September 18, 2002 - 11,860 subscribers Today's sponsor: The Plan Sales System (Click on company name or banner to learn more.) MARKETING EXPERT SHOWS HOW TO GROW YOUR 401(k) PRACTICE 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. (Help BenefitsLink to provide this newsletter at no charge to you -- our sponsors pay your way. Remember to visit them periodically; we try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor) Facts from EBRI: Retirement Plan Assets at Year-End 2001 (PDF) 3 pages. Excerpt: "As of year-end 2001, total retirement plan assets amounted to $10.69 trillion. These assets consisted of $4.0 trillion in private trusteed plans ($1.89 trillion in defined benefit plans and $2.11 trillion in defined contribution plans), $2.40 trillion in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and Keogh plans, $2.18 trillion in state and local government plans, $1.34 trillion in private insured plans, and $811 billion in the federal government's plans for its employees." (Employee Benefit Research Institute) Fiduciaries Held Liable to Restore Investment Losses to Pension Plan Springate v. Weighmasters Murphy, Inc. Money Purchase Pension Plan (C.D. Cal. 2002). Excerpt: "This case involves investment losses in an ERISA money purchase pension plan that occurred after the plan's fiduciaries delayed for over a year in making a requested distribution under the plan.... The court held ... the fiduciaries personally liable to restore to the plan the amount lost ... along with prejudgment interest and attorneys' fees, and then disburse the balance of the account ..." (EBIA Weekly) DOL Advisory Opinion Allows Governmental Agency to Receive QDRO Payments DOL Advisory Opinion 2002-03A (June 7, 2002). Excerpt: "[T]he Mississippi Department of Human Services, Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) ... could be designated as the party to whom payments should be made on behalf of an alternate payee when paid pursuant to a qualified domestic relations order ('QDRO').... In the DOL's view, this reimbursement of advance child support from pension plan funds would not cause the order to fail as a QDRO." (EBIA Weekly) Widows of Firefighters and Police Asked to Return Overpayments from Pension Plan Excerpt: "Marilyn Rago, a police officer's widow who was asked to repay $176,000 to the El Paso Firemen and Policemen's Pension Fund earlier this year, is not alone anymore. Pension fund lawyers have identified 13 more widows and one retiree who were overpaid a total of $750,000.... Many of the women have hired lawyers and have enlisted the support of state Reps. Manny Najera and Paul Moreno ..." (ElPasoTimes.com) Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General Analysis: Notice Puts a Damper on Split-Dollar September 16, 2002 'article of the week.' Excerpt: "[T]he Service recently issued a notice on the valuation of current life insurance protection under split dollar life insurance arrangements. The notice will have a direct affect on reverse split dollar, and some commentators have said that it will cause the end of the usefulness of reverse split dollar arrangements and also affect reverse split dollar arrangements that were entered into before the notice was issued." (The National Underwriter Company) Commission Calls for Major Compensation Reforms Excerpt: "The Conference Board's Blue-Ribbon Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise today proposed a wide-ranging series of reforms to strengthen corporate compensation practices and help restore trust in America's corporations and capital markets.... This report, the first in a series of three reports, focuses on executive compensation. Subsequent reports will deal with reforms on other areas of corporate governance as well as accounting and auditing issues." (The Conference Board) Analysis: Options Accounting Changes Backed Excerpt: "A special task force of the Conference Board, a respected business policy group, is set to add its name [on Tuesday, September 17, 2002] to a growing list of companies and organizations that favor counting executive stock options as an expense against earnings. But two well-known members of the 12-person task force will dissent from the group's recommendation." (Washington Post) Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings - Senior DC / 401(k) Administrators for L.A. Area TPA with Ocean View in CA Project Manager for Transamerica in CA Conversion/Installation Specialist for BenefitStreet in CA National Sales Manager - Qualified Retirement Plan Sales for Metavante 401(k) Services in ALL STATES Healthcare Claims Audit Consultants - NYC & Chicago for PricewaterhouseCoopers in IL, NY Health and Welfare Consultant - Dallas for PricewaterhouseCoopers in TX Newly Posted Press Releases Pensiononline releases latest version of web-Based Plan Design System (Pensiononline) Alliance Benefit Group Chooses SunGard for Straight-Through Processing (SunGard Corbel) Subscribe to the BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter, too (click)
Feel free to send this email to friends, colleagues or clients, if you copy or forward this email in its entirety (including this boilerplate part). Copyright 2002 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. Published by: BenefitsLink.com, Inc. https://benefitslink.com/about.html 1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H Winter Park FL 32789 (407) 644-4146 Fax: (407) 644-2151 Editor and Publisher: David Rhett Baker, J.D.
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