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July 7, 2003 - 13,238 subscribers
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“New COBRA Notice Rules” audio conference 7/16/03 * 2:00 p.m. ET

Are you familiar with the DOL’s new proposed COBRA notice requirements?
Don't miss out on the opportunity to send the DOL your questions before
the regulations are finalized!  Join us for this 90-minute interactive
audio conference – Learn the details of the DOL’s proposal and still
have time to submit comments before the July 28th deadline!

(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
United Airlines Still Facing Huge Pension Funding Shortfall
Excerpt: "As United Airlines strives to return to financial health, it must tackle a problem near and dear to its workers' hearts: a towering pension shortfall. The giant carrier's pension plans were underfunded by $6.3 billion at the end of 2002, the largest deficit in the beleaguered U.S. airline industry." (MSNBC.com)

French Lawmakers OK Pension Reform Bill
Excerpt: "Public sector workers currently have to stay on the job 37.5 years to qualify for full benefits. Under the bill, they would have to work 40 years, as in the private sector, by 2008." (AP via the Boston Globe)

Analysis: Changing Discount Rates for Determining Pension Lump Sum Distributions (PDF)
Excerpt: "The minimum lump sum payable from a pension plan has increased dramatically due to the unusually low 30-year Treasury rates of the past few years. This has made pension plans that have lump sum provisions much more expensive than the plan sponsor ever intended. Proposals to increase the lump sum interest rate could reduce lump sums unless they provide a transition period. This paper discusses the reasons why a change is needed and provides information on possible transition rules." (American Academy of Actuaries)

United Files to Official End ESOP
Excerpt: "UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission terminating its once-promising employee stock ownership plan, the company said Thursday. The filing has no real effect on employee control, which ended when their shares dropped below 20 percent of the total, United spokesman Jeff Green said.... The termination of the plan allows employees to access their accounts and sell their shares, Green said." (Washington Post)

Data Mismatches That Could Be Sending Your Social Security Benefits Into Limbo
Excerpt: "Your own earnings could be among the nearly $50 billion in wages that SSA couldn't link last year to people listed in its database. And officials don't seem eager to catch and correct the discrepancies." (Washington Post)

IRS Grants Waiver of 60-Day Rollover Deadline Where Taxpayers Were Theft Victims
Private Letter Ruling 200327064 (April 9, 2003). Excerpt: "Taxpayers became aware of the misappropriation of funds late in 2002, when they did not receive [IRA] statements .... After investigating the matter with the custodians of such IRAs, Taxpayers learned that the account statements were being misdirected to another address, which Taxpayers later discovered was the address that Individual C had provided to the custodians in order to conceal his misappropriation of funds." (Internal Revenue Service)

Relaxing the 60-Day Rollover Rules (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "Section 644 of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 provides the IRS with the authority to waive or relax the 60-day rollover rule under special situations." (Strategic Finance magazine)

Opinion: There's No Way to Plan, Thanks to Uncle Sam
Excerpt: "Quick -- tell me the tax rate you'll pay when you sell a stock for a profit. If you said 15 percent on the capital gains, you're right. You're also right if you said 5 percent, 8 percent, 10 percent, 14 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent, 28 percent, 33 percent or 35 percent. Impossible, you say? Welcome to the new world of financial planning and investing, American-style." (Washington Post)

IRS Reminds Employers With Prototype and Volume Submitter Plans of September 30, 2003 Deadline
Excerpt: "The IRS has issued a news release reminding employers that use prototype and volume submitter plans that they must formally adopt updates to their plans by September 30, 2003 in order to preserve their plans' tax-qualified status. The news release points out that some of these employers ... must also file a determination letter application with the IRS by the September 30 deadline to preserve their plans' tax benefits." (EBIA Weekly)

Big Revenues Ahead for Federal Government Due to Retirement Plan Distributions
Excerpt: "One of the hottest documents circulating around Washington today is a highly technical, statistics-laden, 131-page paper by Hoover Institution economist Michael Boskin. First reported by Jim McTague in Barron's on June 16, it estimates that the taxation of pension assets, including Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) plans, will yield a $12 trillion (in today's dollars) windfall to the federal government between now and 2040." (National Review)


Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

IRS Takes Aim at Big Shelters and Hopes Message Filters Down
Excerpt: "Mark W. Everson, the new I.R.S. commissioner, said last month that 'the I.R.S. will enforce the law across all sectors, but with particular vigor in the corporate arena and for high-income individuals who enter into abusive shelters to game the system.'" (New York Times; one-time registration required)

Audio Report: Labor Department Seeks to Revamp Overtime-Pay Rules
Excerpt: "The Labor Department proposes changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which determines who receives time-and-a-half pay for working more than 40 hours per week. Labor unions say millions are in danger of losing their right to get overtime pay, while businesses say the changes give employees more flexibility. Hear Michael Eastman of the American Chamber of Commerce and Deborah Greenfield of the AFL-CIO.' (July 6, 2003) (National Public Radio)

In Silicon Valley, Stock Options Are Back
Excerpt: "For the first time in years, Silicon Valley is buzzing again about stock options." (The [San Jose, Calif.] Mercury News)


Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
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Pension Consultant
for Fidelity Investments
in MA

AVP & Counsel
for UnumProvident Corporation
in ME

Senior Employee Benefit Trust Administrator
for The Bank of New York
in CA

Health Care Management Design Consultant
for Hewitt Associates - placement through Evenium
in ALL STATES

Pensions Specialist
for Nationwide Retirement Consulting Group
in OH
Newly Posted Webcasts
(Post Yours!)

Pan European Pension Plans
on July 18, 2003
presented by Mercer HR Consulting
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)

21st Annual Fall Conference
in CA
October 22, 2003
Western Pension & Benefits Conference, San Francisco Chapter
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)

Fringe Facts® Communicator 6.20 Streamlines Benefit Communications
(Benefit Software Inc.)


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