| BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter |   |
August 20, 2003 - 13,314 subscribers
Today's sponsor: ASPA
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ASPA Exam Registration Deadline Approaching Advance your career with the retirement industry's only certification program devoted exclusively to 401(k) plans. QKA is available only from ASPA-- the education leader for qualified plan issues. You can add the prestigious QKA designation to your name by passing five invaluable exams. The registration deadline for two of the required exams being offered this fall is September 30. Register today-- and watch your career soar tomorrow. Click on the banner above or visit http://www.asppa.org/qka/ for more information
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Retirement Plans Seem to Be Stabilizing
Excerpt: "While no one's tacking on retirement benefits like they were in the golden years of 1998 and 1999, early signs of an upturn in the industry are emerging, say many retirement benefits experts." (East Bay Business Times via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)
Study: PBGC Might Be 'Next Big Bailout,' Despite Recent Market Upturn
Press release. Excerpt: "As a heated debate looms this fall over White House proposals to reform pensions administered by private corporations, a study released today from the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) urges policymakers not to overlook the flawed pension insurance administered by a quasi-public agency they created." (National Taxpayers Union Foundation)
Brazilian Workers Protest Public Pension Reform
Excerpt: "Thousands of Brazilian workers took to the streets of the nation's capital amid a huge police presence on Tuesday in the latest demonstration against a public pension reform that would cut their benefits." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Italy's High Quality of Life and Strained Pension Plans
Excerpt: "The laws that let Mrs. Antonetti retire when many countries would still consider her to be of working age have helped make Italy's quality of life among the highest in the world. Those same laws are stretching the country's pension system to the limit as the government struggles to pay its obligations to a rapidly aging population." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Opinion: Unfunded Pension? Just Add Stock!
Excerpt: "Some pension experts have pointed to this as another in an unnerving set of moves by companies to avoid putting cash into their pension plans.... Northwest has plans to take Pinnacle public, but at its present implied valuation, Northwest's pension fund will own more than 60% of the company." (The Motley Fool)
Opinion: Pensions That Discriminate against Older Workers
Excerpt: "There is a basic mismatch between pension law and the way business really works. It has been decades since the dream of a worker was to stay put in one company for life. That's one reason why IBM and a legion of other big companies in recent years have replaced traditional pension plans with those that don't penalize workers who change jobs." (Nanette Byrnes in Business Week)
Federal Court Refuses to Retain Dispute Over QDRO Determination, Remanding Matter to State Court
Scales v. Gen. Motors Corp. Pension Adm'r (E.D. Mich. 2003). Excerpt: "This decision arose from a plan administrator's determination that certain state court domestic relations orders were not QDROs under ERISA. The alternate payee then filed a motion in the state divorce court asking that the former spouse and plan administrator be held in contempt for not complying with the orders. The plan administrator removed the case to federal court." (EBIA Weekly)
Tax Court: Continuing Depression Qualifies for Disability Exception to 10% Early Payment Penalty
Coleman-Stephens v. Comm'r, T.C. Summ. Op. 2003-91 (2003). Excerpt: "We found this tax court case interesting because it interprets the disability exception to the 10% penalty on 'early' distributions from a qualified retirement plan under Code Section 72(t)." (EBIA Weekly)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Sales Position -- 401(k) Recordkeeping & Related Services
for The Ross Companies New York, New York
in ALL STATES, CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, NJ, NY, PA
Pension Administrator
for Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Company, LLP
in MN
Actuary
for Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Company, LLP
in MN
Retirement Plan Administrator
for American Pension Services, Inc.
in FL
Bi-lingual Customer Service Representative
for Great-West Healthcare
in AZ
Senior Benefits Consultant
for Prestigious national employee benefits brokerage/consulting firm
in IL
Pension Analyst
for Coble Pension Group, L.L.C.
in AZ
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
SWBA/IRS 14th Annual Conference
in TX
October 15, 2003
IRS & SouthWest Benefits Assoc.
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
The Newport Group Chooses ASC for Compliance Testing
(ASC - Actuarial Systems Corporation)
Department of Labor, IRS and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Extend Deadline for Annual Reports Following Power Blackout
(U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)
IRS Offers Weekly Electronic Newsletter for Tax Professionals
(Internal Revenue Service)
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