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May 14, 2004 - 13475 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)
Pension Change Leads In Poll of Houston Voters
Excerpt: "Houston voters appear ready to give Mayor Bill White flexibility to reduce city employee retirement benefits in the face of a $1.9 billion pension system shortfall, according to a Houston Chronicle/KHOU-TV poll." (Houston Chronicle)

Houston Pension Funding Issue Pits Unions Against Business Groups
Excerpt: "If it's a chamber of commerce or business group, chances are excellent it endorses Proposition 1, the Saturday ballot item that would excuse Houston from a state law protecting certain pension benefits for city employees. If it's a union, chances are good it opposes Proposition 1." (Houston Chronicle)

Opinion: New York Times Unfairly Blasts DROPs
Excerpt: "A lead article in the May 5, 2004 New York Times is entitled 'Some Cities Struggling to Keep Pension Promises.' We're not quite certain why that title was chosen, inasmuch as the article is nothing more than a condemnation of deferred retirement option programs." (Cypen & Cypen)

Overview: PBGC Expands Penalties, Adopts Voluntary Correction Program (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "Defined benefit plan sponsors should assess the effects of the proposed policy on their plans and consider filing comments on the revised penalty policy by July 6, 2004 if the changes will be adverse. Plan sponsors also are advised to take necessary steps to ensure that required underfunding notices were provided to participants." (Milliman USA)

Employers Face Lawsuits On Retirement Plan Options
Excerpt: "[S]ome employers are moaning as disappointed employees have begun suing them for what the workers say was poor investment advice, said Fred Reish, an attorney specializing in retirement plans. ''Corporate governance' is the big word right now,' Reish said Thursday at a conference of retirement plan managers. 'We're into a wave of accountability.'" (Omaha World-Herald)

Opinion: Retirement Income Planning-- Risk and Investment Strategy for Retirees (PDF)
5 pages. Excerpt: "If you are working on the assumption that retirees should still be investing for 'growth,' you may be providing them bad advice. Here's why the new conventional wisdom is probably wrong for most people." (Still River Retirement Planning Software, Inc.)

Opinion: Early Retirements in Illinois Costing Five Times Original Estimate
Excerpt: "[E]arly retirements of state employees always look good because it means removal of someone from the operating payroll and putting them into a pension plan. If they are replaced, it is usually with someone receiving less pay. Thus, the assumed savings. Illinois' budget director John Filan is challenging those assumptions ..." (The Pantagraph)

Saving for Retirement: Taxes Matter
Excerpt: "This Issue in Brief begins with a brief description of the types of accounts that individuals may consider for retirement saving. It then analyzes two separate issues that are relevant to different stages of the investment process: 1) where to invest; and 2) how to value existing investments." (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

What, Me Retire?
Excerpt: "54% intend to work full or part-time after age 65, citing financial reasons." (BenefitNews.com)

How to Fight All Those Hidden Investment Charges
Excerpt: "A cost difference of just 1% annually can have a huge effect on your future nest egg. A worker with a $49,000 balance in a plan could wind up with $82,000 less if his expenses average 1.5% over 30 years instead of .5%, Hewitt estimates." (Liz Pulliam Weston on MSN Money)

Text of U.S. Chamber of Commerce and PSCA Comments on SEC Redemption Fee Proposal (PDF)
11 pages; May 10, 2004. Excerpt: "The proposed rule is premature. The Commission should reinvigorate and enforce an effective fair value pricing requirement that will eliminate stale net asset value prices that permit time zone arbitrage before proposing or implementing other market timing remedies. Any measures to address market timing should accommodate alternative measures jointly agreed to by funds, intermediaries, and sponsors of employer-provided retirement plans." (U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America)

Japan Prime Minister Failed to Pay Social Security Taxes
Excerpt: "Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi didn't pay into Japan's troubled pension system for about 6 1/2 years, his office said Friday, implicating him in a scandal that has already forced his top lieutenant and the No. 1 opposition leader to resign." (AP via Washington Post; one-time registration required)

Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

Federal District Judge Denies Bid to Stop G.ay Marriages from Starting Monday in Massachusetts
Excerpt: "U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro said the state's high court acted within its authority in interpreting the Massachusetts Constitution. The plaintiffs immediately announced they would take their case to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - and to the Supreme Court if necessary. The 1st Circuit agreed to review the case on an expedited basis." (AP via Washington Post; one-time registration required)

Opinion: FASB is Still Wrong about Stock Options
Excerpt: "Shortly before April Fool's Day, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued an exposure draft of a new accounting rule that, if approved, would require that all forms of share-based compensation be accounted as a cost in the period they are granted.... On this issue, the accounting gurus at FASB are wrong on all counts. Let me count the ways ..." (William A. Niskanen, published by the Cato Institute)

Opinion: Congress Puts Supplemental Retirement Plans Back on Track (PDF)
Excerpt: "The Senate Finance Committee, however, has recently taken action that helps companies to better attract and retain their best people, promote retirement savings, and increase shareholder value. It has reviewed and soundly beaten back an ill conceived proposal that would have impacted the use of corporate-owned life insurance (COLI)." (Michael P. Corry of The Todd Organization)

Newly Posted Events

Self-Funded Health Plan Roundtable
in Florida on August 18, 2004
presented by SunGard Corbel

Update on Recent HSA Guidance
Nationwide on June 3, 2004
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Newly Posted Press Releases

Eisner Retirement Solutions Selects BeneCom to Provide Employee Retirement Education
(BeneCom Associates, LLC)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Post a Help Wanted Ad

Pension Administrative Associate
for Priority Pension Services, Inc.
in CA

Operations Specialist
for Decimal, Inc. (www.theonline401k.com)
in CA

Tax Manager - Employee Benefits Tax Services
for Deloitte
in PA, VA

Tax Senior Employee Benefits Tax Services
for Deloitte
in PA

Partnership Associate
for Transamerica
in CA

Director of Service and Administration
for UnumProvident Corporation
in DC

Motivated Sales Representatives (3 positions open)
for Primark Benefits
in CA

Trust Officer
for City National Bank
in CA

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