| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Retirement Plans Edition |  |
August 30, 2001 - 12,749 subscribers
Today's sponsor: The Institute of Management & Administration
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
Have you ever wished for a research tool that gave you access to the most current thinking in the Benefits and Compensation arena? Well, now you can have it! IOMA's HR, Benefits & Compensation e-Library, a part of its Management Library site, will help you squash the competition, impress your boss, and gain the respect of your peers. Thousands of articles on management techniques for streamlining your HR department. Graphs & Charts. Competi- tive analysis, and more! Load up on the tools for SUCCESS... NOW!
(Help BenefitsLink to provide this newsletter at no charge to you -- our sponsors pay our way. Remember to visit them periodically; we try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
American Benefits Council Provides Suggestions to IRS for Forthcoming Revised 204(h) Regs (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "ERISA section 204(h) generally requires a pension plan administrator to provide advance notice of a significant reduction in future benefit accrual. Section 659 of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 ('EGTRRA') provides additional rules regarding such notices, including an excise tax for failures to comply. The issues addressed in this letter relate to the administrative implementation of this legislative change." (American Benefits Council)
American Benefits Council Provides Suggestions to IRS for Forthcoming Revised 402(f) Notice (PDF)
Excerpt: "[T]he Council urges the Treasury and IRS to take the opportunity presented by the EGTRRA changes to further simplify the language and shorten the length of the model rollover notice as much as possible." (American Benefits Council)
Retirement Plan Balanced, Indiana University Officials Say
Excerpt: "Seeing the potential cost of payouts to retiring faculty -- $2 billion over the next 30 years -- IU devised a plan three years ago to offset pension payments. In the plan, colleges would have to cover 20 percent of the cost of their retirees, among other money-saving items.... The program ... helped IU compete for the nation's best professors despite lower annual salaries, [Bloomington Faculty Council President Robert Eno] said." (Indiana Daily Student via Excite.com)
Analysts: Social Security Funds are Safe
Excerpt: "[P]oliticians may have to dip their grubby fingers into the Social Security trust fund again after all their hands-off promises. Just how worried should we all be about our retirement? Not very, experts say. 'This doesn't mean a blessed thing,' said David John, senior Social Security analyst for The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. 'It's essentially a theoretical discussion that won't affect Social Security in the short term or even in the long term.'" (Associated Press via Yahoo! News)
Economists Back Projection of Necessity to Dip Into Social Security Surplus
Excerpt: "New budget projections from Congressional analysts and the White House show that the Bush administration and Congressional leaders are almost certain to violate their promise not to dip into the Social Security surplus to pay the government's bills, prominent economists said [on August 28]." (New York Times; free registration required)
Another Question is Answered in the Who's the Employer Q&A Column
"Corporation A" has proposed that each of its top salespeople create an LLC of his or her own, with which the corporation will contract. Each salesperson will be the sole owner of his or her LLC. The corporation hopes to eliminate these individuals as employees and deal with the LLCs on an independent contractor basis. Will that work to keep them out of the corporation's retirement plan? Will the corporation have to pay payroll taxes for these workers? (BenefitsLink.com)
Federal Thrift Board Issues Final Rules On Methods of Withdrawing Funds From TSP
The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has issued final regulations that amend the agency's existing rules on methods of withdrawing funds from the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). The TSP is a tax-deferred retirement savings plan for federal employees that is similar to a Sec. 401(k) cash or deferred arrangement. The regulations governing the TSP, which are codified at 5 CFR 1650, were published in final form in 1997, and subsequently were amended by final regulations issued in 1999. (Spencernet)
Use of "W-2 Wages" Definition of Employee Was Not An Abuse of Discretion, Ninth Circuit Rules
The administrators of two pension plans did not abuse their discretion when they applied a 'W-2 wages' definition of 'employee' in determining that a group of plaintiffs was not eligible for benefits under the plans. This was the ruling of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Hensley v. Northwest Permanente P.C. Retirement Plan & Trust, et al. (No. 99-35936). (Spencernet)
Profit Sharing Council Develops Investment Policy Aids For Defined Contribution Plans
The Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America (PSCA) has developed a best practices illustration of an investment policy statement for plan sponsors wishing to develop a written investment policy statement for a defined contribution plan. PSCA has also developed a white paper describing the role of a written investment policy statement in the defined contribution investment process and discussing the advantages and concerns with adopting a written investment policy statement. (Spencernet)
Tax Relief's Broad Effects For Benefit Plans: Part II
Passed with little fanfare in the popular press, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA, P. L. 107-16) will impact all pension and profit sharing plans and changes several welfare plan requirements in educational assistance and dependent care. (Spencernet)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| Operations Administrator | for Ceridian in CA |
| System Support Assistant | for Benefit Plan Services, Inc. (BPSI) in GA |
| 401(k) Enroller/Contractor - Bilingual | for Transamerica in ALL STATES |
| 401(k) Enroller/Contractor | for Transamerica in ALL STATES |
| Daily Valuation Relius Conversion Administrator | for Ingham Group in Miami in FL |
| Qualified Plan Administrator | for Lane Gorman Trubitt, L.L.P. in TX |
| Operations and Implementation Manager | for Ceridian in CA, CO, FL, VA, WI |
| Benefits Analyst II | for Raley's in CA |
| Benefits Advisor | for U.S. Department of Labor/Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration in DC |
Subscribe to the Welfare Plans Edition, too (click)
Copyright 2001 BenefitsLink.com, Inc., but you may freely distribute this email newsletter in whole. This newsletter is edited by David Rhett Baker, J.D.
- How to Sponsor an Issue: reach 12,749 benefits professionals!
- How to Subscribe
- Privacy Policy
- Archive of Prior Issues