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Retirement Plans
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May 10, 2004 - 13441 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Actuarial Systems Corporation

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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)
American Benefits Council Publishes Summary of PBGC Proposals on Participant Notices (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has proposed a new penalty structure for failure to inform participants when the plan is underfunded." (American Benefits Council)

Changing Participant Demand Shapes 401(k) Features
Excerpt: "Today's demand for investment advice comes primarily from participants who saw account balances drop during the stock market downturn of recent years and wonder how to regain their nest eggs. In contrast, the long stock market boom of the mid-1990s led many plans to introduce self-directed brokerage accounts (SBDA) that allow participants to invest in any publicly traded equity or mutual fund." (BenefitNews.com)

Youth 401(k) Participation Lags
Excerpt: "Young workers don't think much of their companies' 401(k) plans, according to reports from retirement plan providers. Participation rates among the under-40 set, while generally rising over time, are still lower than desired and even falling in some cases. What's more, many young people say the 401(k) holds no special attraction for them as a recruiting or retention tool." (BenefitNews.com)

Houston Mayor Proposes Cuts To Police Pension Fund On Prospective Basis
Excerpt: "Mayor Bill White proposed several cuts to the Houston police pension fund Friday, but none involved a cut in benefits for current retirees or those already earned by current officers. Several of White's ideas will prove unpopular with police, including increasing their payroll contribution and delaying when they can retire by five years." (Houston Chronicle)

Confusion Surrounds City Workers Pensions Vote in Houston
Excerpt: "City workers feel threatened; [Mayor Bill] White says change needed." (Houston Chronicle)

Opinion: How to Fix Funding Mess for Houston City Pension
Excerpt: "What do we need to do? Bring the following to the negotiating table ... Add an independent voice to the pension board.... Restore Houston City Council's appointments to the pension board.... Change the amortization period.... Tie annual cost-of-living adjustments to inflation ... Adjust the rate of accrual on deferred retirement accounts to reflect market conditions.... [discuss raising] employee payroll contributions [and other proposals]." (Houston City Controller Annise D. Parker in the Houston Chronicle)

Another Question is Answered in the Who's the Employer Q&A Column
What happens when one member of a controlled group has a profit-sharing plan and the other member has a SIMPLE (either 401k or IRA) plan? I thought an employer cannot sponsor a SIMPLE and a qualified plan; how would aggregation apply to this controlled group situation? (BenefitsLink.com)

Has CalPERS Fallen Out of Touch?
Excerpt: "Some observers suggest that the nation's largest pension fund is announcing its opposition to too many nominees at too many companies." (CFO.com)

Are You Living Up To Your Company's Fiduciary Responsibility?
Excerpt: "Many organizations have no idea whether they are following fiduciary rules for managing their retirement plans. Is yours one of them?" (Tampa Bay Business Journal via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)

Opinion: Baseball Wrong In Denying Pensions to Older Players
Excerpt: "Did you know that more than 1,000 former big-leaguers don't receive a baseball pension - and are ineligible for medical coverage - only because they had the misfortune to conclude their careers before the players' association bargained for a more inclusive retirement plan in 1980?" (John McGrath in the Times Record News)

Complex Choices Leave Many Americans Confused About Managing Money
Excerpt: "Many Americans 45 and older are lost in the financial woods when managing their money, according to a new study." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Consumer Sovereignty? Power Isn't Knowledge for Many Older Americans
Excerpt: "[T]he AARP findings and others like them suggest the perils that are inherent in both government and corporate policies that ask individuals to absorb the risks and responsibilities that come with everything from choosing their retirement investments to picking their health care coverage to deciding among electricity providers." (Albert Crenshaw in the Washington Post)

Hard to Market: ETFs Disclosing Fees
Excerpt: "A low-cost alternative to mutual funds is a hard sell in an industry where costs aren't clear." (Philadelphia Inquirer (one-time registration required))

Fee Deals Can Hurt Retirement Savers
Excerpt: "Determining retirement-plan costs is as daunting for employers as choosing investments is for employees. What employers don't know can hurt the retirement savers, said Ted Benna, an industry leader and a plan administrator in Williamsport." (Philadelphia Inquirer (one-time registration required))

Opinion: Hedge Funds 'The Sleaziest Show On Earth'
Excerpt: "Hedge funds will suck in $100 billion this year from an ever-broader swath of investors. Pretty good for a business rife with exorbitant fees, phony numbers and outright thievery." (Forbes.com)

