BenefitsLink |
 |
 |
| March 10, 2008 |
| Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy. |
Today's sponsor is www.ftwilliam.com
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
| Learn more about ftwilliam.com's new 403(b) plan documents! |
| On March 13th ftwilliam.com's newest addition, Attorney Aimee Nash, will be hosting a webinar discussing ftwilliam.com's two new 403(b) plan documents. She will summarize differences in the full-scope and limited-scope 403(b) plan documents and the 2007 final regulations. Aimee will also be reviewing features of the software such as the context-sensitive help buttons, forms and amendments, online error correction and more!
Please contact sales@ftwilliam.com or call 800.596.0714 for details. |
[Official Guidance] March 2008 Pension Funding Segment Rates
Generally for plan years beginning after 2007, the rates in the tables . . . apply for minimum funding requirements under section 430 of the Code. (Internal Revenue Service)
[Guidance Overview] PBGC Proposes New Filing Standards for Underfunded Plans (PDF)
2 pages. (Milliman)
[Guidance Overview] IRS Composite Corporate Bond Rate Table Updated for March 2008
Corporate Bond Weighted Average Interest Rate = 5.96 for March 2008 (Internal Revenue Service)
[Guidance Overview] The 5500's Final Schedule C Includes Extensive New Codes
Excerpt: "In addition to more fulsome disclosure of revenue sharing and other types of indirect fees that plan service providers charge, the final revisions to Schedule C of the Form 5500 will require plan administrators and TPAs to spend a lot of time with their systems administrators over the next year. Take a look (if you haven't already) at the extensive list of new fee codes to be used for different types of compensation." (Baker & Daniels LLP)
[Guidance Overview] The EACA, QACA, ACA Chart
A one-page chart on deferrals. (McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)
[Guidance Overview] DOL Proposal for Seven-Business-Day Safe Harbor for Depositing Participant Contributions and Loan Repayments in Small Plans
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: The proposed safe harbor should provide welcome certainty to affected small plans and their advisors. As the DOL notes in the preamble, a significant amount of its enforcement resources and nearly 90% of applications under its Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program have involved delinquent participant contributions. The release of this proposed safe harbor once again highlights that curbing delinquent contributions is a high priority for the DOL . . . ." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
Employers Redouble Efforts to Communicate Need for Investment Diversification
Excerpt: "The value of diversification can't be overstated for employees. That's why more and more employers and their advisers are redoubling their education and communication efforts around this crucial concept." (Employee Benefit Advisor; free registration required)
Cash-Balance Retirement Plans Are Slow to Catch on Among Employers
Excerpt: "Cash-balance retirement plans may finally be legal -- specifically authorized by the 2006 Pension Protection Act -- but employers aren't racing to enact them. Nearly two years after Congress finally resolved questions about the legality of retirement plans that combine features of defined-benefit pension plans and defined-contribution savings plans, only a few large employers have moved forward with the new 'hybrid' programs." (Human Resource Executive Online)
Mercer Reports Positive One-Year Investment Returns Despite Losses in Fourth Quarter of 2007
Excerpt: "The one-year median investment return for 235 corporate defined benefit plans in 2007 was 8.1%, according to data recently released by Mercer Investment Consulting, Inc., in its Summary Performance of U.S. Institutional Portfolios." (Wolters Kluwer Financial Services)
Chile Boosts Public Pensions for Poor
Excerpt: "Once a model for privatized social security in dozens of countries from Peru to the U.S., Chile is undertaking the largest-ever overhaul of its pioneer private system, adding sweeping public payouts for low-income seniors. The new $2 billion-a-year program will expand public pensions to groups left out by private pensions -- the poor and self-employed, housewives, street vendors and farmers who saved little for retirement -- granting about a quarter of the nation's work force public pensions by 2012." (AP via The New York Times; free registration required)
Top Garden City, New York, Cop Gets Salary and a Pension
Excerpt: "After a 47-year career with the Garden City Police Department, Ernest J. Cipullo retired as commissioner on a Saturday in September 2006. That allowed him to begin collecting his $100,132 annual pension. Two days later, on the following Monday, he was back at work -- at the same job. Cipullo, now 72, has continued to work as commissioner and earns a salary of $175,434 a year, bringing his annual income to $275,566." (NewsDay.com)
Banks and the Trillions of Baby Boomer Retirement Dollars at Stake
Excerpt: "A study by Chicago financial consultant BAI Research and Boston's Mercatus found that only 14 percent of nearly 3,000 mass affluent American respondents use their bank as the primary manager of their retirement savings. That leaves brokerages and investment firms with 53 percent of their retirement pie. With a minimum of $50,000 in investable assets, these 35- to 70-year olds combine for a pool of more than $16 trillion in retirement assets." (U.S. Banker and SourceMedia, Inc.)
