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| December 12, 2007 |
| Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy. |
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| If you're looking for a low-cost approach to communicating the value of your benefits, BeneCom Associates, LLC can help. Our "preformatted," customized and online approaches to benefit statements are attractive, very reasonably priced and used by employers across the country who thought benefits statements were financially out of reach.
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(a) New Guidance Documents
Formal Announcement of 2007 DOL Form M-1 (PDF)
1 page. Excerpt: "This year's Form M-1 is substantively identical to the Year 2006 Form M-1. The electronic filing option has been retained and filers are encouraged to use this method." (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)
(b) News
NFL Updates Disability Plan to Try to Get Benefits Out More Quickly
Excerpt: "The NFL and its players association are updating their disability plan for retired players in the hopes that it will make it easier for them and for disabled players to get their benefits more efficiently and quickly. It includes a medical director to advise the claims committee; medical panels in metropolitan areas; specialists who can help players apply for benefits by phone; and other updated procedures, including a prescription drug card for all retired players vested in the pension plan." (USA TODAY)
The Health Benefits Sky Isn't Falling, According to EBRI's Fronstin
Excerpt: "'An evaluation of recent data does not suggest that the end of the employment-based health benefits is upon us,' Paul Fronstin, director EBRI's health research and education program, says. That's not to say change isn't warranted, he adds. EBRI insists its presentation isn't meant to mitigate the call for reform (or elevate it), but simply to make sure the debate is held on solid intellectual footing. It's all a matter of perspective, specifically a graphical axis perspective. Fronstin says charts showing the same data can communicate dramatically different messages." (Employee Benefit Advisor; free registration required)
Childhood-Cancer Survivors Struggle To Find Employment, Group Health Insurance
Excerpt: "The Wall Street Journal . . . examined how the 'transition into the workplace can be rocky for many childhood-cancer survivors -- especially those who have been treated with high doses of radiation and chemotherapy' because the 'resulting cognitive and physical impairments can make it hard to keep a job.'" (Kaiser Family Foundation)
(c) Summaries of Guidance; Filed Comments
Overview: Guidance on HIPAA Portability Rules Relating to Supplemental Coverage
Excerpt: "The new Field Assistance Bulletin establishes an enforcement safe harbor under which supplemental health insurance will be considered excepted benefits for purposes of the health reform provisions in Part 7 of ERISA. Similar supplemental coverage that does not meet the standards for the safe harbor may be subject to enforcement actions by the department." (Business & Legal Reports, Inc.)
(d) Trends, Surveys, Research
Hewitt Survey Reveals Dwindling Popularity of the Annual Holiday Bonus
Excerpt: "Once a tradition of the holiday season, the annual holiday bonus continues to lose credibility as an effective way to reward employees. Indeed, according to a new survey from Hewitt Associates, a global human resources services company, 63 percent of companies will not award holiday bonuses this year." (Hewitt Associates)
Executive Summary of Survey on Account-Based Health Plans: Employees Weigh In (PDF)
14 pages. Excerpt: "While plan design and vendor selection are important, the survey results strongly suggest that these program elements are not sufficient to drive desired attitudes, behaviors or outcomes. To succeed, these programs require a new mindset and commitment from employers, just as they present new requirements for employees." (Towers Perrin)
Employers Slow to Embrace Paid Time-Off Banks
Excerpt: "Companies still prefer to manage vacation, sick and personal leave separately, despite paid time-off programs that administer all three collectively, reports the Alexander Hamilton Institute, a New Jersey-based publisher of employment law information." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
Workplace Tensions Rise As Dads Seek Family Time
Excerpt: "As dads demand paternity leave, flexible work schedules, telecommuting and other new benefits, they've ignited what workplace specialists are calling the Daddy Wars." (USA TODAY)
(e) Policy, Opinion, Advocacy
Experts Pick Apart Bill Clinton's Medical Bankrup.tcy Comment
Excerpt: "A fact check is in order on a comment about medical bankruptcies that Bill Clinton and other leading Democrats keep making, two dueling experts say.'Over half of all the bankruptcies in this decade can be tied to personal health emergencies,' the former president said Monday at a Hillary Clinton campaign rally in Ames. And he's said it before while stumping for his wife's health care reform plan, which would require all Americans to carry health insurance either through the government or a private insurer." (Physicians for a National Health Program)
Obstacles to Real Health Care Reform -- A Sequel
Excerpt: "Some time back I began a list of practical obstacles to improvement of the health care delivery system. ('The Real Obstacles To Health Care Reform') The issues I cited are resistant to any reform proposal currently under consideration. This post is a continuation of the list." (Health Plan Law blog by Attorney Roy F. Harmon III)
Industry Group Letter to Senate HELP Committee Regarding Health IT Legislation (PDF)
Excerpt: "We support establishing a date certain for interoperability standards, providing grants and loans to providers, empowering public-private partnerships, and codifying aspects of the Health IT effort into law. We believe these actions will help to realize the life-saving and cost-saving advances of modern technology." (American Benefits Council)
Opinion: National Healthcare Shouldn't Be National: Amending ERISA to Encourage States' Experimentation
Excerpt: "The states can and should be in the forefront of health care policy. Different states can experiment with different formulas and can adapt to local preferences about health care. The federal government ought to permit state innovation to flourish in the financing of medical care, rather than impose a single set of nationwide rules." (Oxford University Press USA)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Overview: New Incentive Stock Option and Employee Stock Purchase Plan Filing Requirements (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "Under new filing requirements, employers are required to furnish information returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regarding the exercise of incentive stock options (ISOs) and the transfer of shares acquired under an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) that occur on or after January 1, 2007. The IRS has not yet provided guidance as to the exact information required, the format in which the required information is to be provided, or the due date of the information returns. Unless the IRS decides to postpone the effective date, we anticipate that the deadline for filing the returns will be February 28, 2008." (Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP)
How Does the New Legislation Allowing a One-Time Transfer from an Existing IRA Affect an HSA?
