| BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter |   |
August 20, 2004
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)
United Says Pensions' Termination Likely
Excerpt: "Cash-strapped UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, yesterday said that it would 'likely' terminate its four pension plans as part of its efforts to further cut costs and emerge from bankrup.tcy." (Washington Post)
IRS Publishes EP Determination Letter Resource Guide
Excerpt: "The purpose of the EP Determination Letter Resource Guide is to walk customers through the EP Determination Letter Process and to ensure they are aware of the resources that are available on the Retirement Plans web site." (Internal Revenue Service)
'Show Me the Way': Savings Plan Participants and Age-Based Lifestyle Funds
Excerpt: "A plan sponsor currently offers four risk-based lifestyle funds in their participant-directed retirement plan--conservative, moderate, growth and aggressive. Despite volumes of participant communication billing these funds as 'one-stop' investment options, usage is low. Furthermore, after making their initial selection, participants fail to re-examine their risk profiles on a regular basis. Perhaps age-based funds are the answer.' (Aon)
Opinion: On Pension Funding, We Need Substance, Not Hype
Excerpt: "[E]mployers are supposedly using the system to their own gain, having acted irresponsibly by not putting enough money away into their pension plans when times were good.... Another version of the irresponsibility argument says that pension plans should have been invested less in stocks ... To avoid similar under-funding problems in the future, pension regulations should be carefully changed so that employers will put more money away during goods times when they can afford it." (Center for American Progress)
Society of Actuaries Releases Retirement Probability Analyzer Software
Excerpt: "The SOA's Pension Section is pleased to make available the Retirement Probability Analyzer software which was created by Professor Moshe Milevsky and the IFID Centre. The software explores in great detail the fundamental question of whether one will run out of money before dying, while maintaining a desired standard of living." (Society of Actuaries)
Text: Spring 2004 Edition of NASRA Newsletter (PDF)
16 pages; includes overview of federal developments affecting governmental defined benefit plans at pp. 8-10. (National Association of State Retirement Administrators)
Employers Utilizing More Temp and Part-time Employees: Be Wary of Qualified Plan Issues
Excerpt: "A failure to allow part-time employees who earn 1,000 hours during the year and who otherwise qualify to participate in a plan can have unpleasant consequences for employers if they are ever audited by the Internal Revenue Service." (Attorney B. Janell Grenier on BenefitsBlog.com)
NPR Marketplace Report: Mutual Fund Abuses
Excerpt: "NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to Tess Vigeland of Marketplace about the latest settlement in a mutual fund trading abuse case, and the attempts by the Securities and Exchange Commission to limit such abuses." (National Public Radio)
Working Paper: Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of Its Pension Plan?
Excerpt: "This paper examines the empirical question of whether systematic equity risk of U.S. firms as measured by beta from the Capital Asset Pricing Model reflects the risk of their pension plans.' (National Bureau of Economic Research)
Distributional Effects of Defined Contribution Plans and Individual Retirement Accounts (PDF)
57 pages. Discussion Paper No. 16, August 2004 (revised). Excerpt: "This paper incorporates retirement saving incentives into the Tax Policy Center microsimulation model and analyzes the distributional effects of current tax preferences for saving." (The Urban Institute)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Delta Retirees Buckle Up For Airline's Turbulent Ride
Excerpt: "As Delta Air Lines struggles to avoid bankrup.tcy, its more than 17,000 retirees wonder how a dramatic retooling of the company will affect their pension checks and health care benefits." (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; one-time registration required)
Newly Posted Press Releases
NDCC Conference In Washington Explores Retirement Market Issues
(RG Wuelfing & Associates)
A Very Bad Message to Pension System: Council's Klein Comments on United Airlines' Pension Announcement
(American Benefits Council)
SHRM Study Shows a Quarter of Organizations Prepared to Handle Employee Inquiries on Same-Sex Marriage Benefits
(Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM))
Labor Department Solicits Nominations for 2005 ERISA Advisory Council
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Senior Pension/ 401 (k) Administrator - Takeover
for Polycomp Administrative Services, Inc.
in
Retirement Plan Administrator
for Valley Forge Consulting Corporation
in PA
Relationship Manager
for MassMutual Financial Group
in MD
Client Relationship Manager
for American United Life Insurance Company
in IL, KS, MN, OH
Recordkeeping Services Manager
for The Vanguard Group
in PA
Delivery Team Mgr. Benefits/Plan Mgnt
for Hewitt Associates
in NJ
Defined Contribution Project Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in NJ
Defined Benefits Requirement Consultant
for Hewitt Associates
in IL
Defined Benefits Requirement Analyst
for Hewitt Associates
in IL
Defined Benefit Ongoing Project Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in IL
Defined Contribution Project Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in IL
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
Copyright 2004 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you can reprint this newsletter in full (if you also include this boilerplate part) without obtaining our permission.
Published by:
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
https://benefitslink.com/about.html
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park FL 32789
(407) 644-4146
Fax: (407) 644-2151
Editor and Publisher: David Rhett Baker, J.D.
Housekeeping: