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February 24, 2003 - 13,051 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Actuarial Systems Corporation
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ASC - QUALITY SOFTWARE FOR THE PENSION INDUSTRY FOR OVER 20 YEARS ASC provides complete automation for the pension office, including: DC/401(k) and DB administration and valuation systems, sophisticated Compliance Testing, DV Direct Daily Valuation, Advanced Information Manager Database (AIM), and Single-Step Processing. All ASC Technical Support Members were experienced Pension Administrators or Actuaries before joining ASC -- and most have been with ASC for over 10 years.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Court Blocks UAL ESOP From Selling Remaining Shares
Excerpt: "The judge overseeing UAL Corp.'s bankruptcy case ruled late Friday that the trustee of the company's employee stock ownership plan cannot sell its remaining shares, preserving potentially billions of dollars in future tax benefits for the beleaguered airline." (Dow Jones Business News via Yahoo! News)
US Airways Asks Bankruptcy Court for Permission to Terminate Pilots' Pension Plan
Excerpt: "If US Airways gets what it wants, the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. will take over the plan. In that case, most pilots would receive a pension no greater than $28,500 a year." (The Boston Globe)
Summary of Recommendations About Retirement Plans from JCT Enron Report (PDF)
1 page. Excerpt: "The Joint Tax Committee reviewed the following issues with respect to Enron's retirement plans: The conversion of Enron's traditional defined benefit plan to a cash balance plan; The investment of the Enron ESOP in employer stock; The change in the 401(k) plan record-keeper that resulted in the imposition of the so-called 'blackout period' during which participants were unable to change their investments; The reasons for the level of investment in company stock ..." (Davis & Harman LLP for the American Benefits Council)
Technical Tip: Correction of Ineligible Employee Deferrals
Excerpt: "Under [the] safe harbor approach, the plan sponsor amends the plan to conform to its prior operation by retroactively making the previously ineligible employee a participant in the plan as of the date he actually began to participate.... However, this correction is only available so long as it does not predominately benefit highly compensated employees and so long as the plan sponsor files for a favorable determination letter on the amendment ..." (Reish Luftman McDaniel & Reicher)
Tax Credit For Retirement Contributions Can Be Powerful Tool for Those Individuals Who Qualify
Excerpt: "A credit worth up to $1,000 to retirement savers is arguably the year's most powerful new tax break. It not only could wipe out some or all of your 2002 tax bill, but will also boost your odds of retiring comfortably. At least that's how the retirement savings contribution credit was drawn up in the blueprints." (Knight Ridder via Austin [Tex.] American-Statesman)
Upstate New York Companies Look for Ways to Meet Pension Funding Promises
Excerpt: "After paying for themselves for nearly a decade, companies are finding the free ride for their defined-benefit pension plans is coming to an end. Three years of sharp stock market declines, combined with low interest rates, have sunk many of the plans into red ink." (The [Albany, N.Y.] Times Union)
Other Companies Will Follow FedEx' Cash Balance Trail
Excerpt: "More and more companies are expected to follow FedEx's example, just as the $22 billion global transportation company followed the corporate footprints littering the path before it." (GoMemphis.com)
Overview: EGTRRA Provides Employers Option of Offering New 'Sidecar' IRA Inside Qualified Plans
Excerpt: "This new IRA, which went into effect Jan. 1, is called a 'deemed IRA,' also known as the sidecar IRA. It is a savings account that an employer can offer in addition to a 401(k) retirement plan." (East Bay Business Times via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)
Most Ex-Workers Over 65 Receiving Employer Pensions; Largest Payments Go To Public-Sector Retirees
Press release. Excerpt: "Slightly more than half (54.5 percent) of former workers over 65 are receiving pension income from the firm they or their spouse once worked for, according to the most recent government data (1998), and the median monthly payment is $549. Public-sector retirees had median monthly income of $904, largely because their coverage often included automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments that are rarely found in the private sector." (Employee Benefit Research Institute)
Chances Improving for Change in Social Security Offset Rule Affecting Persons with Public Pensions
Excerpt: "Thanks to the two T's-- teachers and television-- odds have improved for reforming or repealing two laws that hit the Social Security benefits of retired feds and their survivors. For years, feds have led the fight for reform or repeal of Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset law." (Washington Times)
Delight, Doubts Greet Bush Retirement Proposals
