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January 12, 2004 - 13,655 subscribers
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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.
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Pressure Builds to Cut Fund Fees
Excerpt: "[T]he pressure on mutual funds to reduce fees is beginning to come from multiple constituencies." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Mutual Fund Fees Finance Interests of Lobbyists
Excerpt: "Mutual fund investors might not be surprised to learn that the companies that manage their funds actively lobby Congress and the states regarding regulation of their industry. But they may be startled to learn that these managers have lobbied hard over the past decade for policies that investor and consumer advocates say often run counter to the interests of average mutual fund shareholders." (Washington Post via MSNBC.com)
Opinion: Mutual Funds Can't Justify High Expenses
Excerpt: "The issue is whether fund fees could be lower than they are. And the answer to that is - positively and incontrovertibly - yes. And they should be." (Jeff Brown in The Philadelphia Inquirer)
The Mature ESOP
Excerpt: "As times have changed and these ESOPs 'mature,' many of these loans are coming to the end of their term, confronting employers with new issues and the consequences of a host of changes in the law. This article focuses in particular on the issues of interest to large employers, many of which are public companies." (Groom Law Group)
Weirton Steel's ESOP Paved the Way for Many
Excerpt: "Today, it sits in bankruptcy a fraction of its former self, with 3,330 employees instead of 10,000. But 20 years ago this week, Weirton Steel Corp. created a labor legacy, becoming the first major manufacturer and the largest company in America to be owned 100 percent by employees." (TimesLeaderOnline.com)
Employee Ownership Update for January 12, 2004
NCEO Executive Director Corey Rosen discusses new 401(k)/401(m) rules that simplify integrating ESOPs and 401(k) plans; a new study that shows employees still value stock options; and a new study that found eligibility for stock options dropped from 2002 to 2003. (National Center for Employee Ownership)
Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America Releases Eligibility Minisurvey
Press release. Excerpt: "PSCA has released its newest eligibility minisurvey, 401(k) and Profit Sharing Eligibility Survey 2003, which investigates the eligibility practices among 271 401(k) and profit sharing plans." (Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America)
Supplement to the RP-2000 Mortality Table Report Published
Excerpt: "This supplement to the RP-2000 Mortality Tables Report provides tables with mortality rates adjusted by the blue collar, white collar, small amount, medium amount and large amount adjustment factors provided in the original report. Users of these tables should read the original report (link below) to best understand the derivation and proper use of the collar- and amount-adjusted tables." (Society of Actuaries)
Text of Actuaries' Comments on Proposed Mortality Tables (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "On behalf of the American Academy of Actuaries' Pension Committee, I would like to submit comments as requested in Notice 2003-62 (Comments on Mortality Tables). As the notice states, the RP-2000 Mortality Table was recently developed and approved by the Society of Actuaries (SoA), and we strongly believe that this table represents the best information available regarding life expectancies for pension plan participants." (American Academy of Actuaries)
Pension Peril Looming in U.S.
Excerpt: "This past week, the head of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation - the government agency that insures the pensions of millions of Americans - announced he will be leaving in February. His resignation letter was less a fond farewell than a dire warning." (New York Post)
Fertility Rates and Why They Vary (PDF)
Excerpt: "[W]hile fertility rates are extremely difficult to project and predict, they usually represent the most important modeling variable in any population model. These models, in turn, are of critical importance to many users, including social security actuaries who must use these data to project future benefit/contribution cost ratios." (Contingencies Magazine)
Recent Cash Balance Decisions Pose Limited Threat to Governmental Cash Balance Plans
Excerpt: "Two significant recent decisions in the tide of cash balance litigation – Cooper v. The IBM Personal Pension Plan and IBM Corp. in the Southern District of Illinois and Berger v. Xerox Corporation Retirement Income Guaranty Plan in the Seventh Circuit – raise significant issues involving the implementation and operation of many cash balance plans. These rulings primarily impact private sector plans, but also have some potential impact on governmental cash balance plans." (Groom Law Group)
Massachusetts Pension Fund Sets Investment Return Record in 2003
Excerpt: "The state pension fund notched its best annual investment gain on record in 2003, with a 25.8 percent return that raised its total to $32 billion." (Boston Globe)
Defined Contribution Pension Fund for Florida State Employees Slowly Gaining Popularity
Excerpt: "[A]mong nearly 60,000 new hires - who tend to be younger and less likely to be thinking ahead 30 years - more than 8 percent chose [the defined contribution program rather than the defined benefit program]." (Tallahassee Democrat)
Oregon Public Employees' Retirement Plan Provision Penalizes Extended Breaks From Work
Excerpt: "With few exceptions, public service employees who are gone six months or a year lose PERS seniority and must join the state's new pension plan." (StatesmanJournal.com)
More Workers Lured By Early Retirement
Excerpt: "Fortified with big pension payouts and promises of health benefits, these early retirees are gambling on the devil they don't know rather than sticking with the devil they do -- particularly after being told, in effect, that their employer no longer needs them. Until a year or two ago, exit packages drew fewer takers." (New York Times via Ohio.com)
Boomers Are Running Out of Time, and Excuses, To Save
Excerpt: "The oldest boomer will turn 58 this year; the youngest, 40. Millions of boomers are marching toward retirement. Many are ill-prepared." (The Baltimore Sun)
Study: Americans Too Dependent On Social Security for Retirement
Excerpt: "A new report shows that, despite repeated warnings Americans are saving less than ever for retirement, and depending on Social Security for most of their post-retirement income." (New Haven Register)
Stocks Not Even Right for the Long Run?
