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April 28, 2004 - 13481 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Actuarial Systems Corporation

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

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.

(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Text of Proposed Amendment to Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 75-1 (PDF)
5 pages; Excerpt: "As amended, the exemption would permit plans to engage in transactions with broker-dealers, reporting dealers, banks and their affiliates except where the broker-dealer, reporting dealer, bank or an affiliate has or exercises any discretionary authority or control (except as a directed trustee) with respect to the investment of plan assets involved in the transaction, or renders investment advice ... with respect to the investment of those assets." (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)

Text of Final REIT Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "Section I provides conditional exemptive relief for the acquisition, holding, and sale of Qualifying Trust REIT Shares by individual account plans sponsored by the Trust REITs. Section II(a) describes the conditions for retroactive relief for transactions occurring up to six years prior to the date that the notice granting the final exemption is published in the Federal Register and for 60 days thereafter." (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)

Pension Costs Weigh Heavily on New York City Budget
Excerpt: "Annual pension costs, which are determined by labor agreements reached between the city and its unions, are expected to nearly double, to $4.3 billion, by the 2007 fiscal year." (New York Times; one-time registration required)

Houston Pension Funding Issue Goes to Voters
Excerpt: "Politics over Houston's pension crisis will hit the city's airways Wednesday as voters begin heading for the polls. Mayor Bill White says a vote against the proposition could burn a hole in taxpayers' pockets. But is that enough to lure people to the polls?" (KHOU)

Pension Accounting Standards Likely to Change
Excerpt: "Soon, your pension plan may be naked for all the world to see--naked in terms of its numbers, that is. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is aiming to converge the United States' accounting rules with those of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which would include accounting for pensions." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)

Overview: QDRO May Modify Terms of Previous QDRO Involving Same Alternate Payee
DOL Adv. Op. 2004-02A (Feb. 17, 2004). Excerpt: "In this Advisory Opinion, the DOL finds that ERISA does not prohibit a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) from modifying terms of a previous QDRO that involved the same participant and alternate payee, if the QDRO otherwise meets ERISA's statutory requirements." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA))

Overview: Automatic Rollovers of Small Cash-Outs from Qualified Plans-- Proposed Regs (PDF)
At pp. 1-3 of 6-page document. Excerpt: "With the safe harbor, there do not seem to be significant obstacles to continuing mandatory cash-outs and satisfying the safe harbor rules. It can actually make it easier for plan sponsors to cash-out small amounts, for example where a participant cannot be located or refuses to acknowledge receipt of distribution information." (Trucker Huss)

IRS Rules PowerPoint® Presentation Constitutes Participant Notice
Excerpt: "In Private Letter Ruling (PLR) 200407021, the IRS ruled that a plan sponsor's Microsoft PowerPoint® presentation at employee meetings satisfies the written notice requirements of ERISA section 204(h)." (Watson Wyatt)

Overview: IRS Issues Updated Procedures for Waiver of Minimum Funding Standards (PDF)
At pp. 3-5 of 6-page document. Excerpt: "Timing is critical if an employer is considering obtaining a waiver. An employer has 10 months from the close of the plan year in order to make the required contribution to the plan. However, the IRS waiver procedure requires that the application be filed no later than 3-1/2 months after the close of the plan year for which a waiver is sought." (Trucker Huss)

Pension Funding Equity Act's Effects on Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plans (PDF)
At pp. 1-3 of 4-page document. Excerpt: "Beginning with the plan year starting in 2005, the new law requires each multiemployer plan to notify all interested parties as to whether the plan is fully funded on a current liability basis." (Milliman USA)

Phased Retirement: a Retention Strategy Whose Time Has Come
Excerpt: "Phased retirement generally means fewer hours, more flexibility or less responsibility. Experts predict that phased retirement or 'phasing' will become increasingly popular in the future. And no wonder. If ever a time and place were ripe for an idea, it's phased retirement today in the United States." (Watson Wyatt)

Opinion: Connecting the ERISA Fiduciary Dots
Excerpt: "In this article I want to examine whether or not just two dots can be connected from which a picture would emerge -- dots that are well known and in plain view. The first dot is: ERISA Fiduciary Responsibilities. The second dot is: Retiring in Dignity." (Brooks Hamilton on 401kHelpCenter.com)

Mutual Fund Investors Appear Unworried
Excerpt: "Mutual fund investors have been bombarded by bad news about some of the companies that oversee their nest eggs, but a recent study found that few people are terribly worried about the industry's problems." (AP via Washington Post; one-time registration required)

Janus Reaches $225 Million Settlement With Regulators
Excerpt: "Janus will pay $50 million in restitution to investors and $50 million in civil penalties and reduce the fees it charges investors by $125 million over five years, under the deal announced by the attorneys general of Colorado and New York." (AP via Washington Post; one-time registration required)

Opinion: What's Wrong with Social Security?
Excerpt: "To a libertarian, just because you believe that people save too little for their own good does not mean that 'mandating savings makes sense.' Even those of us who are far from pure in our libertarianism ought to at least pause and reflect about the issue of a mandatory program." (Arnold Kling on Tech Central Station)

Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

Forfeit of Stock Provision In Option Agreement Held Valid
Excerpt: "A provision in an employer's stock option agreement, that called for the recovery of company stock from the option grantee if a non-compete provision in the same agreement were found unenforceable, was valid, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans (CA-5)." (CCH News & Information Library)

Overview: Labor Department Issues FLSA Final Regulations (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "The revised federal regulations significantly change the tests utilized in determining whether an employee is entitled to overtime pay or exempt from the FLSA's overtime requirements. The rules were published in the April 23, 2004 Federal Register and will take effect 120 days thereafter, on August 21, 2004." (Gardner Carton & Douglas)

IBM Shareholders Vote to Expense Stock Options
Excerpt: " IBM Corp. shareholders voted Tuesday to require the company to treat stock options as a business expense, though the impact of the decision is muted because financial regulators are on the verge of imposing the same rule." (AP via Washington Post; one-time registration required)

Newly Posted Events

Defined Benefit 412i Boot Camp
Nationwide on July 29, 2004
presented by The 412(i) Company

Driving & Developing Effective Patient Compliance & Persistency Programs for Health Plans & Employers
in Illinois on July 26, 2004
presented by International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC)

Employee Benefits Conference
in New York on May 18, 2004
presented by New York State Society of C PAs

FLSA: Impact on New Overtime Regulations
Nationwide on May 13, 2004
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Post a Help Wanted Ad

Employee Benefits Paralegal
for Chang, Ruthenberg & Long, P.C.
in CA

Plan Administrator / Relationship Manager
for Weaver Partners
in ANY STATE

Defined Contribution Administrator / Compliance
for MK Consulting, Inc.
in ANY STATE

Client Service Representative
for Decimal, Inc. (www.theonline401k.com),
in CA

Associate Attorney
for Shook Hardy & Bacon, LLP
in LA

Credit & Risk Director( For a commercial Property and Casualty Firm)
for Arwood Associate, Inc
in KS, MO

Enrollment Specialist
for MD Consulting & Admin firm
in MD

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