| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Retirement Plans Edition |  |
March 7, 2001
Today's sponsor: The Plan Sales System (click)
The Plan Sales System is a comprehensive, 16-step system for growing a retirement plan sales practice. It provides detailed resources, contact names and numbers, checklists, charts, handouts, letters, extensive prospecting techniques, descriptions of current market opportunities, and tools for planning and monitoring sales activity.
Ameritrade Partnership Targets 401(k)s
Excerpt: "Omaha's Ameritrade Holding Corp. announced Wednesday a partnership with a Newton, Mass.-based online 401(k) provider that it hopes will bring new customers to its brokerage services. The partnership with Persumma Financial LLC will open a new market to Ameritrade -- the business-to-business segment -- better known as B2B. Ameritrade, one of the nation's largest discount online brokerages, said it will begin marketing the service to businesses in early summer." (Omaha World-Herald)
401(k) Servicer Adds Brokerage Accounts
Excerpt: "A recent entry into the retirement services field is giving 401(k) plan investors more choices and more flexibility in managing their money. Persumma Financial, the retirement services unit of MassMutual Financial Group, has teamed up with the online brokerage Ameritrade Holdings Corp. of Omaha to let employees direct their own 401(k) plan portfolios by buying and selling individual securities as well as mutual funds." (American Banker)
Payout Options for Those Who Can't Wait to Retire
Excerpt: "It is one of the best-kept secrets in personal finance: Despite protestations to the contrary from the companies that market Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) /403(b) contributory retirement plans, you can cash out part or all of an account long before your so-called 'eligibility date.'" (Christian Science Monitor)
Retirees Trump Qwest Again
Excerpt: "Qwest Communications International Inc. must allow stockholders to vote on a resolution that would prohibit the company from linking pension profits to executive pay, a U S West retirees group said Tuesday. The resolution, according to the Association of U S West Retirees, would stop Qwest's board of directors from allegedly using "paper gains" from the $7 billion employee pension surplus to boost executive compensation." (Denver Rocky Mountain News)
As Boomers Retire, Employers Will Have to Adapt
Excerpt: "Economists and public policy makers say [62-year-old Donald J.] Ehnot could be typical of the American retiree of the future, with his part-time hours, his technical skills and his definition of retirement as simply working less. And employers will need more workers like Ehnot, especially in the next five to 10 years as the 76 million baby boomers in the United States begin reaching retirement age." (Allentown [Pa.] Morning Call)
Way Kentucky Figures Retirement Benefits for State Employees May Be Changed
Excerpt: "Momentum is growing in the Kentucky General Assembly to change the way most state employees' retirement benefits are calculated, though Gov. Paul Patton prefers delaying such action.... It basically would base retirement benefits for state workers on their three highest years of pay instead of the five highest years of pay." (Lexington Herald-Leader )
Update on Required Minimum Distributions
Excerpt: "Account holders who have been [receiving minimum distributions] the old way can start using the new method right away. There is one exception; account holders who attained age 70-1/2 in 2000 have to use the old method to calculate their 2000 RMDs. For 2001 RMDs, which must be completed by December 31st, 2001, everyone can rely upon the new rules." (James E. Hughes, Esq. of Hancock & Estabrook, LLP)
Retirees Get 2nd Item Put On Qwest Agenda
Excerpt: "The Association of US West Retirees has landed a second item on the agenda for Qwest Communications International's annual meeting in May, this time targeting whether pension-fund increases can influence executive pay packages.... The US West retirees' association argues that Qwest executives should not benefit from the growth of the company's pension fund, which now has a $7 billion surplus." (Denver Post)
Plan Design: A Review of Current Public Pension Issues (PDF)
36 pages. Originally published January, 2000. Excerpt: "During the 2000 session of the Kansas Legislature, a number of proposals to change the benefit structure of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, wholly or in part, from a Defined Benefit (DB) plan to a Defined Contribution (DC) plan will be considered.... The enclosed report contains a detailed analysis of those issues, sets forth several recommendations for legislative consideration, and conveys the following observations." (Kansas Public Employees Retirement System)
Graef Crystal: Coke's Board Needs to Check Its Daft Pay Pact
Excerpt: "No matter how they perform, chief executives of Coca-Cola Co. always earn a ton of money." (Graef Crystal, on Bloomberg.com)
Keeping Options Afloat
Excerpt: "The [upcoming annual Walt Disney Company annual] meeting could foreshadow a lively proxy season this spring, say corporate-governance experts, with stock-option compensation the hottest topic.... The heart of the issue is what to do about last year. Nasdaq posted its worst year ever in 2000, meaning thousands of senior executives and rank-and-file employees are sitting on options with strike prices that are far above the current share price." (CFO.com)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| 401(k) Pension Administrator | for The Pension Group, Inc. in CA |
| 401(k) / Retirement Plan Administrator | for Howard Simon & Associates, Inc. in IL |
| HR/Benefits Administrator (Contract Position) | for Visual Networks in MD |
Subscribe to the Welfare Plans Edition, too (click)
Copyright 2001 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
You may freely distribute this email newsletter in whole.
Click here to learn how your company can sponsor a future issue!
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
To unsubscribe: visit https://benefitslink.com/newsletter - or you can send an email to BLretirement@remove.mb00.net
We have an online archive of prior issues at
https://benefitslink.com/newsletters/