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The BenefitsLink Newsletter -
Retirement Plans Edition


January 23, 2001

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Federal Suit Alleges Company Kept Withheld 401(k) Retirement Funds
Excerpt: "The owners of Canton Analytical Laboratory Inc. in Ypsilanti had a critical cash-flow problem. The company's solution? It kept the money employees deducted from their paychecks for their 401(k) plans, according to a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit filed Jan. 6 in U.S. District Court against the company." (Detroit Free Press)

Market Giving Workers Jolt in Retirement Accounts
Excerpt: "What's going on is the realization that 401(k) accounts are not immune to the ups and downs of the stock market, which took a wild ride last year. For workers whose only contact with the markets is their work-based 401(k) account, the year-end statements are arriving with a nasty jolt." (The Arizona Republic)

New Changes to Tax Laws Will Save Everyone Time And Money
Excerpt: "Forget about RBDs, forget about elections regarding recalculation, forget about another esoteric rule called the M.D.I.B. (since you can forget about it I won't spend the four paragraphs needed to begin explaining it -- other than to say it affected people whose beneficiaries were not their spouse and were more than 10 years younger than them). Instead, get used to -- repeat after me -- TAX SIMPLIFICATION." (WorldlyInvestor.com)

California State Employees Gain Investment Options: Retirement Plan Now Offers 22 Funds
Excerpt: "Under a five-year, $22 million contract, Nationwide Retirement Solutions, a subsidiary of Nationwide Financial of Columbus, Ohio, becomes the third-party administrator for the program. Nationwide will oversee a lineup of 22 funds that investment experts say will enable workers to better tailor their savings plan to meet their most comfortable level of risk as well as their long-term goals." (Sacramento Bee)

Report: Troubled Connecticut City Should Up Pension Fund Contribution
Excerpt: "The financially beleaguered Connecticut city of Waterbury, which faces a projected budget gap somewhere between $41 million and $60 million, hit another stumbling block this week when a new actuarial report determined that the city's annual contribution to its pension trust fund should be raised to $28.5 million from $21 million." (Bond Buyer)

L.A. County Retirement Fund Claims Towers Perrin Miscalculated
Excerpt: "The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association sued Towers Perrin, alleging negligence by the closely held management consulting firm cost the employees' benefit plan $2 billion in lost contributions and earnings. New York-based Towers Perrin served as the retirement association's actuaries for 20 years, according to the complaint filed [January 16, 2001] in Los Angeles Superior Court.... Towers Perrin said in a statement that the retirement fund remains financially secure." (Bloomberg)

Another Question is Answered in the Who's the Employer Q&A Column
I am taking over a 401(k) plan sponsored by an LLC, which is taxed as a partnership. The members of the LLC would like to participate in the plan. Is this possible? Does it matter how much of the LLC they own? If so, how do they make contributions, since they don't have salary to defer? Can it come out of their draws? (BenefitsLink.com)

Morningstar Unveils New Version of Morningstar Clearfuture Retirement Planning Service
Excerpt: "The latest release of ClearFuture, which is now available to participants in more than 7,000 401(k) plans, incorporates several enhancements to the program's three modules--research, education, and guidance/advice." (Business Wire)

Federal Suit Alleges Company Kept Withheld 401(k) Retirement Funds
Excerpt: "The owners of Canton Analytical Laboratory Inc. in Ypsilanti had a critical cash-flow problem. The company's solution? It kept the money employees deducted from their paychecks for their 401(k) plans, according to a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit filed Jan. 6 in U.S. District Court against the company." (Detroit Free Press)

Court Rules Service Provider Is Not A Fiduciary; Not Liable For Employer's Failure To Deposit (PDF)
CSA 401(k) Plan v. Pension Professionals, Inc. (9th Cir. 1999). Excerpt: "[Sometimes a] service provider becomes aware, through its access to plan information, that an employer is failing to timely transmit to the plan 401(k) deferrals or other employee contributions. The Department of Labor has publicly taken the position that, in this circumstance, the service provider may have an obligation to notify plan participants or the DOL. But does a service provider increase its risk [of liability?]" (Trucker Huss)

