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March 5, 2004 - 13,655 subscribers
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Pension Costs Drain School Funds in Michigan
Excerpt: "School chiefs say Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plan to restore funding to a minimum of $6,700 per student is like topping off a leaking bucket of water -- with the leaks getting worse each year. The biggest hole in the bucket: Employee pension funds ..." (MLive.com)
Pension Funding Conferees Appointed
Excerpt: "Negotiations to produce a compromise pension funding reform bill are likely to begin soon following the naming Thursday by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., nine House members to a conference committee to work out differences in House and Senate-passed measures." (Business Insurance)
Overview: Abusive S Corporation ESOP Arrangements Declared Listed Transactions
Excerpt: "[Revenue Ruling 2004-4] shuts down transactions that syphon business profits of the S corporation away from the ESOP by prohibiting the use of options to acquire stock of a subsidiary to drain value out of the ESOP for the benefit of the S corporation's former owners and, perhaps, a few key employees." (Buchanan Ingersoll PC)
Overview: IRS Provides Further ESOP S Corporation Relief in Rev. Proc. 2004-14
Excerpt: "Revenue Procedure [2004-14] modifies and supercedes Rev. Proc. 2003-23, 2003-11 I.R.B. 599, by extending the protection of the S election of the company not only when the company repurchases the distributed shares from the participant, but also when the ESOP repurchases them." (Buchanan Ingersoll PC)
Overview: Companies Should Review 401(k) Investment Options in Light of Mutual Fund Investigations (PDF)
5 pages. (Paul Hastings via Financial Executives Institute (www.fei.org))
CIGNA Plan Administration Jobs on the Line
Excerpt: "Prudential Financial Inc. expects to eliminate about 200, or 25 percent, of the Hartford jobs in the CIGNA retirement business it plans to buy, company officials told regulators Thursday." (The Hartford Courant)
Opinion: the Ridiculously Simple Solution To Finding Low-Cost Top Performing 401(k) Investments
Excerpt: "Are you ready for the latest mutual fund scandal? Federal and state investigators have begun to investigate whether mutual funds are being selected for 401(k) retirement plans because of *gasp* hidden financial incentives ... Study after study has demonstrated that the best-performing investments are the ones that not only don't offer financial incentives but don't charge management fees because they are unmanaged: index funds ..." (Jane White of the Retirement Solutions Foundation)
The Future of the Welfare State
Excerpt: "One great question of the early 21st century is whether these welfare states, facing massive commitments to aging populations, will themselves create new insecurities and injustices. Comes now economic historian Peter Lindert, who has thoroughly probed the welfare state, with a surprising message: Relax." (Robert Samuelson in the Washington Post)
Opinion: Greenspan Speaking the Unspeakable
Excerpt: "When Alan Greenspan recently revealed unpleasant truths about Social Security, he was widely misinterpreted as having merely recommended cuts in retirement benefits, as though this was simply his personal preference. What Greenspan was really doing was warning younger workers ..." (Alan Reynolds on TownHall.com)
Opinion: An 'Alarming' Flip-Flop by New York Times Columnist on Social Security's Health
Excerpt: "Here's the reality, and it's as real today as it was in 1996. When payroll tax surpluses come in today, the government takes them and issues a Treasury bond to the 'so-called 'trust fund.'' And then the government simply spends the money." (Donald Luskin on National Review Online)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Hewitt Federal Legislation 'Quick Guides' Updated as of March 3, 2004
Excerpt: "Hewitt's Federal Legislation Quick Guide provides short updates on federal legislation that is currently under active consideration by Congress or has recently been enacted into law, regarding health and welfare benefit plans, retirement plans, and human resources and employment law. Click on the links ... to learn more about pending legislation in each area. These files have been updated on March 3, 2004." (Hewitt)
G.ay Marriage Impact on Oregon Employers, Workers Remains Unclear
Excerpt: "The bottom-line impact Oregon employers and workers will feel from Multnomah County's decision to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples remained largely unclear Wednesday. Employers, consultants and attorneys were scrambling to gauge how the move might affect employee benefit packages, among other things." (The Oregonian via Miami Herald)
Opinion: What Wal-Mart Has Wrought
Excerpt: "[W]hile Americans have focused, understandably, on the ongoing evisceration of manufacturing jobs, the downscaling of service-sector jobs in the age of Wal-Mart poses no less a threat to the existence and idea of a working-class career." (Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post)
Newly Posted Events
The FASB’s Proposed Amendment To Statement No.123, Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation
Nationwide on March 23, 2004
presented by Ernst & Young, LLP
Managing Retirement Assets Symposium
in Nevada on March 31, 2004
presented by Society of Actuaries
Annual Benefits Litigation Update 2004
Nationwide on March 12, 2004
presented by West LegalEdcenter
What's Hot in Qualified and Nonqualified Retirement Plans
Nationwide on March 9, 2004
presented by West LegalEdcenter
Benefits for Baby Boomers and Beyond
Nationwide on March 11, 2004
presented by West LegalEdcenter
Newly Posted Press Releases
One of the Nation's Only Discretionary Trustees Announces the Unified Success Pathway
(Unified Trust Company, NA)
AAHP-HIAA Proposes Plan to Fight Unlicensed Insurance Scams
(AAHP-HIAA)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Pension Administrator
for Actuaries Unlimited, Inc.
in CA
Pension Administrator/Consultant
for Compensation Systems Northwest, Inc.
in OR
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