| BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter |   |
July 3, 2003 - 13,226 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Actuarial Systems Corporation
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
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)
Simplified IRS Voluntary Correction Program: a Confession Good for the 401(k) Plan
Excerpt: "The IRS has made relatively few changes in the self-correction program and the Audit CAP procedures. But now the VCP combines the correction program alphabet soup of VCOs, VSCs, VCTs and others into a single set of procedures under the VCP and institutes a single set of fees based on the number of plan participants. EPCRS continues to permit anonymous submissions and group submissions for the VCP." (Martha Priddy Patterson published by Thompson Publishing Group)
Text of ASPA President's Testimony on Need for Investment Advice for Participants
Excerpt: "ASPA members who frequently meet with 401(k) plan participants to discuss plan investment options and provide general investment education consistently encounter the frustrations of plan participants who want advice and instructions specific to them. If policymakers expect plan participants to bear investment risk and if they expect plan participants to bear investment responsibility, they must recognize the need to change both the law and regulations ..." (American Society of Pension Actuaries)
Opinion: Here's a 403(b) Bill of Rights for Employees
Excerpt: "We the people of the 403(b) plan, in order to form a more perfect retirement vehicle, establish justice, insure investing tranquility, provide for the common fairness, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 403(b) Investors of the United States of America." (403bWise.com)
How Will Recent Patterns of Earnings Inequality Affect Future Retirement Incomes?
Excerpt: "Over the past three decades, the distribution of family income has become increasingly less equal. Thus, it seems reasonable to infer that retirement income inequality of future retirees also will increase.... These projections demonstrate how the complex interactions among recent earnings patterns of men and women, marriage and divorce, mortality, and Social Security policy affect the future distribution of retirement benefits." (AARP Research)
Pension Issues: Lump-Sum Distributions and Retirement Income (PDF)
Excerpt: "Lump-sum distributions can result in leakage of retirement assets if the recipient uses some of the distribution for current consumption rather than rolling over the full amount into another retirement plan. To discourage such leakage, Congress has amended the Internal Revenue Code to provide incentives for individuals to roll over these distributions into other retirement plans." (Patrick J. Purcell of the Congressional Research Service)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Special Retirement Plans for Top Executives Become Target for Other Stakeholders
Excerpt: "Think Social Security sets up intergenerational conflict? Try deferred compensation for top corporate managers. At financially strapped Delta Air Lines, in fact, a much-publicized dispute over the funding of special retirement plans for highly paid executives pits the company's retired CFO against its current one." (CFO.com)
Stock Option Grant Announcements and Shareholder Value
A new study shows that shareholders react positively to broad-based option grant announcements but not to grants just to top people. (National Center for Employee Ownership)
2003 Spencer Survey of Benefits Managers Begins Collecting Data
Aspen Publishers Spencer Benefits Reports currently is collecting information for the 2003 Spencer survey of benefit managers and employee benefits departments. This 9th biennial survey requests information concerning compensation, organization, and functional responsibilities of corporate employee benefits departments. The information provided will be collated and published by Spencer Benefits Reports. All survey respondents will receive a copy of the published survey at no charge. (Spencer Benefits Reports)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Pension Plan Administrator
for Alliance Benefit Group of New England
in NH
Plan Specialist
for Transamerica-The Winning Organization
in CA
Employee Benefits Customer Service Representative
for Great West Life & Annuity
in IL
ERISA Compliance & Consulting Director
for Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
in ALL STATES
Trust Administrator
for CNA Trust
in CA
Pension Administrator
for Mid-Town New York City Pension Administration Company
in NY
Internal 401(k) Wholesaler
for Unified Trust Company, NA
in KY
Newly Posted Webcasts
(Post Yours!)
HIPAA Privacy: The Aftermath
on July 18, 2003
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
IA Week's Third Annual Fall Compliance Conference
in PA
September 8, 2003
IA Week
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
2003 Spencer Survey Of Benefits Managers Begins Collecting Data
(Spencer Benefits Reports)
AUL Features Advice by Ibbotson™
(American United Life Insurance Company®)
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
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Editor and Publisher: David Rhett Baker, J.D.
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