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October 18, 2002 - 12,057 subscribers
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Labor Department Adopts Amendment To Broker-Dealers Exemption
Press release. Excerpt: "The [DOL has] issued a technical amendment to an existing class exemption [PTE 86-128] that allows employee benefit plan fiduciaries to use certain affiliated broker-dealers to execute securities transactions for plans. The revised exemption is designed to address the consolidation in the financial services industry that has resulted in more trustees having an affiliation with broker-dealers. The amendment puts trustees on a level playing field with investment managers." (U.S. Department of Labor, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration)
Full Text of Labor Department Amendment To Broker-Dealers Exemption
Excerpt: "This document amends PTE 86-128, a class exemption that permits certain persons who serve as fiduciaries for employee benefit plans to effect or execute securities transactions on behalf of those plans, provided that specified conditions are met. The exemption also allows sponsors of pooled separate accounts and other pooled investment funds to use their affiliates to effect or execute securities transactions for such accounts when certain conditions are met." (U.S. Department of Labor, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration)
Pension Woes Mount As Bear Market Mauls Employer Plan Returns
Excerpt: "Over or not, the bear market is showing up in corporate earnings statements in a big way-- through unfunded pension liabilities. Those liabilities reared their heads Wednesday as Ford, Boeing and Whirlpool reported third-quarter earnings. They mark a sharp reversal of fortune for much of corporate America." (Investors Daily via Yahoo! News)
Your Company's 401(k) Is Making a Statement
Excerpt: "If there is a half-joking, half-anxious symbol of the state of personal finance in America in 2002, it is the unopened 401(k) statement.... Here's a cautionary insight. At Fidelity and Vanguard, employees have 401(k)s, of course. But Fidelity also provides a pension program, and Vanguard contributes 10% of its employees' salaries to a retirement account that is separate from any 401(k)." (FastCompany.com)
Alleviating Teacher Shortages Through Pension Plan Redesign (PDF)
4 pages; originally published Oct. 2001. Excerpt: "[M]any states are turning to pension reforms to keep retirement-eligible teachers in the classroom while they search for a more permanent solution. This article explores the demographic changes that resulted in the short supply of teachers and outlines some of the ways states are redesigning public pension plans to mitigate the effects of the shortage." (Government Finance Review, reprinted online by the National Council on Teacher Retirement)
Defined Benefit Pension Crisis Coming?
Excerpt: "Executives at companies that still offer defined benefit (DB) pension plans are beginning to realize they don't have enough money to cover the payouts for those plans. Of course, this should not be too surprising given that the stock markets have been in a virtual freefall for more than 2 years." (CFO.com)
Online Annuity Calculator Is Handy Source for Estimating Payouts Under Alternate Forms of Benefit
Excerpt: "These quotations were provided by WebAnnuities.com. You can reach our customer care team at 800-... Note, these are AVERAGE quotations from the sixteen companies shown on the right. To receive ITEMIZED quotations from our top companies, check the annuity option box next to each quote and type your email address at the bottom of this page." (WebAnnuities.com)
How America Saves: a Report on Vanguard Defined Contribution Plans
97 pages; Sept. 2002. Excerpt: "Illustrated with numerous charts and tables, [this] book-length report provides an overview of U.S. retirement plans; an analysis of savings, investing, and account activity trends in Vanguard defined contribution plans; and insights and strategies on a variety of contemporary issues, including retirement savings adequacy, company stock, and participant trading behavior during the bear market." (The Vanguard Group)
Integrating Payouts: Annuity Design and Public Pension Benefits in Mandatory DC Plans
22 pages; Working Paper no. 2002-17. Excerpt: "This chapter focuses on the design of annuities and similar retirement income instruments. It is especially concerned with interactions between annuity preference and underlying publicly-provided safety net support. Because DC-type plans expose individuals to investment and inflation risk, governments often provide guarantees on pension fund benefits, as well as non-means tested transfers to the retired." (Suzanne Doyle and John Piggott, published by the Pension Research Council)
Do Social Funds Deserve Your Money?
Originally published Sept. 2001. Excerpt: "If you're a fund investor, you can expect a growing number of pitches from funds that are socially conscious (a less loaded and more accurate term than 'responsible')." (Mutual Funds magazine)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Employee Stock Options, Corporate Taxes and Debt Policy
Working paper; available from SSRN.com for $5. Excerpt: "We find that employee stock option deductions lead to large aggregate tax savings for Nasdaq 100 and S&P 100 firms and also affect corporate marginal tax rates.... [O]ption deductions are important nondebt tax shields that can affect corporate policies." (John R. Graham, Mark H. Lang, Douglas A. Shackelford, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings -
Benefits Advisor
for U.S. Department of Labor/Pension & Welfare Benefits Administration
in DC
Pension Analyst
for L.I. Employee Benefits Group, LTD
in NY
Principal Administrative Analyst, Job#: 1820-02
for University of California Office of the President
in CA
Compliance Assistant
for Transamerica Retirement Services
in CA
Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!)
Long-Term Care Benefits: Medicare...Medicaid...or Insured?
in PA
October 23, 2002
Futurecare Associates, Inc.
Accumulate Wealth with New Roth IRA Conversion Opportunities
in PA
October 23, 2002
James Langes, Esq., CPA James Lange Law Offices
Pay Taxes Later: Tax Savvy Planning for IRAs and Retirement Plans
in PA
October 23, 2002
James Langes, Esq., CPA James Lange Law Offices
How to Respond to the Market Downturn
in PA
October 23, 2002
Ted Bovard, Senior V.P. and Partner, Fort Pitt Capital Group, Inc.
Improve Your Company's 401(k) Plan
in OH
November 13, 2002
Everhart Financial Group, Inc.
Improve Your Company's 401(k) Plan
in OH
November 14, 2002
Everhart Financial Group, Inc.
The New Global Environment--2002 Global Equity Compensation Conference
in CA
November 11, 2002
National Ctr for Employee Ownership & WorldatWork
CATCH-UP CONTRIBUTIONS -- THE LATEST GUIDANCE
in NY
November 14, 2002
NYC Chapter of WEB
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