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November 18, 2003 - 13,525 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Thompson Publishing Group, Inc.
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“What You Need to Know About FMLA and Workers’ Compensation” 90-Minute Interactive Audio Conference Monday, November 24 * 2:00 p.m. ET When is an injury covered by both FMLA and workers’ compensation laws? May an employer grant both FMLA and workers’ comp leave at the same time? When may an employer require an employee to return to the job? Get the answers to these questions – as well as your own specific questions – and more at this audio conference!
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Sample Questions for Trustees to Ask Mutual Funds
MS Word document. Excerpt: "Both the Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit Plans, working with their legal departments, their consultants,--- Nationwide Retirement Solutions, Segal Advisors and The Segal Company, Ennis Knupp & Associates--- the Maryland State Treasurer and the Maryland General Assembly's Joint Committee on Pensions, have developed a list of important questions. Please provide the sender with written responses to the following questions ..." (State of Maryland via the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators)
Investors Keep Pulling Money From Putnam
Excerpt: "The decision late Monday by the California Public Employees' Retirement System was a further blow to Putnam, which has seen investors remove about 8 percent of assets under management since market timing allegations surfaced last month." (AP via Washington Post)
PSCA, ASPA, ACLI, Others Caution SEC on Unintended Consequences When Addressing Mutual Fund Problems
Excerpt: "The letter urges the SEC to allow plan recordkeepers and intermediaries to continue to be able to forward trades received before closing time to mutual funds after the fund's closing time, provided stringent processes and controls, including independent audits and SEC scrutiny are maintained." (Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America)
Putnam Funds Facing Review By Several Plans
11/16/03. Excerpt: "Several defined contribution plan sponsors have begun to review or replace investment options offered by Putnam Investments in the wake of market-timing allegations surrounding the firm." (Defined Contribution News)
Mutual Fund Industry Has Betrayed Many People in Small Ways, Experts Say
Excerpt: "The betrayals of mutual fund integrity are drawing media attention and have implicated two Denver-based mutual fund giants. Some investors are worried, yet they have little clue what's gone wrong. Here's what you need to know: ..." (Denver Post via NewsAlert.com)
Opinion: Actions of Some Mutual Fund Companies Betray Special Tax Treatment Afforded Them
Excerpt: "[B]y investing in a [regulated investment company], the shareholder may receive not only the advantages of professional management and portfolio diversification, but also the benefit of special tax treatment. In creating this special handling for mutual-fund companies, however, Congress tried to ensure that fund companies give top priority to their shareholders -- all of them, not just the favored few." (Providence Journal via NewsAlert.com)
More Action Over Mutual Fund Practices
Excerpt: "The oldest mutual fund company in the nation, and one of the largest, has suspended its longtime practice of directing brokerage commissions to securities firms that sell its funds or bring it new clients, according to a brokerage firm executive apprised of the change last week. The move was made by MFS Investment Management, whose funds are sold exclusively by brokers at securities firms or by financial planners." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Congress Strikes a Blow Against Cash Balance Plans (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The Treasury Department will be prevented from issuing potentially helpful regulations for cash balance plans before October 2004 under a bill that will likely become law very soon." (Mellon's Human Resources & Investor Solutions)
What Will Judge Posner Do Next? Balm or Bomb for Cash Balance Plans? (PDF)
5-page working paper. Excerpt: "That IBM would appeal the decision of the trial court quickly became known, but hopes for a reversal were tempered by the knowledge of the cash balance cognoscenti that the appeal would go to the same court that had just decided Xerox: the 7th Circuit, with the author of that opinion, Judge Richard Posner, the likely author of an opinion on the IBM appeal. Speculation is rampant that Judge Posner ... will not overturn the lower court decision." (Alvin D. Lurie, Esq.)