Experts Say New IRS Rules Will Ease Distributions for Older Taxpayers
Excerpt: "Financial advisers say the proposed rules will lower the tax bills of taxpayers 70-1/2 and older who have an Individual Retirement Account, 401(k) or other tax-deferred retirement plan." (Dallas Morning News)

Surprise! The IRS Makes Life Easier for Retirees
Excerpt: "The proposed changes won't become final until January 1, 2002, after public hearings. But IRS attorney Marjorie Hoffman says taxpayers can rely on the provisions to determine minimum distributions during the 2001 calendar year." (Business Week)

Retirement Payouts Become Child's Play
Excerpt: "The great American tax game has just gotten easier to play for those trying to avoid taxes and those trying to collect them. The U.S. Treasury Department has proposed greatly simplified rules, effective immediately, on distributions from tax-deferred retirement-savings accounts, those government-sanctioned tax havens that have become the cornerstone of retirement plans for millions of Americans." (Chicago Tribune)

An Easier Retirement, Courtesy of Uncle Sam
Excerpt: "Earlier this month, the Internal Revenue Service dramatically simplified the rules governing how much money must be withdrawn from tax-deferred retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)'s." (USNews.com)

Missouri School District Considers Future of Early Retirement Incentive Plan
Excerpt: "[A]n early retirement incentive - now in its second year ... allows employees eligible for early retirement to receive one year of their salary paid to them over a period of three to 10 years." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch )

Issue Brief: Public Sector Pension Portability
Excerpt: "NCPERS supports pension portability. Removing barriers to portability will improve the retirement security of state and local government workers. Public sector pension plans should be similar to those of the private sector which provide for portability. Without these portability provisions, firefighters, law enforcement officers, teachers, and other state and local government employees are penalized." (National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems)

Proposed IRS Rules Would Permit Notice To Interested Parties To Be Provided Via Electronic Media
Excerpt: "The Internal Revenue Service has issued proposed regulations that would permit retirement plan sponsors to notify interested parties of an application for a determination letter via electronic media. The proposed regulations were published in the January 17 Federal Register." (Spencernet)

IRS Reissues Procedures Under EPCRS-- VCR And Walk-In CAP Merged Into Single Submission Program
Summary and analysis by Sal Tripodi. Excerpt: "VCGroup submission allows global correction by service provider; SEPs added to program; errors relating to transferred assets in plan mergers addressed; self-correction through retroactive amendments allowed for certain violations; 'John Doe' proceedings formalized." (TRI Pension Services)

Use-Local-Brokers Rule Eliminated by New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association
Excerpt: "A policy designed to reward local investment brokers has been rescinded by the pension fund for state, county and municipal employees. Retired state worker and Public Employees Retirement Association board member Fabian Chavez lobbied in 2000 to eliminate the 'local broker policy,' observing that the financial success of the PERA fund shouldn't be compromised by local economic development goals." (ABQJournal.com)

The ETA For ETFs Is Now: Exchange-Traded Funds Have Advantages Over Indexed Funds
Excerpt: "Two years after the introduction of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, their assets have nearly doubled annually, to $56.2 billion at the beginning of December. ETFs are by many accounts the fastest-growing investment class of the day." (Worth magazine)

Principal Offers 401(k) Plan Designed for Nonagent Sales
Excerpt: "Principal Financial Group kicked off a campaign to distribute products through nonagent channels Wednesday [January 17, 2001] by introducing a 401(k) plan package that offers a family of 35 outside-managed mutual funds.... the funds in the Principal Advantage Retirement Package will enable the company to market its plans more easily to bank representatives and registered investment advisers." (American Banker)

Soon-to-Retire Investors Urged to Reduce Risk
Excerpt: "For those workers poised on the cusp of retirement, the stock market's recent gyrations raise a potentially life-changing question: What should you do with your 401(k) investment allocation? A lot depends on whether you have other sources of retirement income stashed away besides your 401(k) employee savings plan, financial advisers said." (Dallas Morning News)

Clinton's Social Security Chief Backs Private Retirement Accounts
Excerpt: "While in office, Apfel opposed all attempts to privatize Social Security. Now that he's leaving office, Apfel says he favors President-elect Bush's Social Security reform plan, which would let workers invest some of their withholdings in private retirement accounts." (Cato Institute)

