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March 19, 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)
House GOP Questions Proposed Pension Funding Fix
Excerpt: "House Republican leaders are at odds with Senate backers of a pensions-relief bill that could save companies billions of dollars over the next two years." (AP via Miami Herald)

Boehner Committee: Long-Term Reforms Needed to Strengthen the Multiemployer Pension System
Press release. Excerpt: "Witnesses told the House Employer-Employee Relations Subcommittee today that the multiemployer pension system needs long-term reforms to strengthen these important defined benefit plans on behalf of workers and employers. Multiemployer plans are pension agreements maintained by two or more employers in a particular trade or industry, such as trucking or construction, that are collectively bargained between the employer and a labor union." (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce)

Text of Written Testimony at 3/18/04 Hearing on Health of Multiemployer Pension System
3/18/04; 'Reforming and Strengthening Defined Benefit Plans: Examining the Health of the Multiemployer Pension System.' Witnesses included Barbara Bovbjerg, General Accounting Office; John McDevitt, United Parcel Service; Scott Weicht Executive Vice President, Associated General Contractors; and Randy G. DeFrehn, National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans. (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, Employer-Employee Relations Subcommittee)

Multiemployer Pension Plans Face Key Challenges to Their Long-Term Prospects
25 pages; 3/18/04. Statement of Barbara D. Bovbjerg, Director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues. Excerpt: "This testimony provides information on differences between single employer and multiemployer pension plans, recent trends in the funding of multiemployer pension plans and worker participation in those plans, and factors that may pose challenges to the future prospects of multiemployer plans. GAO will soon release a separate report on multiemployer pension issues." (U.S. General Accounting Office)

K-Mart Caught in Pension Funding Web
Excerpt: "Attention Kmart shoppers. The giant retailer has joined the ranks of companies caught in a pension snafu that just won't go away. Kmart Holding Corp. may owe hundreds of millions of dollars to its traditional retirement plans over the next few years. Or not. It all depends on how Congress acts on pension legislation it has been debating for months." (MLive.com)

Pension Costs Inflate Philadelphia City Budget Deficit
Excerpt: "The problem was caused by poor investment performance in what the administration calls its 'blue chip' $4.1 billion retirement plan for city employees. The dollars are staggering. In the new budget, the city must come up with an additional $60 million, about 26 percent of the deficit, to maintain the legal level of funding." (Philadelphia Inquirer)

The U.S. Pension Crisis: Evaluation and Analysis of Emerging Defined Benefit Pension Issues (PDF)
100 pages; March 2003. Excerpt: "What is needed is serious, objective and particularly collective reflection on how to best fund, account for, invest and support our nation's pension system. This report was prepared with that objective in mind. Legislators, regulators and standard setters need to recognize that healthy pension reform must be broadly coordinated. CIEBA calls on them to meet together with representatives of plan sponsors and participants ..." (The Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (Association for Financial Professionals))

Overview: Pension Proposals in Bush Administration Fiscal Year 2005 Budget
Excerpt: "On February 2, the Bush Administration released its fiscal year 2005 budget proposals, including significant new legislative proposals regarding cash balance plans; a revised version of the far-reaching retirement and savings proposals contained in last year's budget; and proposed 30-Year Treasury replacement and other pension funding proposals." (Groom Law Group)

Critical Date Approaching for Older Clients with IRAs and Qualified Plan Accounts
3/18/04. Excerpt: "A critical date is approaching for many clients who attained age 70-1/2 in 2003. By April 1, 2004, these clients must commence making required minimum distributions (RMDs) from their [non-Roth] IRAs.... (Code Sec. 408A(c)(5).) These clients also must commence RMDs from their qualified retirement plan accounts if the client (1) retired before 2004, or (2) is a more-than-5% owner of the company sponsoring the plan, even if he is still working." (RIA Federal Taxes Weekly Alert)

