you carefully consider any excluded compensation and review as compensation structures change over time. Likewise, it's worth remembering that there is no bright-line test to determine whether a plan passes compensation ratio testing each year. So, it's important to make sure that the definition of compensation is within reason both numerically and circumstantially."

"The biggest issue when it comes to access is cost. It's not just the plan sponsor's sensitivity to higher costs. It's the service provider's ability to keep those costs low.... [T]here's a disincentive for financial firms to invest the time necessary to help smaller plans grow to a critical mass size. This puts small plan sponsors at a further disadvantage.... Complicating matters is the fact that executives at smaller companies tend to have multiple responsibilities. This means they will often opt for the quickest solution."

"[1] Determine employee eligibility ... [2] Determine ESOP vesting period ... [3] Determine annual contributions ... [4] Determine distribution standards ... [5] Ensure your plan meets regulatory guidelines."

"About 70% of all U.S. workers have access to employer-sponsored pensions, and about 55% of U.S. workers participate in employer-sponsored pensions. Access and participation rates vary with various worker attributes. These attributes include whether the workers are full-time or part-time, whether they work in the private or public sector, and whether or not they belong to a union. The data also classify access and participation rates by the average wages of workers' occupations and the number of employees at workers' places of employment. [R43439, updated Dec. 1, 2020]"

"A report ... found that 2.9 million workers ages 55 to 70 have left the labor force since March.... Researchers note that if these exits continued at the same pace over the ensuing three months, an additional 1.1 million workers in this age group may leave the workforce. That would be a total of 4 million people potentially pushed into retirement due to the pandemic's related economic downturn."

"[K]eeping employees happy is a function of not only having meaningful work to do, but also compensating them appropriately for that work. In recent years, this has led to an ever-growing number of 'perks' that firms offer employees to keep them happy, from retirement benefits to health insurance, to education reimbursement to student loan support, and gym memberships, and employer-provided meals. But in the end, employers can't just pile on a never-ending stream of employee benefits and perks in the hopes that it will help employees to retain; at some point, the question becomes: what are the best 'perks' and employee benefits that really, actually help to retain employees?"

"Key plan design decisions include: [1] Do we want to let ALL part-time employees make their own 401(k) contributions (so we don't have to track hours?) [2] Do we want to be more generous than the law requires and let 'long time, part time' employees into the 401(k) plan prior to 2024? [3] Do we want to impose a 1,000-hour rule to be eligible for matching contributions? [4] Do we want to impose age restrictions of 18 (for vesting) and age 21 (for participation)? [5] Do we want to revise our company contribution vesting schedule?"

"The SECURE Act permits a PPP to begin sponsoring PEPs as soon as January 1, 2021, provided the PPP meets the SECURE Act's requirements, including registration with the DOL and IRS before commencing operations. The DOL issued proposed regulations on August 20, and in its November 16 final regulations, softened some of the requirements it had originally proposed."

"Seventy percent of U.S. investors are saving at least 10% of their annual income for retirement ... Sixty-two percent of respondents said they were aware that Social Security wouldn't be enough to live on, with 48% concerned about not having enough income in retirement. Still, more than half (51%) said they planned to retire once they qualified for Social Security[.]"

"A [pooled plan provider (PPP)] is at the heart of these new [pooled employer plans (PEPs)].... [T]he plan must designate the PPP and provide that the PPP is a plan administrator and 'named fiduciary' under ERISA.... [A] PPP will be subject to ERISA's fiduciary duties and other requirements. Each participating employer remains responsible for selecting and monitoring the PPP.... [T]here is an initial registration filing of basic identifying information about the PPP."

"[H]ighlights include: [1] Requiring newly established 401(k), 403(b) and SIMPLE plans to automatically enroll participants; [2] Expanding self-correction opportunities, including for participant loan errors and employee elective deferral failures; [3] Permitting plan sponsors to contribute an employer match for participants who are repaying student debt; ... [4] Increasing the required distribution beginning date age to 75; [5] Increasing tax credits for small employers that adopt new plans; ... [6] [P]ermitting 403(b) plans to be established as multiple employer plans; ... and [7] Creating a national database to assist taxpayers to locate lost retirement savings."

"[Pooled employer plans (PEPs)] are expected to be attractive to plan sponsors because of the ability to lower plan fees and expenses by leveraging assets, simplifying administration, and shifting fiduciary risk to the PEP provider.... Expect to see both national PEPs offered by well-known providers as well as smaller regional PEPs. While the strategy of pooling assets may have been aimed at smaller plans -- since those plans seem to have the most to gain from a cost cutting perspective -- it appears that PEPs will be marketed to larger plans ($100M+ plans) as well."

"Some provisions would be mandatory, such as the changes to the required beginning date and required minimum distribution rules, modifications to the long-term, part-time employee eligibility measurement period, and the automatic enrollment feature for new plans.... [T]he effective date for most of these changes [would be] the plan year beginning after December 31, 2020."

"In some situations, a plan merger may not be an option (or a practical option), and in others, the exact opposite may the case.... For organizations with a choice between the two, plan mergers are typically preferred, as they tend to avoid ... plan leakage ... Mergers can also be less complicated than terminations, requiring a simple board resolution and amendments to the merging plans. By contrast, the asset distribution process in a plan termination can be a chore, and for large plans, an IRS filing may even be prudent."

20 presentation slides. "Research Questions: [1] How is family wealth in the form of employer-sponsored defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans distributed? [2] How did the distribution of retirement assets change between 1989 and 2019, and how did it change for families with various socioeconomic characteristics? [3] How did the phaseout of DB plans affect the concentration of family wealth? [4] How sensitive are the estimates of wealth concentration to different inputs into the imputation of DB wealth?"

"Recent cases against university-sponsored retirement plans include allegations that these plans are complicating the investment decisions of participants because the plans offer too many investment choices.... Plan administrators might want to put themselves in the shoes of their typical 401(k) participant and conclude that fewer investment options would be better.... Regardless of how many investment options are provided in your 401(k) plan, make sure that its investment array includes low-cost index funds."

"[C]losing public pension plans and moving all newly hired public employees into defined-contribution plans like a 401(k) or cash balance hybrid plans ... can increase costs.... [1] Closing a defined-benefit plan can increase unfunded liabilities.... [2] Public pensions are cheaper to administer than defined-contribution plans.... [3] Closing a defined-benefit plan can create higher public employee turnover, leading to increased training costs."

"[T]he Thrift Savings Plan has awarded a new recordkeeping services contract to Accenture Federal Services ... Following an 18-month transition period to the new vendor, ... participants can expect to see a variety of new features that will make managing their accounts easier.... New features will include a mutual fund window, e-signature capabilities and a mobile app, which is set to be available in mid-2022."

"The winning combination is probably a mix of established ideas (such as the bedrock of company health insurance) and new ones shaped by the pandemic (more flexible schedules). This simple chart organizes benefits into a hierarchy according to cost to the employer -- as well as tiers within each price level to show which benefits tend to be more foundational. This may help you set or adjust your priorities for 2021."