BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter June 24, 2005 Today's sponsor: www.ftwilliam.com (Click on company name or banner to learn more.) Register for our free on-line demo! www.ftwilliam.com offers the employee benefits professional the highest quality plan documents and forms at highly competitive prices. Plan documents on a per document basis are only $50/adoption agreement, or $100/volume submitter document (including cross testing). An annual subscription to all documents is only $1,500. The Form 5500 package and the IRS/PBGC form package are only $250 each. Prices include access for five concurrent users. (Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor) 401(k) Fees: A Suggested Approach to Benchmarking Excerpt: "Historically, companies have had no perceptible incentive to evaluate their 401(k) plan costs. The 401(k) plan (unlike pension plans) has no financial statement (balance sheet or earnings) impact, and nearly all fees are almost always borne by plan participants. In addition, the Department of Labor has said little about fees until very recently, and there are virtually no current 401(k) fee cases in litigation." (The McHenry Group) Overview: Final 401(k) Regulations – Part Five of a Series Excerpt: "The final 401(k) regulations are available for plan years that begin after December 31, 2005. In order to implement the new hardship rules, they need to be added to the plan document by amendment. We are currently awaiting IRS guidance regarding how to incorporate the final 401(k) regulations into the current GUST document for plan years beginning after December 31, 2005." (McKay Hochman Co., Inc.) Opinion: Let's Get Real about the Working Old Excerpt: "Those determined to fix Social Security, or perhaps prove it is not really needed, by deciding that people can work forever instead of retiring seem all to be from the class whose work requires little physical effort and pays well enough that a cut in salary would make little difference to them. Their retirement jobs would probably involve writing a book or giving well-paid lectures. The latest expressions of those living in this state of unreality appear in a column ...." (The Century Foundation) Two Key Senators Seek More Detail on Underfunded Pensions Excerpt: "Two key members of the Senate Finance Committee are sending letters to the three dozen companies they say have the nation's most severely underfunded pension plans seeking more information on those plans. The letters are being sent by Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee's ranking minority member, as part of an effort to draft rules to tighten pension funding rules." (Business Insurance) Ontario Court Rules Federal Same-Sex Pension Benefits Policy Unconstitutional Excerpt: "A Canadian provincial appeals court has ruled that the federal government was wrong in limiting same-sex couples' retroactive pension benefits. The Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that the government's policy of denying pension benefits to those whose partners died before 1998, as well as paying benefits only for the period after July, 2000, was unconstitutional and arbitrary." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required) Whose Lifestyle, Which Targets? A Few Questions for Fiduciaries Excerpt: "Recently, the number of retirement plans offering lifestyle and target funds has grown dramatically. This growth is based on the concept that certain participants need to diversify their retirement plan accounts in a way that is simple, easy and convenient." (The McHenry Group) Spend Social Security Surplus on Social Security Benefits, Say Congressmen Excerpt: "[F]our Members of the Social Security Subcommittee of Ways and Means announced new legislation to 'Spend Social Security dollars on Social Security.' The new measure protects the Social Security surplus by creating accounts that workers would own and that would be fully inheritable. Calling it a 'first step towards stopping the raid on Social Security,' [the congressmen] discussed their intent to introduce the GROW Accounts Act (Growing Real Ownership for Workers)." (AP via TriValleyCentral.com) Official Summary of Senator Bob Bennett's Proposed Social Security Legislation (PDF) 3 pages. (U.S. Senator Bob Bennett) Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security Official Document on GROW Accounts (PDF) Excerpt: "[GROW Accounts -- Growing Real Ownership for Workers] PRINCIPLES1. Social Security taxes should only be used for Social Security. 2. The Social Security surplus should not be used to fund other government programs. 3. The surplus should not be used to mask the true size of the national deficit." (U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means via American Benefits Council) Testimony: Social Security Reform: Considerations for Individual Account Design Excerpt: "[Testimony by Barbara D. Bovbjerg, director, education, workforce, and income security issues, before the Subcommittee on Social Security, House Committee on Ways and Means, June 23, 2005. Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05847thigh.pdf] The Subcommittee asked GAO to discuss options for the administration of individual accounts, including the major design issues that are raised within the contribution, accumulation, and distribution phases of a retirement savings vehicle." (U.S. Government Accountability Office) Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General A Summary of Military Leave Developments Excerpt: "A cover story in the upcoming Benefits & Compensation Digest is entitled 'Employees on the Front Lines: A Summary of Military Leave Developments.'" (Cypen & Cypen) Newly Posted Events DOL Speaks: 2006 Employee Benefits Conference in District of Columbia on April 24, 2006 presented by ASPPA (American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries) DOL Speaks: 2006 Employee Benefits Conference in District of Columbia on April 24, 2006 presented by ASPPA & DOL Newly Posted Press Releases EDSA Creates Good Money Habits for Companies and Their Employees (EDSA Group, Inc.) Do The Math On Drug Ads, Urges Health Organization (Americans for Free Choice in Medicine (AFCM)) Great-West Healthcare Redesigns Member Web Site for Greater Ease of Use (Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company) CitiStreet Reports Increasing Interest in Target Retirement Funds; Age-Based Funds Provide One-Stop Shopping for Retirement Plan Participants (CitiStreet) Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings Client Service Officer for AmSouth Bank in FL Sr. Employee Benefit Specialist for The Principal Financial Group in CA Defined Contribution Administrator for Pensions Plus, Inc. in CT Account Representative for Great-West Retirement Services in FL National Account Manager for UnumProvident Corporation in TX Communications Specialist for Lockton Dunning Benefit Company in TX Associate, Business Development for Employee Benefit Solutions, Inc. in TX Institutional Trust Communication Specialist for BB&T in NC Handy Links: View Today's Active Message Threads Search BenefitsLink Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article) Employee Benefits Library Copyright 2005 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you may reprint this newsletter in full (including this sentence) without obtaining our permission. 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