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July 5, 2005
Today's sponsor: Penchecks, Inc.

(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
Banner ad for Penchecks, Inc.

The National Registry has arrived!

It is a web-based service designed to reunite plan participants with their unclaimed retirement benefits. Since going live on May 27, 2005, over 10,000 participant names with unclaimed pension benefits have already been registered. Plan Administrators and IRA custodians may register their missing participants in the National Registry's database for a nominal fee. Participants are able to check the database online. If a match is found, contact information is provided. There is no charge to individual participants to use the service to search for unclaimed retirement benefits that are owed to them. The National Registry facilitates Win-Win situations - Plan Sponsors alleviate themselves of reporting burden and fiduciary responsibility when lost participants claim their money and Former Plan Participants end up with more money!

All Automatic/Default/Missing Participant IRAs established through PenChecks, Inc. are automatically included in the National Registry database at no additional cost.

For more information, click on the link above or call (877) 462-2745.


(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)

Evaluate 403(b) Plan Sooner, Not Later
Excerpt: "Note to teachers, doctors, professors and other nonprofit employees: Think about moving your 403(b) retirement plan-- the one with hefty fees and few investment options-- to something more attractive before an impending rule change bars it." (AP via Washington Post)

Gauging the Health of Private Pensions
Excerpt: "Last week, the House approved a bill that would ensure that private pensions are paid. Sylvester Schieber, director of U.S. benefits consulting at Watson Wyatt, a human resources consulting firm, discusses the relative health of private pensions." (National Public Radio)

ERIC Side-by-Side Comparison of Pension Reform Proposals
Excerpt: "The House Education and Workforce Committee late yesterday completed its two-day markup of H.R.2830 providing extensive reforms to pension funding as well as cash balance, pension equity, and other hybrid plans. The side-by-side summary of H.R.2830 (below) includes the Administration's original proposal and ERIC's proposal for comparison." (ERISA Industry Committee)

Summer 2005 Issue of Milliman's Multiemployer Review (PDF)
2 pages. Articles include 'Extensions of the Amortization Period to Cure Funding Deficiencies,' 'Borrowing Contributions from the Following Year' and 'Correcting Amendments to the Suspension of Benefits Rules." (Milliman)

Actuary Paulette Tino Receives Robert J. Myers Service Award
Excerpt: "[S]he is the first woman to receive the Academy's Robert J. Myers Service Award, presented annually to an actuary who has made an outstanding contribution in public service.... When she first came to the IRS, Tino worked, among other things, on developing regulations governing ERISA." (Contingencies Magazine)

Opinion: Pension Guarantees Deserve Attention
Excerpt: "With United terminating four underfunded plans as part of its bankrup.tcy reorganization, many of its employees and retirees will see their benefits cut by more than one-third. Of the $9.8 billion in unfunded United pension plan liabilities, the PBGC only guarantees about two-thirds." (Business Insurance)

Pension Roulette: How Secure Is Your Future?
Excerpt: "When five United Airlines flight attendants lost their pensions in May, they decided to show their anger-- and a bit more-- by posing for a 2006 calendar titled 'Stewardesses Stripped (Of Their Pension).' The women, ages 55 to 64, appear in far less than their uniforms to get across their message that 'no retirement fund is completely secure and there is a definite crisis in the pension guaranty system.'" (AARP)

IRA Beneficiary Distributions Quiz
Excerpt: "[P]ut your knowledge to the test with a short quiz." (Bankers Systems, Inc.)

