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January 14, 2005
Today's sponsor: APSCREEN, Employee Locator
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
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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)
Plan Sponsors Should Ensure that Small Benefits are Cashed Out Before the March 28th Deadline
Excerpt: "Many plans provide that if the vested benefit of a terminated participant does not exceed $5,000 ... [it] will be paid in a lump sum payment as soon as administratively feasible after the participant terminates employment.... [V]endors rarely cash out these small benefits without the direction of the plan administrator.... [Such] benefits for terminated vested employees need to be distributed before the March 28th deadline to avoid being subject to the new mandatory rollover rule." (Ice Miller)
Overview: IRS Provides Helpful Guidance on Automatic Rollovers
4 pages. Excerpt: "Beginning on March 28, 2005, retirement plans that involuntarily cashout benefits over $1,000 but less than $5,0001 must automatically roll over such amounts to individual retirement accounts ... unless the participant affirmatively elects otherwise." (LeBoeuf Lamb)
Overview: DOL and IRS Rollover Guidance May Make Involuntary Cash Outs History
Excerpt: "The purpose of this client alert is to provide an explanation of the more important aspects of the DOL Safe Harbor regulations and Notice 2005-5.... The final regulations establishing the involuntary cash out Safe Harbor require a plan fiduciary to meet the following requirements: ..." (Mintz Levin)
With Women Living Longer, 401(k) Reform Is Crucial
Excerpt: "If politicians truly want to fix the American retirement system, lock, stock and barrel, they should tack 401(k) reform on to their to-do list. For starters, they can address how that popular pension plan disadvantages women in ways that traditional pensions and even Social Security don't." (MarketWatch.com, Inc. via Investor's Business Daily)
Issues Regarding Offering Company Stock in a 401(k) Plan
Excerpt: "Question: What are the pros and cons of offering company stock as an investment option in our 401k Plan? Answer: Some of the advantages for having employer stock in a retirement plan include: Pride of ownership by aligning stakeholder interests; Tax advantages for participants who take a distribution in company stock; Matching in stock doesn't cost the firm cash and is not an expense on the income statement, which can help the company's earnings; Possible tax breaks for the ...." (401khelpcenter.com, LLC)
Investment Selection and Monitoring: A Practical Approach to Best Practices
Excerpt: "Most plan sponsors know that they have a fiduciary duty to monitor the investments in their retirement plan, either directly or through the committee they appoint. But what does it mean to monitor? How is the selection process different and how should a fiduciary go about it? What specifically should plan fiduciaries review? What does ERISA require? Do the standards change?" (401khelpcenter.com, LLC)
Mainstreaming Responsible Investment: Investing to Meet the Needs of the Owners of Capital (PDF)
62 pages. Excerpt: "Responsible investing is most commonly understood to mean investing in a manner that takes into account the impact of investments on wider society and the natural environment, both today and in the future. The most visible manifestation of this aspect of responsibility has been so-called 'socially responsible investment' (SRI)." (World Economic Forum)
January 2005 EBRI Notes Article on 401(k)-Type Plan and IRA Ownership (PDF)
Pages 2-8 of 16 page PDF. Excerpt: "[The article] uses Census Bureau data to examine the prevalence of these accounts among workers ages 21-64 as well as the accounts' average and median balances." (Employee Benefit Research Institute)
Audio: Wall Street Takes Low-Key Approach to Social Security Reform
Excerpt: "President Bush's plan to allow private accounts for Social Security may send a lot of business to Wall Street; but lobbyists for reform say the returns for financial firms are not necessarily so great. NPR's Peter Overby reports." (All Things Considered via National Public Radio)
Social Security Assessments Still Poles Apart
Excerpt: "First in a series of occasional articles examining the economic and political stakes involved in Social Security reform. In the growing national debate over Social Security, it is sometimes hard to believe the two sides are arguing about the same program." (The Boston Globe)
NCPERS Proposes Solution to Social Security Solvency Without Private Accounts or Cutting Benefits (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "The current debate on how to revamp Social Security consists of misguided proposals that will not ensure the solvency of the Social Security system. These proposals fall into three major camps: 1) personal accounts that cut current benefits, 2) benefit cuts and tax increases, and 3) minor adjustments that include mandatory coverage of newly hired state and local government workers." (National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems)
Opinion: How the Democrats Will Play Hardball and Defeat Social Security Personal Accounts
Excerpt: "It is getting increasingly difficult to find any Democrat who backs President Bush's plan for partially privatizing Social Security. Private accounts are now officially out of favor even among New Democrats, the most obvious source of potential administration support. The Democratic Leadership Council and a new centrist policy shop called Third Way both recently announced their opposition." (The New Republic)
Opinion: The Problem is Bigger than Social Security
Excerpt: "The fact that both Bush and his opponents have chosen to debate only Social Security, highlighted by the president's 'personal accounts' proposal, betrays a lack of seriousness that promises failure. The nation's problem is not Social Security. It is all federal programs for retirees, of which Social Security is a shrinking part. Admit that and the debate becomes harder, but it also becomes more honest and meaningful." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Britain's 20-Year Experience with Privatization Is a Cautionary Tale Americans Should Know About
Excerpt: "The U.S. news media have provided readers and viewers with little information about how privatization has worked in other countries. Now my colleagues have even fewer excuses: there's an illuminating article on the British experience in The American Prospect, www.prospect.org, by Norma Cohen, a senior corporate reporter at The Financial Times who covers pension issues." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Overhauling Social Security Retirement Is Worth Risk, Cheney Says
Excerpt: "Vice President Dick Cheney struck back on Thursday at critics of the administration's plan to overhaul Social Security, saying the cost of doing nothing was greater than the price of transforming the 70-year-old centerpiece of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Segal-NEEBC Survey of Massachusetts Employers' Benefits for Same-Gender Spouses of Employees (PDF)
pages. Excerpt: "In October and November 2004, Segal and the New England Employee Benefits Council (NEEBC) -- a non-profit professional organization of more than 1,500 New England benefits professionals -- conducted a survey of NEEBC members to determine how they are responding to a 2004 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision, which ruled that same-gender couples can legally marry in Massachusetts." (The Segal Group, Inc.)
