| BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter |   |
December 14, 2004
Today's sponsor: ASPPA • Working for America's Retirement™
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
Membership Means More ASPPA members are working hard for America’s retirement. And ASPPA is working hard to ensure its members are the best in the retirement plan industry. ASPPA. For the Serious Retirement Plan Professional.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Days of Extravagant Pension Plans Fading: Workers Pushed Toward Cheaper, and Riskier, Solutions
Excerpt: "To save money, some local governments in southeast Michigan in the 1990s did what many private businesses were doing -- switched from traditional pension plans to 401(k)-style retirement accounts into which employees and employers contribute." (Detroit Free Press)
403(b) and 457 Retirement Plans with Plan Feature Comparison Chart (PDF)
Excerpt: "This brochure outlines features of 403(b) and 457 retirement plans in an easy-to-read chart." (Internal Revenue Service via 403bWise)
Wise Cracks Commentary with Dan and John: How the Grinch Stole the 403(b)
Excerpt: "Every 403(b) investor liked no-load mutual funds a lot...But the Grinch, Who served as benefits director, Did NOT! The Grinch hated no-load mutual funds! To him they amounted to treason! Now please don't ask us why. No one quite knows the reason .It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right. It could be perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. But we think that the most likely reason of all May have been that his brain was two sizes too small." (bWise Guys, LLC)
Update on U.K. Employers Being Urged to Boost Pension Contributions
Excerpt: "U.K. employers should aim to make pension contributions of up to 10 percent of staff pay, according to a government-sponsored report which warns that Britain's system of making occupational pensions voluntary isn't working." (Bloomberg.com)
Commentary on an Effect of the Joint and Several Liability Rules for 'Controlled Groups' Under ERISA (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The ERISA controlled-group rules are difficult to administer even for large corporations maintaining different retirement plans. For PE firms that are often unaware of the rules and lack the internal resources to monitor compliance, they represent a significant trap that merits increased attention at the due diligence and structuring phases of acquisitions." (Dechert LLP)
PBGC Files Brief Supporting Independent United Airlines Fiduciary Pension Plan Contribution Request
Excerpt: "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has filed a brief in bankrup.tcy court supporting an independent pension fiduciary's motion to compel United Airlines to make more than $800 million in required pension plan contributions." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)
Full Text of Report: Private Pension Annuities in Chile (PDF)
39 pages. Excerpt: "Chile adopted a new pension system featuring privately managed individual accounts in 1981. The system gives us an opportunity, based on more than 20 years of experience, to examine how pensioners and pension providers react when individual accounts replace government-run, defined benefit pension systems, and how various regulations shape these reactions. This paper focuses on the payout stage.' (National Center for Policy Analysis)
Overview: ERISA Advisory Council Recommends Changes Regarding Retirement Plan Fee Disclosures (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "The timing of these Working Group studies coincides with the recent interest of securities regulators in revenue sharing arrangements concerning defined contribution retirement plans. Together with remarks made by the DOL representatives in recent speeches, this development signifies the DOL's probable consideration of further regulation in this area." (Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP)
Opinion: A Consideration of the Flaws and the Advantages of Private Accounts in Social Security
Excerpt: "The debate about Social Security has started off on the wrong foot. To privatize or not to privatize should not be the main question. The problem with this administration is not that it wants private accounts, which have pluses as well as minuses. The problem is that it wants private accounts as an end in themselves, and so may lose sight of the Social Security issues that actually matter." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Disaster Relief Relating to PBGC Deadlines in Response to Severe Storms and Flooding in New York
Excerpt: "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is waiving certain penalties and extending certain deadlines in response to the major disaster declared by the President of the United States on account of severe storms and flooding during the period August 13 through September 16, 2004, in New York." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation)
