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February 20, 2003 - 13,051 subscribers
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2003 Update on Pension Activity Audio Conference Feb. 27, 2003 * President Bush's proposal * Bills introduced on the Hill * Shrinking 401(k) balances * PBGC * Real world application of future pension action Martha Priddy Patterson, director of benefits policy analysis for Deloitte & Touche, and Robert Davis, manager with Deloitte & Touche, will bring you up to date on these points and more. Plus-- you'll get answers to your tough questions on this revolving issue at the end of the audio conference.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Solo(k) Plans Go It Alone
Excerpt: "Taking advantage of a provision buried in the 2001 tax act, many self-employed people are setting up their own 401(k) plans." (The San Francisco Chronicle)
Shifting Responsibility for Funding Pensions
Excerpt: "The savings accounts proposed by the Bush administration are meant to produce fundamental changes in the way Americans think about saving for retirement and to shift the primary responsibility from the business community to the individual." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
National Pension Lawyers Network Being Hosted at U Mass Boston's Pension Action Center
Excerpt: "[This] no-cost referral service ... connects workers and retirees with professionals who can help them understand and enforce their pension rights.... The Lawyer Referral Panel is made up of lawyers from around the country who are available to represent workers, retirees, and their families in pension matters on a regular-fee, reduced-fee, and/or pro bono basis.... [The service's second component is the] Pension Consultants Panel ... [and the third is the] Technical Assistance Panel." (Pension Action Center, Gerontology Institute, University of Massachusetts Boston)
US Airways Pilots to Protest Termination of Pension Plan
Excerpt: "Scores of uniformed US Airways pilots are expected to attend a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing Friday to protest the termination of their pension plan." (USA Today via Yahoo! News)
PBGC Proposes Rules on Filings, Issuances, Computation of Time, and Electronic Record Retention
Originally published Feb. 14, 2003. Excerpt: "We propose ... to remove requirements from our regulations that might limit electronic filing with us or electronic issuances to others. The proposed rules will give us flexibility to keep pace with ever-changing technology. In addition, they simplify and consolidate our rules on what methods you may use to send us a filing or provide an issuance to someone other than us, on how to determine the date we treat you as having made your filing ..." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation)
Oregon Governor's Signature Puts Cap on Public Employee Retirement
Excerpt: "Gov. Ted Kulongoski made good Tuesday on his pledge to put pension reform at the top of his priority list, signing into law a bill that caps public employee retirement earnings." (The [Eugene, Ore.] Register-Guard)
Retirement Incentives and Couples' Retirement Decisions
Working paper by an economist, available for downloading from SSRN.com for $5. Excerpt: "This paper explores how husbands' and wives' retirement behavior is influenced by their own financial incentives from Social Security and private pensions and by spillover effects' from their spouses' incentives." (Courtney Coile, published by National Bureau of Economic Research)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Overview: DOL Proposed Class Exemption for Settlement of Lawsuits Brought by Plans
Excerpt: "When an ERISA plan has been wronged, the plan's fiduciaries must take steps to ensure the plan is made whole. This sometimes involves ... legal action against other plan fiduciaries or parties in interest. Even though it often may be in the plan's best interest to settle these claims, certain settlement agreements may violate ERISA's and the IRC's prohibited transaction rules. In order to facilitate settlements, the [DOL] is proposing a ... class exemption ..." (Deloitte & Touche Human Capital Advisory Services)
Commentary: a Theory on Corporate Greed
Excerpt: "[The recent corporate scandals] resulted from a widely accepted economic theory about how to create incentives to govern a business. Most of us have heard the argument. The overriding objective of a company's management should be to maximize shareholder value-- that is, keep the stock price rising. For Lynn Sharp Paine, a professor of business ethics at Harvard Business School, the single-minded attention to such priorities was at the heart of the recent problems." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Corporate Governance in Crisis: Executive Pay/Stock Option Overhang 2003
Press release, with link to report. Excerpt: "'The results of our latest analysis clearly demonstrate that, in both up and down markets, there continues to be a strong relationship between company performance and executive pay levels,' says Ira Kay, Ph.D., national director of compensation consulting at Watson Wyatt and author of the study." (Watson Wyatt)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Pension - Financial Planning Assistant
for Haddon Strategic Alliance
in NJ
Implementation Project Manager
for Transamerica the winning organization
in CA
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
Introduction to ESOPs
in CO
May 6, 2003
National Center for Employee Ownership
Introduction to ESOPs
in IN
May 15, 2003
National Center for Employee Ownership
Introduction to ESOPs
in MD
May 21, 2003
National Center for Employee Ownership
Introduction to ESOPs
in CT
May 22, 2003
National Center for Employee Ownership
First Annual WEB Conference
in VA
April 4, 2003
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (WEB)
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
United Benefit Advisors (UBA) Unveils 2003 Strategic Goals at Mid-Winter Meeting-- Unique Value Proposition Drives Phenomenal Growth
(United Benefit Advisors)
Willis Selects Firstdoor to Power 'Search Willis'
(Firstdoor)
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
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