SEC Insider Trading Probe Prompts Public Pension Warning
Excerpt: "A Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into insider trading allegations against the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) has prompted a reminder to public pension funds to have adequate compliance procedures for their money management functions." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
The 401(k) Effect: Employees Who Won't Retire
Excerpt: "While shifting workers from traditional defined-benefit plans into 401(k) plans may allow corporations to lower their retirement plan expenses, many of these companies may wind up dealing with an unexpected problem. 'Because there's no guaranteed retirement income with a 401(k), employees will work longer than they would have if they were in a traditional pension,' said Alan Glickstein, senior investment consultant at Watson Wyatt. 'And this will curtail an employer's ability to efficiently manage their workforces.'" (Financial Week; free registration required)
West Virginia Teachers' Pension Left on Table
Excerpt: "House Bill 4496 would have allowed teachers currently enrolled in the Teachers' Defined Contribution System to transfer their assets to the State Teacher's Retirement System. The measure passed the House but at Manchin's urging the Senate tabled the bill while officials figure out how the state will pay for the plan. Manchin plans to have lawmakers work on the matter as they consider the state's budget this upcoming week." (The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register)
[Opinion] Retirement Savings Plan Participants and the 'Cost' of Their Retirement Accounts
Excerpt: "In theory most [Retirement savings plan participants] -- despite the angst of lawmakers -- are already in possession of information that would allow them to figure out what they are paying for their retirement accounts, although not always in a place, or explained in a manner, that makes the task easy. Additionally, when it comes to retirement savings plans, most of us are 'stuck' with the plan chosen by our employer." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
[Opinion] The New Jersey Teachers' Pension Real Shortfall
Excerpt: "All that is wrong with politicians overseeing a defined benefit arrangement for state employees comes across with the report that the Teachers Pension Plan has a purported $11.5 billion underfunding (3/7/08 Dunston McNichol article) and the governor only wants to fund $663 million this year when the actuaries tell him it should be $1.4 billion." (NJ.com)
[Opinion] Broker System Costs You Years of Retirement Savings
Excerpt: "Just as we are now a nation of wireless phone users and many have abandoned land lines altogether, the last 40 years have also produced two major new distribution systems we can use to build and tend our retirement nest eggs." (The Dallas Morning News)
Sponsored by: ASPPA
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
| The ERISA Outline Book |
| Stay current with The ERISA Outline Book, 2008 Edition, by Sal Tripodi, J.D., LL.M. only from ASPPA. Available in both print or on CD, this one of a kind resource has become the must have for anyone working in the pension industry today. Fully updated with the latest guidance on a variety of PPA 2006 items, the 2008 Edition also includes automatic enrollment guidance including QACAs, final regulations on QDIA's, guidance on benefit restrictions and much more. Stay current and order your copy today. |
| (Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor) |
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Too Much Freedom of Choice Causes Bad Decisions; Time to Push Participants in Right Direction?
Excerpt: "Among the most influential of these new ideas is the 'nudge' - a model for how employers, friends, and even the government can structure people's choices to push them in the right direction without restricting their freedom to go their own way. It can take a variety of shapes, from the automatic-enrollment version of the 401(k) to cash payments that encourage recovering drug addicts to stay clean to new kinds of feedback on the power consumption of cars and appliances that will subtly encourage people to save energy." (The Boston Globe)
Employee Communication, Enrollment Periods, and Voluntary Benefits
Excerpt: "If employers really want to convey the value of their benefits offerings and advisers want to uphold their role as benefit educators, they both need to make enrollment a priority. That may mean offering multiple enrollment opportunities throughout the year." (Employee Benefit Advisor; free registration required)
Is There a Link Between ESOPs and Better Company Performance?