There's No Accounting for the New Social Security Plan -- Budget Would Ignore Impact
Excerpt: "One of the reasons that an outsider like me has so much fun writing about Washington is that the politicians in our nation's capital talk one way but act another. They want corporations to provide the public with numbers that bear some resemblance to reality, but they've never bothered to clean up their own budget numbers." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Most GOP Plans to Remake Social Security Involve Deep Cuts to Tomorrow's Retirees
Excerpt: "As President Bush gears up for a major public push to overhaul Social Security, he has focused almost all his rhetorical energy on the need to let people divert some of their taxes to private retirement accounts. But nearly every leading Republican proposal on Capitol Hill acknowledges that private accounts by themselves do little to solve the system's projected shortfall of at least $3.5 trillion. Instead, those proposals rely on deep cuts in benefits to future retirees." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Full Text of Research Report: Does Work Pay at Older Ages? (PDF)
53 pages. Excerpt: "One way of relieving the economic pressures created by an aging population would be to encourage workers to delay retirement. People who work an extra year produce goods and services that can support their current consumption and help cover the costs of both retirement programs and other government efforts, while at the same time reducing tax pressures on younger workers to support them in retirement." (Urban Institute)
Report to Department of Labor of the Working Group on Fee and Related Disclosures to Participants
Excerpt: "This working group is going to study fee and related disclosures to participants in defined contribution plans that relate to investment decisions and retirement savings. The scope of the study will encompass both plans that are intended to meet the ERISA §404(c) requirements and those that are not intended to meet those requirements." (2004 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans)
Guidance on U.S. Executive Deferred Compensation Due in Dec
Excerpt: "The U.S. Treasury Department will in less than two weeks issue guidance on vast changes to tax rules governing perhaps billions of dollars held by corporate executives in deferred compensation. Guidance is due by Dec. 21 on the new nonqualified deferred compensation rules that were included in the corporate tax bill approved by Congress in October." (Reuters)
Comments: Enzi Outlines Priorities for the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Excerpt: "U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., is expected to be the next chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) and has outlined his priorities for the 109th Congress." (Attorney B. Janell Grenier via BenefitsBlog.com)
Benefit Value Comparisons Chart by Industry
Excerpt: "There's some truth to the notion that a government job comes with good benefits." (Mercer Human Resource Consulting via Workforce Management)
Report of The Working Group on Plan Fees and Reporting on Form 5500 to Department of Labor
Excerpt: "The first task of the Working Group on Plan Fees and Reporting on Form 5500 ('Working Group') was to determine what fees and expenses are currently reported by plan sponsors on Form 5500 and to determine whether there are other fees and expenses that should be reported, but currently are not." (2004 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans)
Newly Posted Events
19th Annual Employee Benefits Institute
in Missouri on April 22, 2005
presented by University of Missouri-Kansas City and Employee Benefits Institute
Newly Posted Press Releases
Newkirk Introduces the Next Generation in Statement Communication
(Newkirk)
New Survey Results Focus on Employee Benefit Consultants
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Plan Administrator
for Weaver Partners, Inc.
in ANY STATE
Retirement Plan Manager
for Benetrends Inc.
in CA
Internal Wholesaler - Retirement Services
for OneAmerica Financial Partners
in IN
Sr. Plan Administrator/Manager of Client Compliance Group
for Decimal, Inc. - The Online 401(k) (www.theonline401k.com)
in CA
Implementation Specialist - PEO Experience
for ADP TotalSource
in NJ
Associate Actuary
for ING U. S. Financial Services
in CT
Retirement Plan Administrator/Consultant
for Limestone Pension Associates, LLC
in DE
EZ Link Specialist (NFOP)
for ICMA Retirement Corporation
in DC
NFOP Retirement Health Savings Associate
for ICMA Retirement Corporation
in DC
Human Resource Generalist [PEO]
for ADP TotalSource
in NJ
Director of Benefits
for Search Firm
in AL, FL, GA, NC, SC, TN, VA
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
Copyright 2004 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you may reprint this newsletter in full (including this sentence) 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: