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July 27, 2005
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Airline Pension Funding Relief Clears Hurdle in Senate Committee
Excerpt: "The Senate Finance Committee agreed Tuesday to give major airlines 14 years to fully fund their retirement plans as it approved legislation to shore up the nation's private pension system. Among provisions affecting a broad range of employers, the bill would toughen funding requirements for pension plans and bolster the pension insurance system by increasing premiums." (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; one-time registration required)

Pension Bill Clears Senate Finance Committee: Airlines Would Get a Break
Excerpt: "The Senate Finance Committee yesterday approved a bill that would toughen pension-funding rules generally but grant special relief to airlines. The bill, approved on a voice vote, also would make it easier in the future for employers to convert traditional pensions into 'hybrid' cash-balance plans, from which employees usually withdraw lump sums instead of receiving regular payments." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)

U.S. Senate Finance Committee Approves Defined Benefit Pension Funding Measure
Excerpt: "The U.S. Senate Finance Committee approved legislation that would require companies to fully fund their defined-benefit pension plans and gives airlines 14 years to pay off their obligations." (Bloomberg News & Commentary)

Overview: Senate Finance Committee Approves Pension Reform Legislation
Excerpt: "As the debate continues into the fall legislative session, plan sponsors may wish to review the act and how it would affect their plan contributions, PBGC premium payments and plan administration. Under NESTEG, the new funding, disclosure and benefit limitation rules would take effect for plan years beginning in 2007. A delayed effective date will become more important as the debate stretches into late 2005." (Watson Wyatt Worldwide)

Estimated Revenue Effects of the Chairman's Modifications to NESTEG Act, Fiscal Years 2006--2015 (PDF)
5 pages. (Joint Committee on Taxation via American Benefits Council)

Modifications to Mark of NESTEG Act (Grassley/Baucus), approved by Senate Finance Committee (PDF)
8 pages. (Joint Committee on Taxation via American Benefits Council)

Colorado Public Pension Plan Has Huge Funding Gap: Digging Out Will Be Hard
Excerpt: "Hauling the state's largest public pension plan out of a current $12.8 billion hole will require either a long-lived bull market or some hard choices to cover the funding gap, officials said Tuesday. Funding the state's retirement plans is 'one of the most important issues the General Assembly faces from a financial perspective,' state auditor Joanne Hill told a legislative committee." (The Denver Post)

NCTR, NASRA, & NCPERS Comments to the IRS about the Proposed Regulations on Section 415 (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "We would respectfully but strenuously urge consideration be given to extending the period for comments and delaying the public hearing on the proposed regulations until November or December so that affected plans can have sufficient time to review the proposals in depth, evaluate their impact on their particular circumstances, and prepare adequate responsive comments." (National Council on Teacher Retirement)

Comment Letter on Three Major Issues to the IRS/Treasury on Proposed Code Section 415 Regulations
Excerpt: "This document addresses three issues of major concern -- the application of IRC §401(a)(17) compensation limit to IRC §415; the treatment of pre-participation service for purposes of determining a defined benefit plan participant's highest three years of compensation; and the effective date of the regulations." (American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries)

American Benefits Council Comment Letter on Treasury Proposed 415 Regulations (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "The Council commends the Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service ... for issuing updated comprehensive regulations under section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code. The Council also appreciates that the proposed regulations attempt to resolve many of the longstanding issues under section 415. Discussed ... are a number of issues and concerns that [Council] members have raised." (American Benefits Council)

House Democrats Roll Out Retirement Plan: 'AmeriSave' Has Incentives for Workers and Employers
Excerpt: "Democratic members of Congress introduced a retirement security plan Tuesday that promises to foster savings among middle- and working-class individuals." (CNN Money)

Democrats Launch 'AmeriSave' Pension Reform Alternative
Excerpt: "A pension reform plan advanced Tuesday by US House Democrats calls for 'middle and working-class families' to get a government match of $1 for every $1 invested in a 401(k) plan or IRA up to $1,000. In unveiling their AmeriSave program, Democratic leaders said qualified Americans would get the match after they filed a tax return and that the matching funds would be deposited directly into their IRA or retirement plan." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)

AmeriSave -- A Democratic Plan for Retirement Security (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "AmeriSave is the Democratic plan to help middle-class families build retirement security, to expand opportunities to save, and to ensure pension fairness." (The Democratic Party via American Benefits Council)

Benefits of Leaving Your 401(k) Plan Funds Intact When Changing Jobs
Excerpt: "One of the supposed beauties of 401(k) plans is their portability: Job-hopping employees can preserve their retirement benefits by moving their balances from one employer to the next or into an individual retirement account. But 45 percent of employees who left their jobs in 2004 withdrew their 401(k) balance in cash instead of keeping it in some type of tax-sheltered retirement account, according to new study of large-company plans by Hewitt Associates." (San Francisco Chronicle)

House Overwhelmingly Passes Postal Reform Bill -- Including Pension Funding Issue
Excerpt: "For the first time in 35 years, the House ... passed comprehensive legislation last night to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service. After three hours of debate, four amendments were defeated and the bill passed 410-20. [T]he bill provides a structure to help the USPS achieve future solvency, .... .... The bill also would return responsibility for funding CSRS pension benefits related to the military service of postal retirees -- a $27 billion obligation -- to the Treasury Department." (DM News)

