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May 13, 2004 - 13466 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Financial Research Associates, LLC

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STARS & STRIPES ’04 Summit
The 2004 National Public Employees’ Retirement Funds Summit
July 18-20, 2004 * Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club, Orlando, FL
To register call 800-280-8440 or visit www.frallc.com
General Highlights:
* A Closed-Door/Private Public Fund Exchange
* Enhanced Asset Allocation & Diversification in Today’s Economy
* Effectively Valuing A Fund’s Liabilities
* Managing a Mature Fund Versus a New Plan
* Corporate Governance, Late Trading, & Market-Timing Scandals

(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Ex-Enron Workers Win $67M in Pension Suits
Excerpt: "Former Enron employees who lost millions of dollars in retirement money in the company's stunning collapse would get at least $66.5 million from two newly reached settlements of lawsuits, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said Wednesday." (AP via Washington Post; one-time registration required)

Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao Announces Settlements Restoring At Least $66.5 Million to Enron Retirement Plans
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.)

Local Coverage: Up to 20,000 Could Split Enron Settlement
Excerpt: "Should U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon give her blessing to the deals, current and former employees would receive $69.2 million of the $86.5 million settlement sometime in the late summer or fall. Lawyers for the workers would receive $17 million. That would leave about $3,500 per employee, assuming there are as many as 20,000 eligible current and former workers." (Houston Chronicle)

The Costs and Benefits to Fund Shareholders of 12b-1 Fees: Fund Flows, Expenses and Returns (PDF)
29 pages. Excerpt: "In all, the evidence demonstrates that 12b-1 plans are successful at attaining faster asset growth; however, shareholders do not obtain any of the benefits from the asset growth. This result validates the concerns raised by opponents of 12b-1 plans about the conflicts of interest created by these plans." (Lori Walsh, Financial Economist, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)

Most Corporate Pensions Remain Underfunded -survey
Excerpt: "Only 19 percent of the 331 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index that provide defined benefit pension plans had pension assets that matched or exceeded liabilities in 2003, according to a report published on Wednesday." (Reuters via Forbes.com)

Overview: Companies Must Issue Pension Underfunding Warnings
Excerpt: "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is getting tough on companies that don't communicate to their rank and file that their pension plans are underfunded." (CFO.com)

Houston Pension Funding Shortfall Rises to $1.9 Billion
Excerpt: "Houston's main pension fund now has less than half the assets needed to pay its expected liabilities -- a shortfall of $1.9 billion -- according to a study released Wednesday by Mayor Bill White. And the police fund is $846 million short, a second study said." (Houston Chronicle)

Retroactive Claims An Issue For Public Safety Pensions In California
Excerpt: "A new law that sidestepped state procedure to grant special public safety pensions to more than 3,000 workers ranging from driving test examiners to milk inspectors might cost much more than expected. The California Union of Safety Employees, which sponsored the legislation, is telling its members the public safety retirement formula will be applied retroactively." (Sacramento Bee)

Man Found Guilty of Collecting Deceased Mother's Pension -- Over $260,000 Pocketed
Excerpt: "Phillip W. Hyde, 62, of Cambridge, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro to one count of mail fraud ... Prosecutors said Hyde's mother died in 1982, but she continued to receive checks from the Teacher's Pension Fund of Chicago after her retirement in 1968. Hyde forged his mother's signature on the pension checks and deposited them in a joint bank account ..." (TheBostonChannel.com)

Lawyers Vie For Prize In Mutual-fund Scandal
Excerpt: "Lawyers defending the mutual-fund companies say all the fighting over the lead-attorney slot shows the cases were ginned up mainly to enrich plaintiff lawyers, given that the companies already have agreed to pay restitution to investors as part of settlements with state and federal regulators, which so far total nearly $2 billion." (Wall Street Journal via SFGate.com)

The Many Ages of Retirement
Excerpt: "[T]he hardest and most important step is ... calculating dollar estimates of how much income you would receive over how many years by retiring at different ages.... You should seek help from a financial adviser or from the employee-benefits experts at your workplace if you don't feel up to doing this yourself." (Ellen Hoffman in Business Week)

Social Security Agency Official Explains 'Teacher's Offset'
Excerpt: "If you are a teacher whose teaching job is covered by Social Security, then your Social Security benefits will not be offset or reduced, and you do not need to read further. However, some teachers do not pay Social Security taxes. If you are in this situation, then you should take time to understand two provisions of the law that may reduce or eliminate any Social Security benefits you would otherwise be entitled to." (JournalStandard.com)

Opinion: CalPERS Diversion?
Excerpt: "CalPERS, the pension fund for state employees, has a long history of uncovering mismanagement in companies in which it is invested, and hectoring those companies into making necessary changes. But in the past several months it has taken that tradition in a new and bizarre direction -- and, more importantly, in recent years its investments have soured in [a] trend that should be alarming to its beneficiaries and infuriating to state taxpayers." (San Francisco Examiner)