Excerpt: "This one-time (once in a lifetime) provision allows an individual to use his/her IRA to make a regular contribution, including a catch-up contribution, to his/her own HSA." (Wolters Kluwer Financial Services)
Overview: IRS Limited Correction Program Under Code Section 409A (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "If the requirements of the Notice are met: Certain operational failures that are corrected during the year the failure occurs will not result in section 409A violations. Certain operational failures that occur in years before 2010 and involve only limited amounts (e.g., $15,500 or less in 2007/2008) may be corrected within two years. Only the amounts involved in such a failure will be subject to adverse treatment under section 409A." (Groom Law Group)
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, September 2007 (PDF)
Excerpt: "Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $28.03 per hour worked in September 2007, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries, which averaged $19.56, accounted for 69.8 percent of these costs, while benefits, which averaged $8.47, accounted for the remaining 30.2 percent." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Watson Wyatt's 2007/2008 Report on Executive Pay -- Debunking Executive Compensation Myths (PDF)
16 pages. Excerpt: "[The study] demonstrates the overall effectiveness of the U.S. executive pay model by finding that CEOs' realizable pay and corporate performance are highly correlated. It also confirms that executive stock ownership and stock options create strong alignment with shareholder interests and provide powerful incentives to maximize shareholder value." (Watson Wyatt Worldwide)
Overview: IRS Reverses Previous Ruling on Exclusion for Governmental Pension Distributions Used to Pay Public Safety Officers' Retiree Medical Premiums to Self-Insured Plans
Excerpt: "Citing pending technical changes to the Pension Protection Act and special considerations involving eligible retired public safety officers, IRS reversed its position on whether payments to a self-insured accident or health plan would qualify for the exclusion from income provided under Code Section 402(l) as added by the Pension Protection Act." (Deloitte via BenefitsLink.com)
Overview: IRS Limited Relief for Certain Section 409A Operational Failures
Excerpt: "[W]hile Notice 2007-100 may be helpful to some taxpayers under limited circumstances during the transition period, its greater significance is as a first step toward a post-transition-relief corrections program." (Deloitte via BenefitsLink.com)
Newly Posted Events
IRS Issues 403(b) Guidance
Nationwide on December 13, 2007
presented by Convergent Retirement Plan Solutions, LLC
Newly Posted Press Releases
Hewitt Survey Reveals Dwindling Popularity of the Annual Holiday Bonus
Hewitt Associates LLC
ExpertPlan Named One of New Jersey's 50 Fastest Growing Companies by NJBIZ Magazine
ExpertPlan
U.S. Department of Labor Obtains Court Order Restoring Assets To Huntersville, North Carolina-based Trucking Company's Profit-sharing Plan
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
RolloverSystems to Provide Rollover Support and Services to DailyAccess Retirement Plan Clients
DailyAccess Corporation
Navellier Funds Added to CPI Retirement Platform
CPI Qualified Plan Consultants, Inc.
National Business Coalition on Health Releases 2008 eValue8(tm) RFI
National Business Coalition on Health
More Than Half Of Americans Say They Are Not Saving Adequately
Wachovia Corporation
Today's Young Workers Expected to Reach Retirement Age with Little 401(k) Savings
U.S. House Education and Labor Committee
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
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for Boyce & Associates, Inc.
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Pension Administrator
for Silverhawk Retirement Services
in AZ
WRS Relationship Manager II
for Wachovia Corporation
in PA
Supervisor, Operations
for The Newport Group
in WI
401(k) Plan Administrator
for Beyer Barber Company
in PA
Pension Administrator
for Means & Associates, LLC
in CA
Implementation Specialist
for The Newport Group
in FL
401(k) Administrator
for Continental Benefits Group, Inc.
in NJ
Defined Contribution Plan Administrator
for Benefit Consulting Group Inc
in NY
Asset Transfer Administrator
for Vanguard
in PA
Handy Links:
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