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Retirement Plans
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January 9, 2003 - 12,861 subscribers
Today's sponsor: The Plan Sales System

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(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
Post a Help Wanted Ad

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)


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