House Panel OKs Postal Service Reform; Pension Surplus to Be Used for Other Purposes
Excerpt: "The bill also frees up $73 billion in civil service retirement savings that had been held in escrow, allowing the Postal Service to use the money to defray rate increases and for other purposes." (AP via Washington Post; one-time registration required)

Opinion: the Heat's On the Pension Consultants
Excerpt: "Faced with mounting allegations of wrongdoing, lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny, the pension consulting industry is bracing for harder times ahead. Quietly some of the larger firms are retiring or replacing key senior managers who have overseen pay-to-play schemes, spinning off conference organizing and money manager marketing operations and erecting 'Chinese Walls.'" (The Benchmark Companies)

More Japanese Lawmakers Admit to Failure to Pay Into Japanese Social Security System
Excerpt: "A top Cabinet minister and the head of the main opposition party have already resigned in the widening scandal, which has unfolded just as Parliament debates a bill to hike premiums and cut retiree benefits in order to ensure the system's solvency." (AP via The [Columbia, S.C.] State)

Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

City of Boston Bars Out-of-State Same-Sex Marriages
Excerpt: "The City of Boston decided on Wednesday that it would not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples from other states when g.ay marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts next week. But Somerville, a neighboring city, came to the opposite conclusion, saying couples who sign the license application will be issued licenses, even if they have no intention of moving to Massachusetts. The two decisions underscore a mushrooming debate about same-sex marriage here ..." (New York Times; one-time registration required)

Updated Summary of 'Employee Benefits in Private Industry, 2003' (PDF)
17 pages. Excerpt: "In addition to data on access to benefit plans, the tables in this release include data on days of paid vacations and holidays, provisions of life insurance plans, and, for the first time ever, the sharing of costs of medical care premiums between employees and employers.' Actual survey results are at http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/ebs2.toc.htm (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor)

GAO: More Data About Business-Owned Life Insurance Could Be Useful in Making Tax Policy Decisions
66 pages. Excerpt: "If Congress decides that it needs more data on business-owned life insurance, it may wish to consider having SEC, Treasury, or NAIC collect the data from businesses or insurance companies. SEC and Treasury expressed reservations about collecting the data, noting that the data is not needed to fulfill their regulatory missions.' Executive summary is online at http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04303high.pdf (U.S. General Accounting Office)

New Jersey Lawmakers Pile Up Benefits Legislation
Excerpt: "New Jersey is hardly awash in money these days, but that hasn't stopped state lawmakers from introducing more than 200 bills - with a total price tag of at least $3.2 billion - to increase or guarantee health and pension benefits for public employees. Not to worry. Lawmakers, who often don't know the details or cost of their bills, usually introduce them simply to avoid running afoul of the state's powerful public employee unions." (NJ.com)

Complicated Tax Breaks: the Price of Democracy?
Excerpt: "The government publishes a yearly list of 'tax expenditures,' indicating the costs in forgone taxes of different breaks. These favor the middle and upper-middle classes. Here are some of the biggest for 2004: tax-free employer contributions to pensions and 401(k) plans, $123 billion; tax-free employer payments for health insurance, $120 billion ..." (Robert J. Samuelson in Newsweek via MSNBC.com)

Newly Posted Events

Basics of Health & Welfare Plans
in Connecticut on June 8, 2004
presented by Southern New England Chapter ISCEBS

How to Comply With the New FLSA Regulations - Audio Conference
Nationwide on May 25, 2004
presented by Thompson Interactive, A Division of Thompson Publishing Group

Medicare Discount Prescription Drug Card Program
Nationwide on May 17, 2004
presented by Kaiser Family Foundation

Policy Options to Expand Health Insurance Coverage
Nationwide on May 11, 2004
presented by Kaiser Family Foundation

Troubleshooting the 2003 Form 5500 Audio Conference
Nationwide on June 3, 2004
presented by Thompson Interactive, A Division of Thompson Publishing Group

WEB Atlanta Chapter Program Announcement
in Georgia on May 20, 2004
presented by Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (WEB) - Atlanta Chapter
Newly Posted Press Releases

SunGard Introduces Relius Government Forms 5500 Web Client
(SunGard Corbel)

Benefit Advisors Network Adds Chapman Schewe
(Benefit Advisors Network)

IRS Tax Forums Planned For This Summer
(Internal Revenue Service (IRS))

GASB Issues Standards to Improve Postemployment Benefit Plan Reporting
(Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB))

Boehner, Johnson Announce Plans To Hold A Hearing On Cash Balance Pension Plans
(Committee on Education and the Workforce)

AMA Details Plan To Cover The Uninsured By Strengthening Current System
(American Medical Association (AMA))

Oklahoma Makes Federal Health Coverage Tax Credit Available
(U.S. Department of Treasury)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Post a Help Wanted Ad

Retirement Plans Investment Consultant
for Stanley Hunt Dupree & Rhine Investment Advisors (a subsidiary of BB&T)
in NC

Client Relationship Manager
for The Newport Group, Inc.
in FL

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