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The BenefitsLink Newsletter -
Retirement Plans Edition February 9, 2001 Today's sponsor is EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com (click on banner for more information) Fill your employee benefits job openings fast by advertising on EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com (a division of BenefitsLink). One of the 50 best recruiting sites on the whole Internet (says CareerXRoads). BenefitsLink is "one of the Web's best sites" (says Forbes magazine).
401k Fees Can Pilfer Profits Excerpt: "For millions of Americans, the most important investment of a lifetime is the 401k plan for retirement savings. But new research shows there could be a hidden problem in your plan. The legislation to create 401k’s passed in 1978 and now 40 million Americans have them. So what’s the hidden problem? Fees." (MSNBC.com) Conquering Cultural Miscommunications Excerpt: "Encouraging employees to enroll in a 401(k) plan or increase their deferral rate can be challenging, especially if the audience is unfamiliar with investment concepts. The challenge becomes even greater if the audience is still assimilating to American culture or isn’t fluent in English." (Profit Sharing/401k Council of America; free registration required) Maximizing the Potential of Your 401(k) Plan Excerpt: "Until recently, benchmarking the actual performance of a 401(k) plan has not been an exact science. Watson Wyatt's 401(k) Value Index (tm) is a meaningful yardstick that enables plan sponsors to measure how well their 401(k) plan is meeting its goals and delivering value to participants-- because there is a big difference between cost and value." (Watson Wyatt) New Comparability "Gateway" May Be Too Rigid For Small Businesses Excerpt: "Witnesses at an IRS hearing on proposed regulations concerning the nondiscrimination requirements for certain defined contribution (DC) plans held January 25, 2001 in Washington, DC, discussed the merits of the hybrid computation that they indicated would arbitrarily affect employees of small businesses." (CCH) February 2001 Applicable Federal Rates Excerpt: "This revenue ruling provides various prescribed rates for federal income tax purposes for February 2001 (the current month). Table 1 contains the short-term, mid-term, and long-term applicable federal rates (AFR) for the current month for purposes of section 1274(d) of the Internal Revenue Code." (Compiled by Ernst & Young LLP) Philadelphia Council Counters a Pension Loophole Excerpt: "City Council voted unanimously yesterday to close a loophole in the city's police pension law that allowed civilian workers to collect generous police pensions even though they never worked a day in uniform." (Philadelphia Inquirer) Firm President Was Liable For Prohibited Transaction Excise Taxes On Excessive Plan Loans Excerpt: "A company president who took a number of excessive loans from the company's defined benefit plan and only partially repaid those loans was liable for both the first-tier and the second-tier excise taxes on prohibited transactions. This was the ruling of the U.S. Tax Court in Geib v. Commissioner (Docket No. 7109-98. T.C. Memo. 2000-391)." (Spencernet) The Aging of Aquarius: The Baby Boom Matures (PDF) 12 pages. Excerpt: "Employers and other plan sponsors engrossed in making daily decisions may wonder why they should take out time from tending to immediately pressing issues to take a broad look at the nation’s demographic profile. The answer: National demographic trends show who, from today’s labor market, will be available to do tomorrow’s work and point the way to making the transition effectively." (Special Report by The Segal Company) Dot-com Executives: Out of Options Excerpt: "It's a new-economy nightmare: Not only are most dot-com stocks worthless, but executives now have to quit their jobs to pay the taxes on options." (The Standard) What's the Size, Role & Future of TPAs' Marketplace? Excerpt: "SPBA's member Third Party Administration (TPA) benefits outsourcing firms administer the employee benefits of about 40% of all U.S. workers. Entities other than SPBA members performing TPA duties...such as insurance company Administrative-Services-Only( ASO) cover an additional estimated 12-15% of the U.S. workforce. Thus, about 55% of all U.S. workers' employee benefit plans are administered by some form of outsourcing TPA." (Society of Professional Benefit Administrators) ERIC Comments on Proposed NYSE Rule Requiring Shareholder Approval of Stock Option Plans Excerpt: "Because of current federal tax law restrictions, many companies have obtained shareholder approval of their option plans. Option plans should not be subjected to additional shareholder approval requirements." (ERISA Industry Committee) Graef Crystal: Amazon.com Option Plan Offers Less, But Sooner Excerpt: "Amazon.com Inc.'s chief executive, Jeffrey Bezos, is supposed to be a long-term thinker from everything that I have read. He's portrayed along the lines of the Japanese of a generation ago, who stressed building sales because they believed that higher market share would inevitably lead to juicy profits. So why is Bezos now urging employees to turn in long-term stock options in large numbers and to receive short-term options in smaller numbers?" (Graef Crystal, on Bloomberg.com) Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
Subscribe to the Welfare Plans Edition, too (click) Copyright 2001 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. Feel free to forward this email to friends, colleagues or clients, if no fee is paid to you and the email is forwarded in its entirety. Thanks! BenefitsLink is a trademark of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., published by Dave Baker with much help from Mary Hall and lots of friends. To subscribe (free): visit https://benefitslink.com/newsletter - or the person desiring to subscribe can send an email to BLretirement@add.mb00.net We have an online archive of prior issues at https://benefitslink.com/newsletters/ |