Issue Brief: Mandatory Social Security Coverage
Excerpt: "NCPERS opposes expanding Social Security coverage to non-covered state and local government employees." (National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems)

(Following also appears in Welfare Plans Edition)

Printer-Friendly Version is Available for Most BenefitsLink Pages; Click on the Printer Icon at Left
You'll notice a new "Printer-Friendly Version" icon in the left-hand "menu bar" on most pages on the BenefitsLink web site. Just click on that icon if you'd like to see a version of the page that should print more effectively for you. That version will have only the "contents" of the page, not the left-hand menu bar. Some printers don't print the menu bar correctly, or lose some of the content due to the menu bar; the "Printer-Friendly Version" of any particular page should avoid those problems. (BenefitsLink)

Freeerisa.Com Unveils New Online Database: Employer Identification Numbers
Excerpt: "The first new resource is the EIN FINDER, a searchable database of the employer identification numbers (EIN) for over 1.3 million U.S. employers. Many groups have multiple EINs; the EIN FINDER displays all legal entities associated with a particular group." (PRNewswire)

ERISA Section 510 Claim Takes More Than an Inference of Employer Misconduct
Winkel v. Kennecott Holdings Corporation (10th Cir. 2001). Excerpt: "Shortly after Winkel retired, his employer, Kennecott, adopted a severance plan. Participation in the severance plan was by designation of Kennecott. Upon learning of the severance plan, Winkel attempted to rescind his retirement, but Kennecott refused.... Winkel alleged that Kennecott's refusal to allow him to rescind his retirement decision violated Section 510 of ERISA." (EBIA Weekly)

ERISA Section 510 Does Not Apply to Re-Hire Situations
Williams v. Mack Trucks, Inc. (E.D. Pa. 2000). Excerpt: "After Mack Trucks, the employer in this case, closed a facility, a number of employees lost their jobs. Later, when production needs increased and Mack sought to rehire displaced employees, it adopted a 'pension liability avoidance policy' that basically excluded former employees with credited service under the pension plan." (EBIA Weekly)

DOL Provides New Guidance on Payment of Expenses from Plan Assets
Excerpt: "On January 18, 2001, the Department of Labor issued a new advisory opinion (DOL Letter 2001-01A) and additional guidance, in the form of six hypothetical case studies, which clarify what expenses can be properly charged to a plan. This guidance is extremely critical and timely given the announced audit initiative in many regional Department of Labor offices to apply a stricter standard in determining the propriety of expenses paid for with plan assets." (Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy LLP )

ERISA Advisory Council Leadership Named For 2001
Excerpt: "Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman today named new leadership for 2001 for the Advisory Committee on Employee Welfare and Pension Plans, known more commonly as the ERISA Advisory Council. Michael J. Stapley of Bountiful, Utah, will be the chair and Rebecca J. Miller of Rochester, Minn., the vice chair." (Way to go, Becky! -- Editor.) (U.S. Department of Labor)

IRS Updates Decades-old Guidance on Split-dollar Life Insurance Arrangements
This link probably available only for a very limited time; no archive. Excerpt: "For the first time in decades, the IRS has issued guidance that (1) clarifies prior rulings on the taxation of split-dollar arrangements, (2) provides taxpayers with interim guidance on the tax treatment of split-dollar arrangements pending publication of further guidance, and (3) requests taxpayer comments on the interim guidance and a number of unresolved issues (Notice 2001-10, 2001-5 IRB)." (Practitioners Publishing Company)

DOL Extends Comment Period on Need for Additional Disclosure by Fiduciaries
Excerpt: "This document reopens and extends the period for submitting information on the disclosure obligation of fiduciaries of employee benefit plans governed by ERISA. Comments were originally requested in a notice of request for information published in the Federal Register on September 14, 2000 (65 FR 55858). Under that notice, written comments from the public were requested to be submitted to the Department of Labor on or before January 12, 2001." (U.S. Department of Labor)



Job Openings Newly Posted or Reposted on EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com


401(k)/Pension Administratorfor Great Lakes Pension Administrators, Inc.
in MI
Regional VP/Wholesaler, 401(k) Plans NE Territoryfor SunAmerica Inc.
in CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT
Employee Benefits/ERISA Attorneyfor Polsinelli Shalton & Welte, P.C.
in MO

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Copyright 2001 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.

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