Son of Deceased City Worker Collects Dad's Pension Checks for 33 Years
Excerpt: "For more than 30 years, the city of Pittsburgh mistakenly issued pension checks to a dead man who would have been 107 years old last year, a recent audit found." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Woman's Death Hidden for 18 Years to Enable Son to Collect Her Pension Checks
Excerpt: "A Boston-area man has been charged in federal court with cashing checks sent to his mother from a teachers' pension fund for 18 years after the woman's death." (Washington Times)

Alleged Molestation Victim Unhappy with Settlement Providing Police Officer with Retirement Pay
Excerpt: "The Police Department will pay the legal fees and pension of a suspended deputy police chief accused of molesting Explorer Scouts under a settlement, officials said. David Kalish, who was not charged with molesting two teen scouts decades ago, filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles Police Department, alleging it defamed him, illegally searched his home and violated his privacy rights." (North County Times)

Overview: Blackout Notice Rules
Excerpt: "The Blackout Notice must be provided to participants and beneficiaries between 30 and 60 days before the last date on which one of the above transactions may be exercised. The rule for notifying participants and beneficiaries 30 days in advance has been clarified to include the last day that participants may exercise affected rights." (McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

IRS to Focus Audits on 'Large' Employers' Retirement Plans (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is expected to focus increased attention on its Employee Plan Team Audits (EPTA) program, which targets large employers' defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans. The IRS is currently in the process of training staff for six- to eight-member audit teams. This Bulletin describes the EPTA program." (The Segal Company)

Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

Entitlement Program Costs Expected to Soar
Excerpt: "Trustees for Medicare and Social Security will report next week that the two entitlement programs will eventually need more than twice as much money as previously estimated, experts who helped prepare the calculations say." (New York Times; one-time registration required)

The 'Perfect Storm' in Compensation
Excerpt: "The recent unprecedented convergence of significant strategic events in the compensation arena has created the need for ongoing and extensive compensation planning. This article reviews the events leading to this point, describes the implications of the results from a recent Aon study with WorldatWork, and suggests what employers can do to successfully navigate the 'perfect storm' in compensation." (Aon)

Newly Posted Events

Fundamentals of 401(k) Plans Seminar
in Massachusetts on June 3, 2004
presented by SunGard Corbel

Fundamentals of 401(k) Plans Seminar
in Texas on June 10, 2004
presented by SunGard Corbel

Fundamentals of 401(k) Plan Seminar
in North Carolina on June 17, 2004
presented by SunGard Corbel

Fundamentals of 401(k) Plans Seminar
in New York on June 24, 2004
presented by SunGard Corbel

Executive Compensation: Strategy, Design, and Implementation
in New York on June 17, 2004
presented by ALI-ABA (American Law Institute-American Bar Association)

How to Prepare for Changes to Retiree Drug Coverage Under the New Medicare Law -- 90-Minute Interactive Audio Conference
Nationwide on April 8, 2004
presented by Thompson Interactive

Health Savings Accounts: The New Future For Managed Care And Consumer Driven Health Plans
Nationwide on April 21, 2004
presented by Health Resources Online
Newly Posted Press Releases

Newkirk Unveils SEC-Compliant Fund Reporting Communications
(Newkirk)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Post a Help Wanted Ad

Senior Benefits Analyst
for Nixon Peabody LLP
in NY

Client Relationship Manager
for Merrill Lynch (Retirement Group)
in NJ

Pension Advisor Product Associate
for Merrill Lynch (Retirement Group)
in NJ

National Sales Manager
for Merrill Lynch (Retirement Group)
in NJ

Vice President of Operations
for Convergys
in FL

Project/Client Manager
for Constellation Energy
in MD

Benefits Analyst
for Constellation Energy
in MD

Benefit Plan Representative
for Constellation Energy
in MD

Defined Contribution Administrator
for Full service retirement plan firm in business over 21 years
in IL

Pension Plan Coordinator
for Transamerica
in CA, GA

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