Excerpt: "A developing body of research suggests that exceptional business performance for ESOP firms is driven by a change from the traditional hierarchal business model." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
How Many Struggle to Get by in Retirement?
Excerpt: "This paper uses data from the 2004 Health and Retirement Study to demonstrate how the poverty rate of adults 65 and older changes using alternative resource and threshold measures. Results show that alternative poverty measures that account for health spending produce higher poverty rates than the official measure, even those that include the value of housing and financial assets." (Urban Institute)
Financial Analysts Must Think Like Detectives When Assessing Shareholder Risk Due to Pension Plans (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "As the clock ticks, the gap between what we know about employee benefit plan economics and the true impact on share price is getting dangerously wide. Unless sponsors get lucky (and current market volatility presents a challenge) and employees stop getting old (not a pleasant thought), proper management of employee benefit plans will become increasingly urgent. Growing liabilities and liquidity needs affect debt ratings, growth, flexibility, cash, cost of capital, and the power to attract and retain productive workers." (Susan Mangiero, CFA, reprinted from CFA Magazine)
Public Worker Coalition Forms to Support Defined benefit and Retiree Health Care Plans
Excerpt: "The Associated Press reports that the New Hampshire Retirement Security Coalition is 'dedicated to ensuring New Hampshire workers who teach our children, police our streets, and fight our fires can depend on a stable and modest retirement income after a career of public service.' The coalition is supportive of efforts to maintain defined benefit pension and health care benefits for retired public employees provided by the New Hampshire Retirement System and to ensure the long-term viability of the plan for current and future public employees." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
[Opinion] Time To Come To Grips With Connecticut's Huge Pension Bill
Excerpt: "No matter how you look at it, $54.2 billion is a huge, pretty much unfathomable amount of money. It also happens to be what Connecticut taxpayers are obligated to pay for outstanding state debt and unfunded liabilities for pensions and retiree benefits for teachers and state employees." (TheDay.com)
Newly Posted Events
18th Annual IRA Academy
in Texas on May 13, 2008
presented by PenServ, Inc.
Emerging Issues in the Retirement Benefit World
in Illinois on March 13, 2008
presented by Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits at The John Marshall Law School
Newly Posted Press Releases
U.S. Labor Department Re-schedules Hearing On Service Provider Compensation And Plan Fee Disclosure
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Investment Boom in Microfinance Fueled by Socially Responsible Investors
Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
(Post a Job | View All Jobs |
RSS Feed )
DC Plan Administrator
for Campbell Albrecht
in CA
Administrator
for Long Island Benefits Consulting Firm
in NY
Plan Administrator
for Beneco, Inc.
in AZ
VP - Administration
for Pension Consultants, Inc.
in MI
Account Manager - 2 openings
for Standard Retirement Services
in OR
Client Relationship Manager
for Pendleton Resources
in IL, NY
401k Administrator
for Alta Trust Company
in WA
Retirement Services Education & Enrollment Specialist
for Prudential Financial
in NE
Retirement Consultant
for Towers Perrin
in CT, DC, MA, NJ, NY, PA
Health and Welfare Benefits Manager
for BLB Consulting Inc (Search firm)
in NJ
Health and Welfare Actuarial Consultant
for Towers Perrin
in CT, NJ, NY
Benefit Administration Team Associate
for Towers Perrin
in PA
Retirement Associate
for Towers Perrin
in CT, DC, MA, NY, PA
Health and Welfare Associate
for Towers Perrin
in NJ, NY, PA
Senior Retirement Consultant
for Towers Perrin
in DC, MA, PA
Health and Welfare Consultant
for Towers Perrin
in GA, NJ, NY, TX
Retirement Research Consultant
for Hewitt Associates
in IL
New Business Analyst
for Jacob, Haxton & Boord, LLC
in OH
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
Subscribe to the BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter, Too!
Sign-up form is at https://benefitslink.com/newsletter (free).
This newsletter is sent to you each workday except federal holidays.
This email has been published by:
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park FL 32789
(407) 644-4146
Fax: (407) 644-2151
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor
Copyright 2008 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you can forward this email in full (including this boilerplate part) or otherwise reprint this email in full (including this boilerplate part) without obtaining our permission.
Anyone can receive these emails; just have them sign up at this web page: https://benefitslink.com/newsletter/
Other useful links: