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January 4, 2005
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Overview: Final IRS Regulations Intended to Simplify 401(k) Plan Rules
Excerpt: "The final regulations apply for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2006. However, plan sponsors are permitted to apply the regulations to any plan year that ends after December 29, 2004, provided that the plan applies all the rules of the final regulations." (Investment Company Institute)
Overview: GASB Clarifies Accounting for Contributions to Cost-Sharing Pension & OPEB Plans
Excerpt: "The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has published a staff Technical Bulletin, Recognition of Pension and Other Postemployment Benefit (OPEB) Expenditures/Expense and Liabilities by Cost-Sharing Employers. The Technical Bulletin clarifies the application of requirements regarding accounting for employers' contractually required contributions to cost-sharing pension and OPEB plans issued in Statement No. 27, Accounting for Pensions by State and Local Governmental ...." (AccountingWEB, Inc.)
Overview: The Benefits of Pan European Pensions
Excerpt: "There is now less than one year to go until Pan European Pension funds become a reality. By 23 September 2005, the requirements for the EU Pensions Directive should be implemented into local legislation across each of the 25 EU Member states. This will be the culmination of much work as the Directive was first mooted as far back as 1991." (Mercer Human Resource Consulting; one-time registration required)
Some Older Investors May Find Roth IRAs More Attractive Than Regular IRAs
Excerpt: "Under a tax-law change that went into effect on Saturday, more people past age 70 1/2, the age at which people are generally required to begin taking annual distributions from traditional IRAs, have the option to convert their existing IRAs to Roth IRAs. That can be attractive because Roth holders aren't required to pull money out in their lifetimes and any withdrawals by Roth holders or their heirs are generally tax-free." (Wall Street Journal via SFGate.com)
Update: Mercer Intensifies Efforts on Hot U.S. Pension Policy Issues for 2005
Excerpt: "There's been quite a bit of activity this year in Washington around defined benefit pension plans and we expect the activity to increase in 2005. It's likely that pension funding, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) reform, the legality of cash balance and hybrid plans, expanded incentives for individual savings accounts, and personal accounts under Social Security will all be on the table." (Mercer Human Resource Consulting; one-time registration required)
Does Socially Responsible Investment Add Value? An Update from Mercer
Excerpt: "The issue of the most appropriate benchmark for SRI funds remains a crucial one. As we stated in the first report, the fact that many of the funds in our sample were originally launched as retail investments means that these funds can experience extreme style and market cap biases, as well as high volatility." (Mercer Human Resource Consulting; one-time registration required)
Social Security Formula Weighed: Bush Plan Likely to Cut Initial Benefits
Excerpt: "The Bush administration has signaled that it will propose changing the formula that sets initial Social Security benefit levels, cutting promised benefits by nearly a third in the coming decades, according to several Republicans close to the White House. Under the proposal, the first-year benefits for retirees would be calculated using inflation rates rather than the rise in wages over a worker's lifetime." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Opinion: Stopping the Bum's Rush to Privatize Social Security
Excerpt: "The people who hustled America into a tax cut to eliminate an imaginary budget surplus and a war to eliminate imaginary weapons are now trying another bum's rush. If they succeed, we will do nothing about the real fiscal threat and will instead dismantle Social Security, a program that is in much better financial shape than the rest of the federal government." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Overview: Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act Issues for Some California Employers
Excerpt: "California 's expanded domestic partnership law, Assembly Bill 205, goes into effect January 1, 2005. Known as the 'California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act' (DPRRA), this new law grants registered domestic partners the same rights, benefits, duties and responsibilities that spouses have under California law." (Littler Mendelson)
Reish's ERISA Report for Plan Sponsors on Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Arrangements
