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Retirement Plans Newsletter
December 31, 2009 
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EFAST 2 5500 Software.
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[Guidance Overview]
The Roth IRA in 2010: Should You Convert?
Excerpt: "Who Would Benefit from a Roth IRA Conversion? Ostensibly, the benefit of conversion is that the taxes are paid today at a known rate, instead of in the future at an unknown and possibly higher rate. But deciding whether to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA depends largely on the ability to pay the taxes that are due when the conversion takes place. For 2010 conversions, individuals have two years to pay the income tax due." (National Center for Policy Analysis)
[Guidance Overview]
Roth IRA Conversion Rule Changes
Excerpt: "Beginning January 1, 2010, conversions from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA will become available to all individuals, regardless of their incomes." (McDermott Will & Emery)
Retirement Planning Software and Post-Retirement Risks
Excerpt: "[The results of an effort that examined the current state of retirement planning software's handling of post-retirement risks are now available]. This effort was a follow-up and expansion to an earlier project that explored the same topic. . . . For convenience, three separate reports with varying degrees of detail have been created." (Society of Actuaries)
Wal-Mart 401(k) Designed with High Costs
Excerpt: "Wal-Mart is famous for squeezing suppliers. But in a telling sign of what's wrong with many 401(k) plans, it took a lawsuit to make it equally exacting with its employees' retirement savings." (Forbes)
How Good Is Your 401(k)?
Excerpt: "With its vast, free database, researcher BrightScope could alter the retirement landscape as much as Morningstar changed funds." (BusinessWeek)
Chart: Retirement Account Balances, 2005 - 2009
Excerpt: "The retirement savings of American households took a big hit when the stock market crashed in 2008. Recently, however, a good portion of these losses has been reversed. This fact sheet follows trends in retirement account balances since the beginning of 2005." (Urban Institute)
Colorado County Institutes Slimmed Down Retirement Program
Excerpt: "A plan for reduced retirement benefits is expected to save the Mesa County government in Colorado about $900,000, officials said." (PLANSPONSOR.com)
Georgia County Slashes 401(k) Match
Excerpt: "Employees of a Georgia county near Atlanta have had their 401(k) employer match cut back as part of a broad cost-cutting effort." (PLANSPONSOR.com)
[Opinion]
Statement for the Record: Are 401(k) Target Date Funds Missing the Mark? (PDF)
October 28, 2009. Sent to Special Committee on Aging. 4 pages. Excerpt: "As with other aspects of their defined contribution programs, plan sponsors are driving innovation and improvement in their target date funds. The resulting evolution of target date retirement funds will significantly affect how America's defined contribution plan assets are managed in the future." (Profit Sharing / 401k Council of America)
[Opinion]
Broker-Dealers and Other Non-Fiduciaries as Fiduciaries? (Part I)
Excerpt: "In a nutshell, the two-pronged goal of the administration is to turn broker-dealers into fiduciaries and then subject them to the same fiduciary standard that governs registered investment advisors. The great uncertainty of this titanic struggle, of course, will be whether broker-dealers will actually be turned into fiduciaries and, even if they are, what kind of fiduciary standard they will actually have to meet." (W. Scott Simon via Morningstar)
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BLAZE SSI: We do it right!
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Executive Compensation; Benefits in General
[Guidance Overview]SEC's Proxy Disclosure Enhancements
Excerpt: "What You Should Do Now. We suggest that you: Update your board or compensation committee on the new rules. Consider whether your company's compensation policies and practices for employees generally are reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on the company. If so, you should consider the information that will be needed to prepare appropriate disclosure based on the particular facts and circumstances of your company." (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati)
[Guidance Overview]
2010 Annual Meeting Season Preparations (PDF)
17 pages. Excerpt: "In this issue, we are including our customary articles on recent SEC and NYSE/NASDAQ developments. We are also including more in-depth articles on the elimination of broker discretionary voting in director elections and recent developments in the enforcement arena. In our view, the big items for the 2010 annual meeting season are the elimination of broker voting in director elections and the trends and considerations related to executive compensation." (Snell & Wilmer L.L.P.)
[Guidance Overview]
February 1, 2010 Deadline and Final Regulations on Return and Information Statement Requirements for ISOs and ESPPs
Excerpt: "This Update summarizes key highlights from the existing and new final regulations and offers practical guidance." (Perkins Coie LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
IRS Guidance on Application of 409A Rules to Deferred Comp Payments Under TARP Advisory Opinion
Excerpt: "The guidance only applies to TARP recipients and their service providers and only to the extent that the compensation paid by the TARP recipient to a service provider is addressed by an advisory opinion of the Special Master, pursuant to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA; P.L. 110-343), as amended by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA; P.L. 111-5), and regulations thereunder, issued after September 30, 2009." (Wolters Kluwer)
Best Employee Benefits Stories of 2009
Excerpt: "Snip, snip, snip. That's the sound of employee benefits being trimmed, often to save the very jobs of the employees in question, and a sound that was heard almost continuously in 2009." (CFO Publishing Corporation)
Overlooked Workplace Trends of the Decade
Excerpt: "Revisions to the notion of work and the evolution of benefits are two workplace concepts that have quietly changed during the past 10 years. A more individualized legal view, a new emphasis on 'engaging' employees, the growing reluctance of workers to 'live to work' and the new concept of HR branding round out the list." (Human Resource Executive Online)
Webcasts and Conferences
Medicare A-Z: Part I with Craig J. Davidson, CEBSNationwide on December 30, 2009
presented by FutureOffice Network
(Click to post your webcast or conference)
Press Releases
COBRAGuard Offers Free Action Plan Webinar to Assist Employers with COBRA Subsidy ExtensionCobraGuard, Inc.
(Click to post your press release)
Newly Posted Employee Benefits Jobs
Attorney - Employee Benefits Specialistfor Established Chicago Loop Firm, AV Rated
in IL
COBRA/FSA/Welfare Benefits Operations Director
for Goldleaf Partners
in AZ, MN
Dedicated Retirement Counselor - Long Island, NY
for Prudential
in NY
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