| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Retirement Plans Edition |  |
March 30, 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.
Pension Backup Agency Remains Strong
Excerpt: "The government's backup fund for private workers' pensions had a surplus of $9.7 billion last year, resulting from higher investment earnings and low losses from plan terminations, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said Thursday." (Associated Press, via Excite News)
Wary Japanese Brace For Pension Culture Shock
Excerpt: "[I]ndustry experts say that U.S.-style pension reforms giving Japanese unprecedented freedom to invest their life savings will eventually shake up everything from investment attitudes to labor mobility.... But change they must, simply because Japan's current pension system has been stretched to breaking point by a rapidly aging society, cripplingly low interest rates and bureaucratic inefficiency." (Reuters via Excite News)
PBGC Reports Additional Strengthening of Financial Condition, Customer Service in 2000
Excerpt: "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's (PBGC) financial position has never been stronger, the federal pension insurance agency said in its 2000 Annual Report, released today. The Report also describes the agency's continuing focus on providing premier service to its customers." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation press release)
Colorado Plan Trustees Ordered To Repay Participants and Disband 401(k) Plan
Excerpt: "Two Colorado officials agreed March 21 to restore $17,125 to the 401(k) pension plan of the now defunct JRMK Companies, Inc. of Denver and to terminate the plan when all court-ordered conditions are met. Milton Karavites and Jon Reed allegedly violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) when they failed to forward participant contributions and loan repayments to the plan." (U.S. Department of Labor press release)
'I, for One, Am Quite Content With the TSP'
Excerpt: "Although substantial numbers of federal employees have expressed frustration over the delays in upgrading computers for the Thrift Savings Plan, the program has its defenders." (Washington Post)
Reversing a Roth IRA Rollover or Conversion
Excerpt: "A taxpayer who converts a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA can undo all or part of the conversion by making a trustee-to-trustee transfer of the funds from the Roth IRA to a traditional IRA no later than the due date, including extensions, for the return for the year the conversion originally occurred ..." (Practitioners Publishing Company)
Another Question is Answered in the Stock Options, Restricted Stock and Other Long-Term Employment Incentives Q&A Column
Employee X exercised his nonqualified stock option on 6/1/2000 with a $1 exercise price. The Fair Market value of the stock was $5 on 6/1/2000. However, the Company stock was not actually delivered to X until 11/1/2000 when the fair market value of the stock was $2. The 2000 Form W-2 for X included $4 of income attributable to the exercise ($5 - $1). Is there any exception to this treatment since the stock was delivered on the exercise date? (BenefitsLink.com)
Graef Crystal: Advanced Micro's CEO Takes Investors for a Ride
Excerpt: "You can count on two things at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. First, shareholders of the Sunnyvale, California, chipmaker will be subject to volatility that matches the scariest roller coaster they ever rode. And second, whether ordinary AMD investors fare well or not, founder and CEO W. Jerry Sanders III always will come out on top." (Graef Crystal, on Bloomberg.com)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| ERISA Documents Technician | for PFPC Inc. in NC |
| Qualified Plans Manager | for First Trust Corporation - Retirement Services in CO |
| Compliance Specialist | for First Trust Corporation - Retirement Services in CO |
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