Retirement Plans Edition
January 19, 2001
Today's sponsor is International Quality and Productivity Center (click on banner for more information)
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Primer on Selecting Investment Options for a Self-directed Plan
Excerpt: "What these figures tell us is twofold: plan sponsors are acquiescing to their employees and vendors to offer more options and this "more-is-better-mentality" may actually be detrimental to the typical participant. On top of all this, one wonders how sponsors of these retirement plans are selecting these investment options." (401kWire)
Putting 401(k) Plans to the Test: How Effective Are They?
Excerpt: "Overall, our analysis has found that personalized, consistent and frequent communication about the 401(k) plan is associated with a significant improvement in participation." (Watson Wyatt)
Survey Shows New Measure of Defined Benefit Plan Funding Conservatism
Excerpt: "Watson Wyatt released its 2000 Survey of Actuarial Assumptions and Funding this month, which is its 32nd annual survey of U.S. pension plans with 1,000 or more active plan participants.... This year's survey includes a new measure called the 'Funding Target Ratio,' which compares a plan's actuarial accrued liability with its current liability." (Watson Wyatt)
Another Question is Answered in the Who's the Employer Q&A Column
A and B are independent medical corporations, each with only one employee. They join to form a 50/50 partnership consisting of a hospital practice and a private office practice. Each of the two corporations provides services to the partnership. Corporation A had a pension plan funded only for its sole employee. But shouldn't that plan have been required to cover the partnership's employees, too? (BenefitsLink.com)
Phased Retirement: A Work in Progress
Excerpt: "Traditionally, retirement has been viewed as a one-time, take-it-or leave-it act that signifies the end of one's working life. In many organizations today, however, retirement is evolving from an abrupt act into a gradual process of easing out of a full-time work schedule. Retirement for many no longer represents a steep cliff dividing the worlds of work and leisure, but rather more of a gradual slope from one to the other." (Watson Wyatt)
Working Group Report on Phased Retirement: 2000
Originally published November 14, 2000. Excerpt: "...we are focused primarily on an arrangement where an employee reduces his work schedule with the same employer as he/she approaches full retirement. It also includes certain related programs or arrangements whereby employers may encourage workers to continue working when their benefit programs might otherwise encourage them to leave." (U.S. Department of Labor)
(Following also appears in Welfare Plans Edition)
DOL Expands Plan Expenses Audit Program
Excerpt: "The Department of Labor (DOL) audit program reviewing the practice of paying plan expenses with plan assets is expanding beyond the Kansas City office (see Watson Wyatt Insider, August 2000), potentially affecting many more plans. Sources report that six or seven of the 10 DOL field offices are gearing up for participation in the audit program." (Watson Wyatt)
Welcome to new BenefitsLink advertiser Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.
"Americans have come to view legal assistance as a necessity ... the best way for the majority of Americans to be able to assure themselves of legal assistance when they need it ... is through a prepaid legal plan." American Bar Association. For more information click here
Graef Crystal: Disney's Eisner Cashes in Big as Earnings Fall
Excerpt: "It's sad how Walt Disney Co.'s Michael Eisner has morphed from a high-performing chief executive who relished pay risk into a so-so performer and ultra- cautious CEO. He was a hero of mine for playing the pay game fairly. Now he is just another money-grubbing executive whose goal seems to be pay, period." (Graef Crystal, on Bloomberg.com)
Working Group Report: Studying Benefit Continuity after Organizational Restructuring
Orig. pub. Nov. 14, 2000. Excerpt: "The Working Group's assignment was to identify the challenges to benefit continuity confronting sponsoring organizations and their employees undergoing restructuring. This would be accomplished through a study of the ERISA and [Internal Revenue] Code provisions that are specifically aimed at such sponsor changes and those provisions, though not aimed at such activity, that have been cited as obstacles or impediments in maintaining continuity." (U.S. Department of Labor)
New Political Environment Will Affect Benefits Legislation
Excerpt: "Despite an end-of-the-session push, the 106th Congress failed to enact benefits-related legislation. So bipartisan pension reform, patients' rights, Medicare reform, stock options and other benefits-related issues are all waiting for the 107th Congress." (Watson Wyatt)
Workers Worry The Party's Over: Health And Retirement Benefits Are Top Concerns
Excerpt: "Despite an 11-year record-setting economic expansion, a new study shows that 74 percent of U.S. workers say they're worried about their financial future-- especially when it comes to their health and retirement benefits." (insure.com)
Finding the Sweet Spot -- Stock Option Overhang
Excerpt: "The measure of stock option usage is called "overhang," which is defined as stock options already granted, plus those remaining to be granted, as a percentage of the total shares outstanding at a company. Overhang has grown dramatically over the past decade because of much larger executive option grants and broader option eligibility." (Watson Wyatt)
| Pension Administrator | for Mid Atlantic Pension Services in NJ |
| 401(k) APPLICATIONS, OMNI-PLUS APPLICATIONS | for Management Recruiters of Portland in CA |
| Pension Compliance Specialist | for CNA TRUST in CA |
| Senior 401(K) Operations Management | for a prestigious financial services provider located in the Boston area in MA |
| Investment Products Manager | for Transamerica Insurance & Investments in |
| Pension Administrator/Senior Pension Administrator | for QPC, Inc. - Western Massachusetts in MA |
| Group Insurance Account Manager | for TLC Agency, Fremont in CA |
| Associate Health & Welfare Consultant | for Buck Consultants, a Mellon Consulting Company in PA |
| Communications Consultant | for MassMutual Benefits Management, Inc. in MA |
| Benefits 2001 Congress | in AZ on March 26, 2001 presented by International Quality & Productivity Center |
| Web-Based Communication | in MD on February 15, 2001 presented by The Baltimore Chapter of ISCEBS |
Subscribe to the Welfare Plans Edition, too (click)
Copyright 2001 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
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