Excerpt: "The restructuring would open up greater savings opportunities, especially for affluent households. However, the prospect of lost tax revenue and threats to the availability of employer-sponsored savings plans have provoked questions in Congress and among benefit specialists." (The [Norfolk, Va.] Virginian-Pilot)
Save It Like You Mean It: How the Bush Savings Proposal Would Help You
Excerpt: "The lifetime savings account, a new type of tax-favored savings plan, will become part of America's financial-planning lexicon if President Bush has his way.... Though it is unclear whether Congress will approve the proposal, financial planners already are buzzing about the possibilities and the potential drawbacks." (Los Angeles Times via NJ.com)
Bush Savings Proposal Would Help-- and Would Take Away
Excerpt: "[D]on't expect to see much action on these proposals soon. Everyone in Washington, including President Bush-- who introduced the plans during his State of the Union address in January-- is far too distracted with international events. And, of course, Congress could always shoot them down." (Ann Perry in the San Diego Union-Tribune)
Opinion: To Boost Savings Rate, Scrap Bush's Tax Plan
Excerpt: "Moreover, handing out more tax breaks ignores the fact that most people can't save and increasingly will rely on Social Security in their golden years. To address this long-term dilemma, the White House's tax plan should be redirected to fund Social Security funding and federal matching savings incentives." (John F. Wasik of Bloomberg, published by InsideVC.com)
Would Small Companies Drop Revamped Retirement Plans?
Excerpt: "Brian Graff, executive director of the American Society of Pension Actuaries, says the president's proposal would leave 'millions' of small business workers with nothing but Social Security benefits when they retire. 'Nothing could be farther from the truth,' responds David Mack, a policy analyst with National Small Business United, who notes that most of the opposition to the president's proposal 'has come from those wedded to the current system.'" (The Wichita [Kan.] Business Journal via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)
Americans Not Such Bad Savers After All
Excerpt: "The [Bureau of Economic Analysis] folks have reworked their calculations and, like magic, the negative numbers have disappeared. Here's why." (CBS Marketwatch)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in Private Industry in the United States, 2000 (PDF)
95 pages; dated January 2003. Includes health and retirement benefit statistics. Excerpt: "Paid time off was the most prevalent benefit available to workers in private establishments in 2000. Paid vacations were available to 80 percent of employees and paid holidays to 77 percent ... In 2000, 52 percent of employees in private industry participated in medical care plans. Forty-eight percent were covered by retirement benefits of at least one type ..." (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics)
DOL Publishes Drafts of EFAST Procedures for 2002 Plan Year-- Parts A, B and C
Of interest to software firms who write and sell programs that enable plan sponsors to submit Form 5500 electronically. (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)
Summary of Recommendations About Executive Compensation from JCT Enron Report (PDF)
1 page. Excerpt: "The report describes a number of Enron practices that the Joint Committee perceives as having given management excessive control over their deferred compensation funds. The report suggests that the precedents are unclear and that the following Enron practices could cause immediate taxation of executives under current law: ..." (Davis & Harman LLP for the American Benefits Council)
Troubled Companies Lure New CEOs with Platinum Pay
Excerpt: "The golden world is quickly turning platinum. As scandals and poor financial performance accelerate turnover in the corner office, a boom market for turnaround specialists is leading to huge CEO hiring contracts, or golden worlds." (USA Today)
Revolt of the Shareholders
Excerpt: "State pension funds, unions and other investors, big and small, are clamoring for their say on executive compensation packages, board elections, even choosing where companies are incorporated. They want General Electric to trim severance packages, Citigroup to eliminate golden parachutes, Sprint to stop repricing the stock options granted to management and Delta Air Lines to charge stock options against earnings." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Retirement Plan Consultant
for Invesmart
in OH
Actuarial Analyst
for Northern Trust Retirement Consulting, L.L.C.
in WA
Retirement Plan Sales Representative
for Stanton Group
in ALL STATES
Plan Administrator/Manager
for Pension Services Corporation
in MO
Employee Benefit Senior
for Deloitte & Touche
in IL
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
Ice Miller and Barada Associates Help Employers With Background Checks
(Ice Miller)
The President's Savings Proposals: Beyond the Hype and Hysteria
(Retirement Solutions Foundation)
Webulant Completes IHC Human Resources Web Site
(Webulant)
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
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