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February 17, 2004 - 13,655 subscribers
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(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Bush Eyes Tax Cut on Savings Accounts
Excerpt: "President George Bush would like to make his tax cuts permanent, and add some new ones. The most dramatic new proposal from the White House would allow Americans to pay less tax on their savings. Many Democrats contend it's just another tax break for the wealthy. NPR's Kathleen Schlock reports." (National Public Radio)
Opinion: President's Savings Proposals Likely To Swell Long-term Deficits, Reduce National Saving
Excerpt: "The President's 2005 budget includes a proposal to establish new savings tax breaks. A similar proposal was included in the Administration's budget last year. The proposal -- to establish tax-favored 'Lifetime Savings Accounts' and to replace existing Individual Retirement Accounts with 'Retirement Savings Accounts' -- is ill-advised for five reasons." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
The 401(k)'s Twin Villains
Excerpt: "Too many workers have no plan, and many others aren't contributing enough, says Ernst & Young's William Arnone." (BusinessWeek Online)
Cash Balance Plans: Key Issues
Excerpt: "The Bush administration is pushing legislation to ensure the survival of cash-balance retirement plans, which some companies have adopted to replace their traditional pensions." (Los Angeles Times; one-time registration required)
Opinion: Proposed Cash Balance and Hybrid Pension Legislation— Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back
Excerpt: "The Treasury Department's legislative recommendations regarding hybrid pension plans contain some positive news ... If adopted, they would provide that cash balance and other hybrid pension plans are generally not age discriminatory. In addition, Treasury has addressed the counterintuitive and anti-employee 'whipsaw' issue so that cash balance plan sponsors would no longer be penalized for providing employees with interest credits that exceed Treasury bond rates." (Coalition to Preserve the Defined Benefit System)
Overview: FASB Sets New Rules for Cash-Balance Benefits
Excerpt: "The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) last week adopted a definition for cash-benefit pension plans, giving companies new rules for measuring these controversial retirement vehicles." (AccountingWEB)
Overview: New Guidelines to Shut Down Use of Abusive Life Insurance Policies in Retirement Plans
Excerpt: "The Treasury Department and the IRS have released extensive guidance designed to shut down abusive transactions that involve specially designed life insurance policies in Code Sec. 412(i) retirement plans. These tax-qualified plans are funded entirely by life insurance contracts or annuities." (CCH News & Information Library)
Retirement Income Planning, Part 2: a Realistic Comprehensive Planning Model
10 pages. Excerpt: "In our model the consumer does all the input ... and gets immediate feedback. The software can then adapt on the fly to the consumer's working style." (Still River Retirement Planning Software, Inc.)
Opinion: Something's Rotten in Louisiana
Excerpt: "Louisiana teachers' retirement officials golfed and hunted while pouring pension assets into the high-risk investments of their hosts. Taxpayers now are picking up the tab for investment losses, and teachers on pensions can say good-bye to cost-of-living increases." (The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report)
Colorado Public Plan Opens Investment Info
Excerpt: "Colorado's state pension plan has released details about its venture-capital investments for the first time, but is making a move to keep certain other details of those investments private, unavailable to public inspection." (Rocky Mountain News)
Overview: IRS Guidance on Application of Top-Heavy Rules to Safe Harbor Plans
Excerpt: "The IRS examined four hypothetical situations to illustrate how the exclusion applies. Each situation involved a design-based safe harbor plan with safe harbor matching contributions that also allowed the employer to make non-safe harbor discretionary contributions." (Employee Benefits Institute of America (EBIA))
Overview: Retirement Needs Outpace Americans
Excerpt: "America's retirees face an aggregate income gap of at least $45 billion annually by 2030 if current low savings rates continue. So says a national study of retirement income adequacy by Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), in collaboration with the New York-based Mil bank Memorial Fund." (BenefitNews.com)
The 6.2 Percent Solution: a Plan for Reforming Social Security
Excerpt: "Under this proposal: Individuals would be allowed to divert their half (6.2 percentage points) of the payroll tax to individually owned, privately invested accounts. Those who chose to do so would agree to forgo all future accrual of retirement benefits under the traditional Social Security system. The remaining 6.2 percentage points of payroll taxes would be used to pay transition costs and to fund disability and survivors' benefits." (The Cato Institute)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
'Help Wanted' Pages on BenefitsLink Now Load Twice as Quickly
By applying some technology, a couple of pots of coffee and two all-night coding sessions, your webmaster has been able to dramatically accelerate the 'help wanted' listings! Readers using dial-up modems now can view the 'Jobs By Date', 'Jobs by Title' and 'Jobs by Employer' pages in only about half the time previously needed. Your patronage is very much appreciated by all of us here at the publishing end of BenefitsLink-- Dave Baker, Mary Hall and Holly Gorton. (BenefitsLink.com)
Almost Outta Beta: Easier Scanning of Benefits Job Opportunities in Any of Several States
We're upgrading the software used to display 'help wanted' ads on BenefitsLink for employee benefits professionals. Now you can create and bookmark a page that will show you simultaneously the latest ads for jobs in any of several states of interest to you. For example, the link from this item is for job openings in New Jersey, New York or Connecticut ... just put the desired two-letter state abbreviations in the part of the URL after '?state=' and then 'bookmark' the resulting page! (BenefitsLink.com)
Newly Posted Events
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) Telephone Seminar
Nationwide on March 24, 2004
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Attract and Keep Valuable Employees - Retirement Plans for Small Businesses
in Florida on March 9, 2004
presented by Allen & Company of Florida
Understanding the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003
in New Jersey on February 24, 2004
presented by International Society of CEBS - Central New Jersey Chapter
2nd Annual Creative Pension and Benefits
in Ohio on April 3, 2004
presented by Ohio State University Office of Continuing Education and the College of Law
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Account Administrator
for Capital Performance Advisors
in CA
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
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