Prosecutors and Public Defenders Worthy of Police-Type Benefits in California?
Excerpt: "Prosecutors and public defenders spend a lot of time with criminals. Still, most people don't think of them as cops. But that is what they became, in effect, with the Legislature's 2002 passage of a law putting them into a special public-safety retirement category. Although none of the government lawyers have bargained for the added benefit yet, they now are eligible to seek it." (Sacramento Bee)

Hitting the 'Safety Retirement' Jackpot in California
Excerpt: "Prison cooks, plumbers, groundskeepers, teachers, dentists, business managers, and 'audiovisual specialists' - all are among the 70,000 state workers considered police or firefighters, eligible to retire with better benefits than other state workers." (Sacramento Bee)

Opinion: Safety Retirement Scam In California
Excerpt: "State workers lucky enough to obtain the much-coveted safety retirement classification, originally reserved for peace officers and firefighters, receive greatly enhanced pension benefits, as The Sacramento Bee documented in a special report Sunday. As The Bee's Dorothy Korber and John Hill report today, they also receive even more if they are hurt or, sometimes, not hurt on the job." (Sacramento Bee)

Opinion: Making a Case For Privatizing Social Security
Excerpt: "Could your retirement fund use an extra $175,000? I thought so. How about $350,000? ... Well, it might have happened -- if you had invested a portion of your payroll tax instead of sending it to Washington to support Social Security." (Scott Burns in the Houston Chronicle)

Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

Opinion: the Effects of Global Graying
Excerpt: "[T]he most rapidly aging areas of the world, according to the United Nations, the U.S. Census and virtually all other demographic forecasters, are the very places we today associate with destabilizing youth bulges - with the Middle East being among the most rapidly aging of all." (Phillip Longman in the Baltimore Sun)

Opinion: Executive Pay-- An Incentive To Cheat?
Excerpt: "Executive compensation, largely in stock options, has skyrocketed during the past two decades. Why? Has the supply of or demand for executives changed radically in recent years? Were executives so much less valuable 20 years ago?" (Minneapolis Star Tribune; one-time registration required)

Benefits vs. Salary Debate Hard to Settle for Government Employees
Excerpt: "Private sector jobs pay more but public jobs offer better benefits. Human resources professionals say that long-held theory still holds up. But a 200-page employee salary and benefit survey commissioned by the city of Long Beach appears to offer less conclusive proof." (Long Beach Press-Telegram)

Newly Posted Events

Administering COBRA Coverage Based on New IRS Ruling Audio Conference
Nationwide on May 18, 2004
presented by Thompson Interactive, A Division of Thompson Publishing Group

Employee Agreements: Wise or Unwise? Enforceable or Unenforceable? Audio Conference
Nationwide on May 20, 2004
presented by Thompson Interactive, A Division of Thompson Publishing Group

Have it Your Way: The Evolution of Participant Advice
Nationwide on May 18, 2004
presented by PLANSPONSOR

HIPAA and Other Health Laws: Maryland Compliance Assistance Seminar
in Maryland on May 19, 2004
presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

Mutual Fund Scandals: What Plan Administrators Should Do Audio Conference
Nationwide on May 27, 2004
presented by Thompson Interactive, A Division of Thompson Publishing Group

The New FLSA Rules: How Should Employers Respond?
Nationwide on May 7, 2004
presented by Hewitt Associates LLC
Newly Posted Press Releases

Authoria to Acquire Advanced Information Management (AIM)
(Authoria, Inc.)

Press Conference Announcing Large U.S. Employer Action on Health Coverage for Uninsured Workers Scheduled for May 10
(HR Policy Association)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Post a Help Wanted Ad

Defined Benefit Implementation Specialists
for Constantin Control Associates
in NC, NJ

Account Manager / Business Developer
for Aon Consulting
in NC

Employee Benefits Trust Officer
for BancorpSouth Trust And Asset Management
in AR

Retirement Plan Coordinator
for The American Funds Group, a part of The Capital Group Companies, Inc.
in IN, TX

Sr. Benefits Administrator
for Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
in CA

401(k) / Pension Administrator
for Benetech, Inc.
in CA

Employee Benefits (EB) Field Wholesaler
for Wachovia Corporation
in FL

Client Services Specialist
for ExpertPlan. Inc.
in NJ

Retirement Services/ERISA Compliance Manager
for SunTrust Banks, Inc.
in GA

Retirement Plan Services Consultant
for American United Life Insurance Company
in IN

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