PBGC Opposes Bill to Provide Break to Worst-Funded Plans; Sen. Grassley Defends Bill
Excerpt: "Legislation approved by the Senate Finance Committee ... would give the worst-funded pension plans a three-year exemption from the deficit reduction contribution (DRC), a stronger set of funding rules enacted in 1987 to protect workers and the pension insurance program from suffering large losses when underfunded plans terminate, said PBGC." (RIA Tax News)
FASB Acts to Expand Disclosure Requirements for Pensions; Year-End 2003 Statements Affected (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The new requirements could be effective as early as year-end 2003. FASB staff was directed to prepare a formal document for December approval by the Board." (Mellon's Human Resources & Investor Solutions)
Pension Accounting Overhaul Likely
Excerpt: "U.S. and international accounting rulemakers in coming months will likely consider overhauling pension accounting rules in a joint project, the head of the U.S. accounting board said on Monday." (Reuters via New York Times; one-time registration required)
Bethlehem Steel Retirees Get the Lowdown on Pensions
Excerpt: "Early Monday, about 200 former employees of the defunct steel company filed into Martin Tower, the company's former headquarters, and met administrators of the federal agency that had taken over their pensions.... The agency, which backs companies' pensions -- not health care or life insurance -- took on a record $3.9 billion obligation when it acquired Bethlehem Steel's struggling plan in December 2002." (The [Allentown, Pa.] Morning Call)
Daughter Charged With Moving Dead Dad
Excerpt: "[P]olice said she didn't report the death and chose to instead help hide the body after her mother told her she couldn't survive without his pension checks." (NWITimes.com)
Local, State Officials Continue ESOP Effort for Closed Plant in Mississippi
Excerpt: "Union representatives, local officials and consultants have worked to form an employee stock option plan, or ESOP, to buy the International Paper mill ever since it closed in July, displacing about 640 employees." (The Natchez (Miss.) Democrat)
Labor Sharpens Its Pension Sword
Excerpt: "Ever since John J. Sweeney took the reins of the AFL-CIO in 1995, he has been urging unions to use the power of their $350 billion in pension funds to become shareholder activists.... But now a number of unions are upping the ante, using their pension holdings to pressure companies on bread-and-butter labor issues as well." (Business Week)
Social Security Is an Election Year Issue
Excerpt: "Social Security is moving up on the Bush administration's fix-it list." (Washington Post)
Cigna Selling Retirement Unit to Prudential
Excerpt: "John Y. Kim, currently the president of Cigna Retirement & Investment Services, will serve as president of the combined retirement business. Scott Sleyster, who currently heads Prudential Retirement, will report to Kim. Sleyster will lead the combined full-service defined contribution business, defined benefit administration, and total retirement outsourcing." (AP via Washington Post)
Potential DC Exit Leads CIGNA's Clients To Consider Alternatives
Excerpt: "Officials at Trammell Crow Co., North Fork Bank, and Lennar Corp. all say their companies could launch searches for a 401(k) plan provider as talks of CIGNA Retirement & Investment Services exiting the DC business are heating up." (Defined Contribution News)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Health & Welfare Associate
for Towers Perrin
in CA, MA, TX
Project Manager-CCI
for Transamerica- The Winning Organization
in CA
Benefits Analyst - Integrated Disability Benefits
for Global Professional Services Firm
in CA
ERISA Attorney
for The412iCompany
in WA
Retirement Program Administrator
for City of Southfield - Fire & Police Retirement System Board
in MI
Retirement Plan Sales Consultant
for Invesmart, Inc.
in OR
Newly Posted Events
ERISA's Fiduciary Requirements in Today's Investment Turmoil: The Enron Decision and Mutual Fund Misconduct -- A 90-Minute Interactive Audio Conference
Nationwide on December 12, 2003
presented by Thompson Publishing Group, Inc.
Fourth Annual Intercompany LTCI Conference
in Texas on February 8, 2004
presented by Society of Actuaries
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
PRG Opens Office in Seattle, Washington
(Pension Resource Group)
Employee Participation in 401(k) Plans Declines for Second Year
(PLANSPONSOR)
CalPERS Terminates Contracts with Putnam Investments
(Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS))
Council Survey Warns: 'Hard and Fast' Rule Could Adversely Affect Retirement Plans
(American Benefits Council)
Medicare, Prescription Drug Reform Bill Represents Historic, Positive Achievement
(American Benefits Council)
PSCA, Along with Others, Urges SEC to Avoid Unintended Consequences When Addressing Mutual Fund Problems
(Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America (PSCA))
Movers and Shakers: Newly Posted Announcements of Promotions and New Personnel
(Post Yours!)
Evan Dallas, David Huffaker and Scott Shinn (Pension Resource Group)
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