Analysis: Income of the Elderly Population: 2003 (PDF)
Pages 9-14 of 16 page PDF. Excerpt: "The U.S. retirement income system -- including employment-based retirement plans, Social Security, individual savings, and postretirement employment -- can be assessed in part by examining the income of the current elderly population (age 65 and older). This article reviews the latest available data on the older population's income (from the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2004 Current Population Survey) and how it has changed over time, ...." (Employee Benefit Research Institute)
Frequently Asked Questions on Equity Compensation Plans Revised January 11, 2005, by NYSE (PDF)
16 pages. Excerpt: "[T]he NYSE posted updated FAQs regarding Section 303A.08, which requires shareholder approval for equity compensation plans." (NYSE via TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog)
Newly Posted Events
Central & Mountain States Benefits Conference
in Colorado on September 12, 2005
presented by ASPPA, IRS and WP&BC
COBRA for Beginners
Nationwide on September 30, 2004
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)
DOL Speaks: The 2005 Employee Benefits Conference
in District of Columbia on April 25, 2005
presented by ASPPA & DOL
Great Lakes Benefits Conferences
in Illinois on May 5, 2005
presented by ASPPA & IRS
HIPAA Security in Plain English
Nationwide on October 28, 2004
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)
January Brown Bag Meeting - Recent Guidance on Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Arrangements presented by Debbie F. Reiss of Frost Brown Todd LLC
in Ohio on January 25, 2005
presented by ASPPA Benefits Council of Greater Cincinnati
Los Angeles Benefits Conference
in California on January 27, 2005
presented by ASPPA & IRS
Making Sense of the Final 401(k) Regulations
Nationwide on January 19, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel
Meeting Midway: ASPPA Summer Conference and Western Pension & Benefits Conference Annual Conference
in California on July 24, 2005
presented by ASPPA and WP&BC
Mid-Atlantic Area Benefits Conference
in Pennsylvania on May 23, 2005
presented by ASPPA & IRS
Multiple Employer 401(k) Plan Administration Webcast
Nationwide on December 15, 2004
presented by ASPPA (American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries)
Nonqualified Deferred Compensation -- Meat on the Bones
Nationwide on February 1, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel
Passing Participant-Driven Expenses Through to the Participants
Nationwide on October 20, 2004
presented by ASPPA (American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries)
Safe Harbor Plans Under the Final 401(k) Regulations
Nationwide on January 25, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel
The New HIPAA Portability Regulations
Nationwide on January 20, 2005
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)
The Reality and Potential of Evidence-Based Medicine
Nationwide on January 14, 2005
presented by Kaiser Family Foundation
Newly Posted Press Releases
Are New Retirees Making Their Wealth Last? Report Finds Most Are on Track, Many Are Not
(Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI))
CPI Announces New Management Position for Enhanced Services to Broker Dealers and Wirehouses
(CPI Qualified Plan Consultants, Inc.)
United States Postal Service Chooses WageWorks to Provide Comprehensive Tax-Advantaged Commuter Program; Employees Gain Convenience and Significant Annual Savings
(WageWorks Inc.)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
ERISA Litigation Associate
for Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP
in KS, MO
Retirement Marketing Coordinator
for J.J.B. Hilliard, W. L. Lyons, Inc.
in KY
Benefits Manager
for Toll Brothers, Inc.
in PA
Broker/Sales Associate
for MJM Global Services & Benefits, Inc.
in NJ
Individual Retirement Arrangements Business Manager
for Lehman Brothers
in NY
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