Probe into Illinois Teacher Pension Fund Widens
Excerpt: "The scope of a federal probe into the pension fund for suburban and Downstate teachers widened Tuesday with the revelation that a former outside counsel for the fund resigned his job with his law firm because he is under the feds' microscope." (Chicago Sun-Times)

Opinion: Inflated Pensions Are Most Durable Effect of Latest Pennsylvania State Pay Increases
Excerpt: "Call it the pay raise that will keep on giving -- and taking. When state lawmakers voted themselves pay raises ranging from 16 to 34 percent earlier this month, they also gave themselves a hefty boost to their pensions. The raises they approved for judges throughout Pennsylvania will have the same impact on their pensions." (The Morning Call)

Marin County California Supervisors Blast Pension Report
Excerpt: "Marin supervisors disputed key findings in a civil grand jury report on county pensions - including a comparison between public and private retirement programs. In an official response yesterday to the grand jury's May 9 report, 'The Bloated Retirement Plans of Marin County, its cities and towns,' supervisors said that county pensions were an average of 22 percent higher than typical private pensions. That was less than indicated in the grand jury report, ...." (Marin Independent Journal)

Introduction: Protecting Retirees' Money -- 5th Edition, 2005 (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "The National Council on Teacher Retirement [issues the] fifth edition of Protecting Retirees' Money, a survey of the 50 statewide retirement systems that include kindergarten through grade 12 teachers ('K-12 teachers') and other public employees. These systems offer retirement security to roughly 17 million current and future retirees and hold around $1.75 trillion in assets." (National Council on Teacher Retirement)


Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

Text: IRS Notice 2005-58 -- § 457(b) Plans and Federal Credit Unions (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt:This notice addresses certain income tax issues with respect to nonqualified deferred compensation plans maintained by federal credit unions, including whether a federal credit union can maintain an eligible nonqualified deferred compensation plan described in § 457(b) of the Internal Revenue Code (the 'Code')." (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

Notice 2005-58 Gives Federal Credit Union Employees News Regarding Deferred Compensation Plans
Excerpt: "[T]he IRS recently released Notice 2005-58 that gives some guidance to credit unions. The Notice recognizes that the IRS is currently working on providing guidance concerning what is a 'governmental plan.' Until that guidance is released, the Notice provides certain conditions that are necessary for the federal credit union's deferred compensation plan to avoid being subject to Section 409A." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)

Overview: New Rules for the Treatment of Non-Qualified Plans Maintained by Federal Credit Unions
Excerpt: "The IRS has issued Notice 2005-58 to clarify the tax treatment of nonqualified deferred compensation plans maintained by federal credit unions and in effect on the date the Notice is published (expected to be August 15, 2005) ...." (Ice Miller)

N.Y. Suit May Benefit G.ay Married Workers
Excerpt: "Lambda Legal Defense has amended its complaint against a New York school district that balked at providing spousal benefits to a retired teacher and his husband, and the change could affect employees throughout the state." (PlanetOut)


Newly Posted Events

19th Annual Cincinnati Employee Benefits Conference
in Ohio on June 15, 2006
presented by Cincinnati Bar Association - Employee Benefits Committee

All Day Summer Workshop
in Ohio on August 18, 2005
presented by ASPPA Benefits Council of Cleveland

ERISA Workshop
in Maryland on September 28, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel

ERISA Workshop
in Iowa on September 28, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel

ERISA Workshop
in Kansas on September 29, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel

ERISA Workshop
in New York on September 29, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel

ERISA Workshop
in North Carolina on September 29, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel

ERISA Workshop
in Connecticut on September 29, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel

ERISA Workshop
in Texas on September 30, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel

ERISA Workshop
in Pennsylvania on September 30, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel

ERISA Workshop
in Missouri on September 30, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel


Newly Posted Press Releases

Nels Carlson Joins Stanton Group as Senior Counsel
(Stanton Group)

Web Update Speeds Signup for EBRI Publications, Data
(Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI))

Statement of the Pension Rights Center on the "National Employee Savings and Trust Equity Guarantee Act of 2005"
(Pension Rights Center)

Fiserv Investment Support Services Offers Professionally Managed ETF Solutions For Thirds Party Administrators
(Fiserv, Inc.)

U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao Praises Senate Finance Chairman Grassley On Pension Reform Bill Markup
(U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)

U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao Applauds House Passage of Bush Administration's Plan To Reduce Number of Uninsured Americans
(U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)

New WebCOBRA.com Pricing Plan Aimed At Small Employers, Insurance Brokers
(Travis Software Corp.)

AXA Equitable Launches Innovative 401(K) Product, Reflecting a Renewed Commitment to Pension Market
(AXA Financial, Inc)

BISYS(R) Announces Restatement and Provides Update on SEC and Internal Investigations
(BISYS Group, Inc.)

Pelosi, House Democrats Introduce AmeriSave, A Plan for Retirement Security
(Office of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi)


Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Post a Help Wanted Ad

Administrative Assistant
for Retirement Advisory Services Corp
in PA

Pension Plan Consultant
for Diversified Investment Advisors
in NY

ERISA Litigation Associate
for Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP
in MO

ERISA Transactional Associate
for Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP
in MO

Director of Administration and Compliance
for The Allocation Company, Inc.
in TX




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