Excerpt: "[Zvi] Bodie, in his lectures and in his co-authored book, 'Worry-Free Investing,' feels that many advisors have got it all wrong about stocks and are putting their clients most vital assets at risk as a result. The underpinning of Bodie's investment philosophy is that stocks are far riskier than advisors are leading their clients to believe." (Financial Advisor)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Opinion: Call It the Family-Risk Factor
Excerpt: "[B]y fixating on the day-to-day ups and downs, analysts have largely missed the more telling trend: an increasing shift of economic risk from government and corporations onto workers and their families.... The number of Americans without employment-based health benefits has been rising for decades. Employers are also restructuring workplace benefits to impose more risk on workers." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Court Strikes Down Wal-Mart Rank-and-File COLI Policy
Excerpt: "Specifically, the policy violates an 'insurable interest' doctrine in Texas. Under this provision, insurance policies that name a beneficiary that lacks an 'insurable interest' in the life of the policy owner are void, the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)
New Jersey to Recognize G*y Couples
Excerpt: "The measure, passed by a 23-to-9 vote, goes to Gov. James E. McGreevey, who has said he is eager to sign it.... [The bill] requires insurance companies to offer health care coverage to domestic partners equivalent to that for spouses. The measure also extends health coverage and pension benefits to the domestic partners of state employees, but makes no requirements of private employers." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Same-Sex Couples See N.J. As a Haven
Excerpt: "Stephen Drayton and Steven Burch of Collingswood jointly own a house, two cars and, as of Friday, a condo as an investment property. If one of them dies - unlike for married couples - the survivor would have to pay an inheritance tax on those assets. But that will change after Monday, as Gov. McGreevey signs into law new financial benefits and legal rights for same-sex couples." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Business Cheers Bush's Plan to Hire Immigrants More Easily, but Labor Is Wary
Excerpt: "[M]any unions and immigrant advocacy groups have denounced the plan, saying it would create a permanent, exploitable second-tier of workers who would never have the opportunity for permanent residency and full citizenship." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Updated: a Primer On Employment and Reemployment Rights of Employees Entering the Armed Services
Excerpt: "It is time for employers and employees to reacquaint themselves with their obligations and rights regarding military duty." (Groom Law Group)
Gold In Educators' Unused Sick Days
Excerpt: "Chicago's sick-day benefit -- won by the Chicago Teachers Union but shared by principals -- amounts to a unique 'double-dip' not available in the Chicago suburbs, New York City or Los Angeles. As many as 12 unused sick days a year may now count in two ways -- for money and time served: When they retire, Chicago educators can cash in up to 315 sick days. And as many as 244 of those days can be simultaneously added to service time, which can help their pension." (Chicago Sun-Times)
California Supermarket Labor Talks Break Down
Excerpt: "Four days of secret talks between the union representing 70,000 striking southern California grocery workers and several big supermarket chains broke down on Sunday as the strike entered its fourth month, union officials said." (Reuters via New York Times; one-time registration required)
Restricting Transgendered Persons' Marriage Rights Is Illegal, European Court Rules
Excerpt: "Europe's top court has ruled that restricting marriage and pension rights for transsexu*ls violates European Union law.... [The particular plaintiff's] case may be moot. The British government last November began changing the law to allow transsexu*ls to change their birth certificates - and thus marry in their new gender." (ProudParenting.com)
Newly Posted Events
Mutual Funds in Crisis: Issues for Plan Sponsors and Future Developments
Nationwide on February 11, 2004
presented by NAGCDA (National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators, Inc.)
Enhancing Retirement Education Programs
in Arizona on January 25, 2004
presented by World Research Group
IRAs Basic and Advanced Seminar
in Minnesota on January 20, 2004
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
IRAs Basic and Advanced Seminars
in South Dakota on January 21, 2004
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
IRAs Basic and Advanced Seminar
in Minnesota on February 5, 2004
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
The Heat is Turning Up on ERISA Preemption for HMOs: Implications of the Supreme Court's Acceptance of Two Key Texas Cases
Nationwide on January 15, 2004
presented by American Health Lawyers Association
Congress and Health: Looking Ahead to 2004, Reflections on 2003.
Nationwide on January 14, 2004
presented by American Health Lawyers Association
Newly Posted Press Releases
Business Leaders Improve Growth Estimates for 2004
(eePulse, Inc.)
Gilsbar Appoints Vice President of Sales
(Gilsbar, Inc.)
Council welcomes Diann Howland as new vice president, retirement policy
(American Benefits Council)
deNovis Secures $22 Million in Venture Capital Funding Sets Product Direction for 2004, including Consumer-Directed Health and Marketplace Changes Driven by New Medicare Bill
(deNovis Inc.)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Pension Administrators
for Alliance Benefit Group of Illinois, Inc.
in IL
Defined Benefit Specialist
for Primary Consulting, Inc.
in ALL STATES
Employee Benefits Attorney
for Agilent Technologies, Inc.
in CA
Benefits Outsourcing Program Manager
for Fidelity Investments
in MA
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