Excerpt: "On October 22, employers that sponsor nonqualified deferred compensation (NQDC) arrangements got a new job. Under the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, they have to make sure that all of their NQDC plans--which includes everything from formal plans to employment contracts, severance programs and informal arrangements--comply in form and operation with new legal requirements. If they don't, all amounts that the management employees thought were deferred will become immediately ...." (Reish Luftman Reicher & Cohen)
Weekly Highlights from Washington -- 3 January 2005
Excerpt: "Fresh start: The 109th Congress convenes with a packed agenda and emboldened Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Topping lawmakers' to-do list will be overhauls of Social Security, the tax code, and pension funding rules. The diverse health care agenda is highlighted by medical malpractice legislation, proposed revisions of the Medicaid program, and new market-based incentives to help the uninsured." (Mercer Human Resource Consulting; one-time registration required)
Overview: New Law Adds Obligations for Employers with Employees in Military Service
Excerpt: "On December 10th, the President signed into law the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act (Public Law 108-454). That Act amends the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (known as 'USERRA') in two ways that have significance to employers whose employees have been called to military service." (Faegre & Benson LLP)
Internal Reviews of Pension Plans and Exec Comp May Help Companies Avoid Penalties and Probes
Excerpt: "The old adage that the best defense is a good offense holds new meaning for companies facing the prospect of not one but two beefed-up Internal Revenue Service audits. In the past year, the IRS has instituted redesigned, tougher audits of employee pension plans and executive compensation programs at Fortune 1,000 and other large companies, part of a drive to crank up enforcement and crack down on scofflaws. Already, the agency has identified dozens of companies violating tax code ...." (Workforce Management)
Rethinking Employee Benefits: Benefit Portion of Total Compensation is Too High
Excerpt: "With legacy costs for benefits cleaving the corporate world into competitive and uncompetitive companies, U.S. executives may be ready for fundamental change. The cost of employee benefits in the United States is killing profitability for whole sectors. The most determined companies have aggressively reshaped their benefit programs to pull their expenses down to more manageable levels, but even the best efforts have yielded only modest results." (Business Finance)
Newly Posted Events
Advanced IRAs 2005
in Texas on February 9, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Advanced IRAs 2005
in Virginia on February 9, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Advanced IRAs 2005
in Michigan on February 11, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Advanced IRAs 2005
in Texas on February 11, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Advanced IRAs 2005
in Oklahoma on February 18, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Advanced IRAs 2005
in Pennsylvania on February 18, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Advanced IRAs 2005
in New Jersey on February 23, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Basic IRAs 2005
in Virginia on February 8, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Basic IRAs 2005
in Texas on February 8, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Basic IRAs 2005
in Michigan on February 10, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Basic IRAs 2005
in Texas on February 10, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Basic IRAs 2005
in Oklahoma on February 17, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Basic IRAs 2005
in Pennsylvania on February 17, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Basic IRAs 2005
in New Jersey on February 22, 2005
presented by BISYS Retirement Services
Newly Posted Press Releases
TRA, Inc. Announces Strategic Agreement with Metavante 401(k) Services
(The Retirement Advantage, Inc.)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Health & Welfare Associate
for Towers Perrin
in CA, MA, NJ, NY
Pension Administrator
for Actuaries Unlimited, Inc.
in CA, NV
Pension Administrator
for Actuaries Unlimited, Inc.
in CA
Retirement Plan Consultant
for Benefit Solutions Corporation
in WI
Pension Administration Supervisor
for Milliman USA
in TX
Employee Benefits Advisor
for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
in DC
Defined Benefit / Defined Contribution Pension Plan Administrator
for Howard Simon & Associates, Inc.
in IL
Senior Pension Consultant
for Pen-Cal Administrators
in CA
Employee Benefits Relationship Manager
for Reliance Trust Company
in GA
Benefits Plan Compliance Analyst
for ICI Group Services Inc.
in NJ
Benefits Analyst - Retirement
for Mercer Human Resource Consulting
in WI
Benefits Service Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in TX
Benefits Planning Analyst
for Sodexho
in MD
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