January 9, 2003 - 12,861 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) Taxpayers Can Apply for Waiver of 60-Day Rollover Deadline; IRS Prescribes Certain Automatic Waivers Excerpt: "The Service will issue a ruling waiving the 60-day rollover requirement in cases where the failure to waive such requirement would be against equity or good conscience, including casualty, disaster or other events beyond the reasonable control of the taxpayer. In determining whether to grant a waiver, the Service will consider all relevant facts and circumstances, including ..." (Internal Revenue Service) Senator Wants PBGC to Delay Takeover of Bethlehem Steel Pension Plan Excerpt: "U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., is calling on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to delay its takeover of the bankrupt Bethlehem Steel Corporation's pension plan. That takeover, which would be effective Dec. 18, enormously complicated--but ultimately did not succeed in killing--International Steel Group's offer, made Monday, to purchase all of Bethlehem's operating assets for $1.5 billion in cash and assumed liability." (Chesterton [Ind.] Tribune) Senator Proposes Stretching Minimum Funding Requirements for US Airways Pension Plan Excerpt: "Sen. Rick Santorum, seeking to bring US Airways out of bankruptcy, wants to let the strapped airline string out $3.1 billion in payments to its employee pension plan over 30 years." (AP via Lycos News) DB Pension Plans' Heavier Loads Excerpt: "Weighed down by poor investment returns and low interest rates, some traditional plans may throw in the towel." (Kiplinger's Personal Finance) Link to U.K. 'Green Paper' and Various Documents About British Pension Reform Excerpt: "[T]he [British] Government tackled pension reform head on as it published a radical strategy to help people plan their retirement with confidence, with a twin approach to encourage more saving and promote longer working lives. Wide-ranging proposals designed to boost choice in pensions, as well as incentives to encourage older workers to remain in employment, are proposed in the Green Paper published [December 17, 2002]." (Department for Work and Pensions) Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General California Court Orders Trial to Determine Validity of Employee Releases re Unvested Stock Options (PDF) 2 pages. Excerpt: "Employers should take note of a recent decision of a California appeals court allowing employees to proceed to trial with claims challenging the validity of release agreements they signed giving up claims to unvested stock options." (Pillsbury Winthrop LLP) Institutional Shareholders Fed Up With Excessive Stock Options for Executives Excerpt: "As if tech companies don't have enough problems to contend with as they head into 2003, they're about to face another: It's going to be tougher than ever to dole out stock options to their employees this year. The culprit? Big institutional shareholders, which are sick of seeing employees cash in as stock prices dwindle." (Fortune) CCH Analysis of Bush Economic Stimulus Proposal Excerpt: "President Bush's plan to stimulate the economy through new and accelerated tax breaks will benefit almost everyone who pays taxes, although some groups will see much more effect than others, according to CCH INCORPORATED (CCH) ... The plan is designed to have both direct, and very predictable effects -- lowering the taxes due -- and indirect effects, such as bolstering stock prices and increasing business spending, which are more difficult to verify in advance." (CCH via NewsAlert.com) Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings Senior Defined Contribution Plan Administrator for Urbach Kahn & Werlin Advisors, Inc. in NY Employee Benefits Associate Attorney for Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP in MO Defined Contribution Administrator for Investment & Financial Advisory Consulting Firm in IL Human Resources/Benefits Coordinator for John's Island Club - Vero Beach, Florida in FL Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!) National Managed Health Care Congress in DC March 10, 2003 IIR Exhibitions 401(k) Plan Sponsors -- Balancing Divergent Goals in 2003 in ALL STATES January 22, 2003 Hewitt Associates Movers and Shakers: Newly Posted Announcements of Promotions and New Personnel (Post Yours!) Susan E. Stoffer, Kathryn B. Solley, Samuel S. Choy, Eugene M. Holmes (Seyfarth Shaw) Handy Links:
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