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April 8, 2004 - 13,655 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Natalie Choate's Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits

(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)

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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)
Hill Close to Easing Pension Funding Rules
Excerpt: "The Senate yesterday neared final congressional approval of a bill to ease funding requirements for traditional pensions after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and other opponents of the Republican-backed plan said they would not try to block it on the floor." (Washington Post; one-time registration required)

Senate Seems Set to Pass Pension Funding Bill
Excerpt: "The Senate prepared to pass a bill that would relieve companies from contributing an extra $80 billion into their pension plans after Democrats signaled they were unable stop it." (AP via Washington Post; one-time registration required)

U.S. Pension Plans' Funding Level Up In 2003
Excerpt: "Better-than-expected investment returns helped boost the average funding level of large U.S. employers' pension plans in 2003, but that level remains well below where it stood a few years ago." (Business Insurance)

How Plan Sponsors Are Coping With the Mutual Fund Scandal
Excerpt: "The mutual-fund industry contends that the fast-spreading allegations of improper trading at fund companies should not worry the approximately 400,000 corporate sponsors of 401(k) plans. But worry they do." (CFO.com)

Alicia Munnell and Annika Sunden Write Book, 'Coming Up Short: the Challenge of 401(k) Plans'
Excerpt: "Comprehensive and up-to-date, Coming Up Short is an essential resource on 401(k) plans for financial services professionals who design, administer, or manage retirement accounts; for policymakers concerned with ensuring adequate income for an aging population; and for individuals planning for their own retirement." (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

Text of IRS General Information Letter to Mark Iwry on Automatic Compensation Reduction Elections (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "[T]here is no special maximum limit on the automatic compensation reduction percentage and no safe harbor automatic compensation reduction percentage.... [F]or example, the automatic compensation reduction percentage need not be limited to the percentage of compensation that limits, under the plan, the amount of elective contributions or elective deferrals that are matched by employer matching contributions." (Via American Benefits Council)

Older, Younger City Officers Have Different Takes On Retirement Planning
Excerpt: "[T]he city's retirement plan is probably not a factor in hiring or retention. It may come into play as officers and firefighters get older and become more stable. 'I don't think the younger officers really look at it all that much,' Jaeger said. 'It may come into play if they are trying to decide to move into another career as they get older.' The career paths chosen by Reitano and Saunders are examples of that generational change." (The [Ames, Iowa] Tribune)

Indianapolis Transit System's Pension Fund Is in Trouble
Excerpt: "Nearly 500 current and retired employees of the IndyGo transit system have been told a pension fund could go broke in a few years without an infusion of cash." (Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via Miami Herald)

Oregon Municipalities Feel Budget Noose Tightening
Excerpt: "[Oregon City, Oregon] estimates that its general fund will increase from $13.5 million this year to almost $14.7 million next year. Expenses in general -- and pension and health care costs for city workers in particular -- are outpacing revenue, [the city manager] said. The day of reckoning isn't far off." (OregonLive.com)

Opinion: California Taxpayers Paying for High Public Pensions
Excerpt: "In California, public employees make a pretty good living, but they enjoy a phenomenal retirement. And guess who ends up paying for it? The numbers are staggering ..." (Los Angeles Daily News)

Center for Retirement Research at Boston College Begins Email Newsletter
Excerpt: "WELCOME to the first edition of the Center for Retirement Research newsletter. The newsletter will provide a quick and easy way to stay on top of our latest research findings and activities. We hope you find it both insightful and lively. -- Alicia H. Munnell, Director' Subscription form is at http://www.netcasters.com/cgi-bin/crr/contact.pl (link is in lower right-hand corner of the newsletter) (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

Welcome to BenefitsLink advertiser Benefit Plans Plus, L.L.C.
Excerpt: "We custom design retirement plans for small businesses (usually less than 50 employees) while accumulating assets under management for Financial Professionals. Our clients include Plan Sponsors, CPA's, Independent Financial Advisors and Planners, and Insurance Agents. We are a non-producing Third Party Administrator, we do not sell product! GOAL: Maximize the benefit of a retirement plan for the key employees while minimizing the overall contribution cost for employers;"

Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

New Edition of Incentive Compensation Book
The NCEO presents excerpts from the new edition of its book Incentive Compensation and Employee Ownership. The new edition adds a primer on sharing equity with employees, a chapter on restricted stock, a chapter on replacing stock options with performance shares, and two new case study chapters. (National Center for Employee Ownership)

Wal-Mart's Mega-Growth Continues, But Is its Image Getting a Bit Tarnished?
Excerpt: "The company ... has reached such enormous size that it has been compared to General Motors in the 1950s and Standard Oil in the early decades of the 20th century. As such, its influence in the U.S. economy is being reevaluated by politicians, economists and the media.... [A] recent economic study in Los Angeles said that the benefits of Wal-Mart's low-cost merchandise offset the economic damage done to workers in stores that could go out of business because of Wal-Mart's presence." (Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania)

Opinion: As Companies Profit, Workers Get Raw Deal
Excerpt: "They're rising: gross domestic product, industrial output, corporate profits, the stock market and, especially, productivity. They're falling: job creation over the past three years, pension coverage, paid health care, job security, savings and polls tracking confidence in the direction of the economy." (Jon Talton in the Arizona Republic)

Hewitt Federal Legislation Quick Guide Updated to April 6, 2004
Excerpt: "Click ... to learn more about pending legislation in each area. These files were updated on April 6, 2004.... Health and Welfare Benefit Plans; Human Resources and Employment Law; Retirement Plans" (Hewitt)

Newly Posted Events

"Who's the Employer?" Specialty Workshop
Nationwide on May 13, 2004
presented by SunGard Corbel

Participant Loans Specialty Workshop
Nationwide on May 13, 2004
presented by SunGard Corbel

Health Care and Small Business: What's on Your Mind? Ask the Experts
Nationwide on April 22, 2004
presented by U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Newly Posted Press Releases

Employee Benefits Security Administration Issues Field Assistance Bulletin on Health Savings Accounts
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.)

Secretary Snow Praises Department of Labor For Issuing Health Savings Account Guidance
(U.S. Department of Treasury)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
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in CA, OH

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in OH

Plan Administrator
for Pension Plan Professionals, Inc.
in FL

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