| BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter |   |
February 27, 2003 - 13,051 subscribers
Today's sponsor: APSCREEN, Employee Locator
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
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(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
401(k) Plan Asset Allocation, Account Balances, and Loan Activity in 2001 (PDF)
20 pages. Excerpt: "This Issue Brief examines asset allocation, account balance, and loan activity of a large and representative group of 401(k) plan participants as of year-end 2001 using data gathered by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute (ICI) ... On average, asset allocation in 2001 was little changed over previous years.... The average account balance of participants ... declined about 4 percent in 2001." (Sarah Holden, ICI, and Jack VanDerhei, Temple University and EBRI Fellow, published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute)
Actuary Says San Diego's Pension Contribution is Short by Half; Another $59 Million Needed
Excerpt: "Amid a 57-page annual report written in technical jargon, the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System actuary estimates that the city's $54 million payment in 2003 won't cover half of the $113 million he recommends be injected into the system for the year." (San Diego Daily Transcript via Yahoo! News)
FEMA 9/11 Tally Has $260M for Pensions
Excerpt: "A final tally of the $8.8 billion in federal emergency funds for New York's post-Sept. 11 recovery includes $260 million to help pay pension benefits to the families of firefighters and police officers killed in the attacks." (Washington Post)
Overview: IRS Proposes Pension Age Discrimination Rules (PDF)
Excerpt: "[T]hese new rules apply to all types of qualified defined benefit and defined contribution plans. In addition, they specifically address the application of these rules to cash balance plans. Most importantly, they convey the message that cash balance plans are not inherently age discriminatory." (CIGNA's Pension Analyst)
How Bush Administration Might Accelerate 401(k) Trends
Excerpt: "The Bush administration wants to push Americans into greater self-reliance in looking after their own needs for their retirement years. Social Security would be altered, with a portion of the program looking like a 401(k), involving individual accounts. Corporations would find it easier to modify traditional pensions into retirement plans that are, again, more like 401(k)s." (The Christian Science Monitor)
Teachers Sue Lawton, Oklahoma, District for Cutting Early Retirement Plan
Excerpt: "Seventy-seven retired Lawton teachers are suing the school district after it stopped its early retirement incentive program. The Lawton school board voted to end the program last August because of state budget cuts to public schools." (AP via KTUL)
Alabama State Pension Is Funded in Novel Ways
Excerpt: "In a state not known for high finance, David Bronner is two parts sugar daddy, one part troublemaker and maybe one part nuts. No matter which part you look at, this guy is not your run-of-the-mill pension chief." (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Illinois Legislator to Get $1 Million More in Pension Payments, Thanks to 6-Week Final Gov't Job
Excerpt: "Thanks to state pension rules, [Former Republican Illinois state lawmaker Roger Stanley] would get about $1.6 million from his state pension if he lives just past his 78th birthday ... Without that six-week job, Stanley would receive about $688,000. The difference is explained by the fact that Stanley's pension is based on the last salary he had with the state--that six-week job with the secretary of state, where his annual salary was about $65,000." (Chicago Sun-Times)
Workers Say Promise of Early Retirement Benefits After 30 Years Is Broken by Bethlehem Steel
Excerpt: "Imagine spending 30 years working toward a goal. Then imagine how it would feel if, once the goal was within your grasp, you learned you were still more than 10 years away. For some workers at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant, no imagination is necessary. They've experienced how it feels, every agonizing detail, and what they're feeling can be difficult to express in words." (The Dundalk [Md.] Eagle)
Another Question is Answered in the Who's the Employer Q&A Column
A corporation is not a component member of a controlled group for a given year if the corporation is not a member during at least half of the days that precede December 31. Are there any such rules for the purpose of determining affiliated service groups? What if a service corporation is a member of an affiliated service group on January 1 but terminates its affiliation with the service group in March? (BenefitsLink.com)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Opinion: Corporate Execs Sharing the Pain? Nah.
Excerpt: "We are on the verge of proxy season, when the multimillion-dollar compensation packages awarded to CEOs of most public companies are published for all to see. (Trust me, they hate that.)" (Steven Syre in The Boston Globe)
CEOs Get Paid an Average $16.5M to Leave, New Study of Severance Packages Shows
Excerpt: "CEOs who departed during 2002 and 2001 received an average golden parachute of $16.5 [million], based on findings in a new, two-part study of termination policy and practice in the S&P 500 by Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at The Corporate Library. But even this figure underestimates the total cost of terminating a CEO's employment." (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
Adobe's Profit Would Have Been Cut by 97% If Stock Options Had Been Expensed
Excerpt: "Adobe, known for its PhotoShop editing and Acrobat document-sharing software, said its 2002 net income would have shrunk to $6.6 million from its reported earnings of $191.4 million if it had used the fair-value method to figure the cost for employee stock options, the company said in a footnote in its annual report." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Benefits Administrator
for Black Mountain Management Inc.
in NY
Benefits Associate
for Simpson Investment Company
in WA
Pension Specialist
for Northern Trust
in GA
Manager, Manulife Financial US, Group Pensions
for Manulife Financial - Toronto, Canada
in Location Other Than U.S.
Newly Posted Webcasts
(Post Yours!)
Military Leave/USERRA
on March 3, 2003
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
Cross-Tested Plans Specialty Workshop (1/2 day only)
in LA
March 26, 2003
SunGard Corbel
Are You in Compliance With the FLSA's White Collar Exemptions?
in ALL STATES
March 10, 2003
Thompson Publishing Group
HIPAA for Employers: 11th Hour Compliance
in ALL STATES
March 12, 2003
Thompson Publishing Group
Qualified Transportation Benefits
in ALL STATES
March 20, 2003
Thompson Publishing Group
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
Labor Department Announces Compliance Assistance Program for ERISA Health Laws
(U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
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