Board Member Responsibilities for ERISA Retirement Plan Management
Excerpt: "ERISA ... does not articulate specific fiduciary governance processes. Indeed, this absence of a statutory example of retirement plan governance is a primary cause for dysfunction in the private retirement plan system in this country." (Wayne H. Miller in the Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Journal)

With Benefits Dwindling, Pilots Fight Retirement
Excerpt: "Commercial airline pilots must retire at age 60. That hasn't been a problem in the past because pilots had generous pensions. But with several of the major airlines in bankrup.tcy, pilots are seeing their pensions reduced and some are fighting mandatory retirement." (National Public Radio)

Social Security: What's on the Table?
Excerpt: "In coming months, Consumer Reports will 'shop' proposed Social Security overhauls to see how well each meets the needs of the millions of elderly, disabled, widowed, and orphaned beneficiaries who rely on it as a major source of income. Among the factors we believe are important for consumers: ..." (ConsumerReports.org)


Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

Just What Are the Odds, Anyway?
Excerpt: "We actuaries devote our lives to probing and prodding the quantity QAV, where Q is risk (the probability that an event will occur), A is the cost of that (usually) untoward event, and V allows for the time value of money. This article is about Q." (Contingencies Magazine)

The Effect of Unions on Employee Benefits
Excerpt: "It is well-established that unionized workers in the United States are covered by more extensive employee benefits than are comparable nonunion workers.... What is less clear, however, is why this is so." (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Changes in Incentive Plans Underway
Excerpt: "[M]any companies are redesigning their long-term incentive plans by altering the eligibility criteria, design parameters and size of executive awards. Seventy-one percent of large employers are revising or plan to revise their long-term incentive program design in anticipation of mandatory stock option expensing in the United States ..." (BenefitNews.com)

New Option Valuation Methodology Proposed
Excerpt: "A new valuation alternative? Cisco Systems has taken an entirely fresh look at this issue, and is proposing that it set the value of its options by selling some 'derivative' options with attributes very similar to those granted to employees to a group of institutional investors." (Beyster Institute)


Newly Posted Events

Challenges and Solutions for Mature ESOP Companies
in Massachusetts on October 4, 2005
presented by National Center for Employee Ownership

Challenges and Solutions for Mature ESOP Companies
in California on November 15, 2005
presented by National Center for Employee Ownership

ESOP Feasibility: Beyond the Basics
in Minnesota on October 11, 2005
presented by National Center for Employee Ownership

ESOP Feasibility: Beyond the Basics
in California on October 25, 2005
presented by National Center for Employee Ownership

From Black-Scholes to Binomial - FAS 123(R): Employee Stock Option (ESO) Valuation Methodologies
Nationwide on July 26, 2005
presented by Financial Executives International

The Count Down Is On: Understanding Your Options for the Retiree Drug Subsidy
Nationwide on July 6, 2005
presented by Financial Executives International


Newly Posted Press Releases

ERIC and Deloitte Receive Results of Wellness Program Survey
(ERIC (ERISA Industry Committee))

ACLI Testifies on Benefits of Long-Term Care Insurance Before Senate Finance Committee
(American Council of Life Insurers)

The President of The ESOP Association Urges Congress to Enact the ESOP Promotion and Improvement Act of 2005 as Part of Building an Ownership Society
(ESOP Association)


Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Post a Help Wanted Ad

Health & Welfare Associate
for Towers Perrin
in CA, MI, NJ, NY

Manager - Retirement/Recordkeeper Analyst
for WESPAC
in CA

Testing and Reporting Specialist (Future Opportunity)
for Fidelity Investments
in KY

Senior Benefits Systems Analyst
for The Rosen Group Inc.
in NJ

Account Manager, 401(k)
for ABD Insurance and Financial Services
in CA

Regional Manager
for Growing Mid-Size TPA Firm Setting Up New Regional Office
in DC, DE, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, NJ, OH, PA, WV

Pension Administrator
for Benefit Systems, Inc. - Austin, Houston or San Antonio
in TX

Life & Health Sales Representative
for Great-West Healthcare
in MI

Compliance Specialist - Contracts
for Mercer Human Resource Services
in TX

Implementation Analyst
for Mercer Human Resource Services
in MA

Account Manager, Health & Welfare
for Charles W. Cammack Associates, Inc.
in NY

Account Manager
for Kibble & Prentice
in WA




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