| BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter |   |
November 27, 2006
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Changes/Corrections to the 2006 Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498
Excerpt: "If you downloaded the 2006 Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498 before November 10, 2006, [this target page notes] corrections." (Internal Revenue Service)
IRS Provides Details for Airline Plan Funding Relief
Excerpt: "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued Notice 2006-105 providing procedures for electing an alternative deficit reduction contribution for airline employers given an extension of the election by the Pension Protection Act of 2006." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Mutual Fund Fees -- Some Good News
Excerpt: "In the United States, there has been a strong, unremitting focus on mutual fund fees for decades. This focus is now being turned to retirement plan and annuity fees, and even there, the focus in 403(b) and 457 markets is more recent and much more intense. A recent study of mutual fund fees by country has some interesting implications for that focus." (403(b)-457 Plans Blog; posted by Thomas L. Geer)
Lessons About a More Personal Managed 401(k)
Excerpt: "[M]anaged 401(k) providers are beginning to pop up in abundance since the signing of the Pension Protection Act. Some use a managed 401(k) service as a feeder program to sell other financial services, while others provide exceptional account management, but very little one-on-one service." (Actium's Managed 401(k) / 403(b) Blog)
Retirement Security: A Forward Look (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "If we think of retirement security as a mathematical model, it has two main equations: The first equation determines how much to save during work years while the second decides how to utilize accumulated savings during the retirement. Neither equation is easy to solve given the unknowns and uncertainties involved." (Benefits & Compensation Solutions)
Thinking About Freezing Your Pension Plan? Here Are Some Questions to Ask Yourself
Excerpt: "What kind of workers will you need? Think first about what kind of employees your company will need going forward . . . . 'Who is it you most want to attract, retain, and reward? And what is the best package to do that?' . . . . 'Maybe you will need younger employees, who are more mobile. Or maybe you are going to spend a fair amount of money training employees, and then you do not want them to leave.'" (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Editorial: Massachusetts Pension Perk Benefits Both Sides of Aisle
Excerpt: "One of the ways insiders pump up their pensions is by combining a few years of high-salary work with enough years of light work to qualify for a full pension." (MetroWestDailyNews.com)
Overview: IRA Rollovers for Charity
Excerpt: "Under the new law, for the years of 2006 and 2007, an individual age 70 ½ or older can make direct charitable gifts of up to $100,000 per year from an IRA to a qualified charity and not have to report the IRA distributions as taxable income on his or her federal income tax return. Moreover, such distributions count toward the required minimum distribution." (Reish Luftman Reicher & Cohen)
Rollovers of Inherited Retirement Benefits for Non Spouses
Excerpt: "A designated beneficiary under the new rules may be a trust maintained for the benefit of one or more designated beneficiaries. The IRS is to provide rules explaining requirements for a trust to be qualified as a designated beneficiary." (Reish Luftman Reicher & Cohen)
Selecting and Monitoring Pension Consultants: Tips for Plan Fiduciaries
Excerpt: "Findings included in a report by the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission released in May 2005, however, raise serious questions concerning whether some pension consultants are fully disclosing potential conflicts of interest that may affect the objectivity of the advice they are providing to their pension plan clients." (401khelpcenter.com)
When to Hire an ERISA/Employee Benefits Attorney
Excerpt: "This article provides a framework for understanding the proper time for a Plan Sponsor to seek the advice of an ERISA/employee benefits attorney. It discusses the legal framework involving employee benefits, the issues to be aware of, and some specific situations where the use of an attorney is appropriate and helpful." (Jeff Robertson via 401khelpcenter.com)
Uncovering and Understanding Hidden Fees in Qualified Retirement Plans
Excerpt: "Modern fee structures, as they relate to qualified retirement plans, are a relatively new phenomena, having been developed over the last thirty years. This paper will explore the five specific types of fees that are frequently considered to be 'hidden' because of their difficulty in being recognized, quantified and monitored. It will also address their historical genesis and development . . . ." (Matthew D. Hutcheson via 401khelpcenter.com)
Opinion: Paulson's Bid for Social Security Fix Is Doomed
Excerpt: "The problem with Social Security is that it might be easy for two people to work out their differences and come to an agreement about how to restore solvency and improve the system. But it is just about impossible for 100 people to do so. There are too many moving parts. Legislation on this issue is only likely to come when the finances of the system are truly in crisis." (Kevin Hassett via Bloomberg)
Editorial: Social Security Reform May Be Back on the Agenda
Excerpt: "Some Democrats dispute the urgency of the problem, arguing that the notional assets in the Social Security trust fund are sufficient to pay all the benefits promised to retirees for the next 40 years. But a retirement system needs to make credible promises that last longer than that . . . ." (The Washington Post; free registration required)
Opinion: Social Security -- How Personal Accounts Could Please Both Sides
Excerpt: "Personal accounts need not be merely the alternative to the traditional Social Security benefit. They can simultaneously be the alternative to the nation's outrageously regressive system of tax breaks for saving and a way to help ordinary people build nest eggs. When personal accounts become both of these things, perhaps Republicans and Democrats alike will back them." (The Washington Post; free registration required)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Overview; Tax Law Change Affects Taxation of Proceeds from Employer-Owned Life Insurance (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The new law is directed primarily at employer-owned life insurance policies covering a broad-based employee population, which are essentially an investment vehicle for the employer. Provided the employee notice and consent requirements are met, proceeds of the typical key-person life insurance policy will remain non-taxable to the employer because the policy will qualify under one of the exceptions described [in the target document]." (Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC)
Discussion of PBS's Frontline Film ' Living Old' -- Challenges Facing America's Elderly Population
Excerpt: "Producer, writer and director Miri Navasky was online Wednesday, Nov. 22, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the PBS Frontline film . . . . [The transcript of the discussion is the content of the target page.]" (The Washington Post; free registration required)
Peer Pressure: -- Inflating Executive Pay
Excerpt: "The use of peer groups to calculate executive pay has become ubiquitous in recent years. This is partly in response to the Securities and Exchange Commission's requirement that companies compare their stock performance with a peer group in tables in the section of their proxy filings devoted to shareholder returns." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Overview: Bright Line Rule Needed for Whether a Fiduciary Can Sue a Participant (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "As readers of Benefits Law Journal know, ERISA Section 502(a)(3) allows a plan fiduciary to sue a participant to obtain 'appropriate equitable relief' to enforce a provision of ERISA or the plan terms. On its face, this phrase could be interpreted simply as meaning the relief must be fair and reasonable." (Benefits Law Journal via Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP)
Baby Boomers Present Positive Picture in the 2006 Lincoln Long Life Survey
Excerpt: "Conducted for Lincoln Retirement Institute, Philadelphia, by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, Princeton, N.J, the survey sampled 1,004 boomers aged 42-60 who have $75,000+ in annual household income. It shows that such boomers are not as much in la-la-land concerning retirement as the boomer stereotype might suggest." (National Underwriter Life & Health; free registration or paid subscription required)
Newly Posted Events
East Coast Defined Contribution Conference
in Florida on February 11, 2007
presented by Pensions & Investments/International Business Forum
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Analyst - Defined Benefit
for Mercer HR Services
in MA
Project Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in GA
Benefits Consultant, Staff
for Nevada Power
in NV
Retirement Plan Analyst
for Employee Fiduciary Corporation
in AL
Retirement Sales Wholesaler
for ExpertPlan, Inc.
in NJ
Retirement Plan Svcs Consultant
for Wells Fargo Retirement Plan Solutions
in
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
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