[Guidance Overview]
May 2010 Employee Benefits Update from Reinhart (PDF)
7 pages. Includes summary of certain compliance deadlines: 2009 Form 5500 Deadline for Calendar Year Plans Is July 31, 2010; Annual Benefit Statement Deadline Is Approaching for Calendar Year Defined Contribution Plans with Plan-Directed Investments; Deadline for Making ADP/ACP Corrective Distributions Without Excise Tax Is June 30, 2010 for Calendar Year EACA Plans.
(Reinhart)

[Guidance Overview]
Highlights of Changes in 2009 IRS Form 5500-EZ
Excerpt: "One-participant plans with less than 100 participants that meet additional requirements can elect to file Form 5500-SF, which is a new short form 5500."
(McKay Hochman)

[Guidance Overview]
Ripple Effects of the 2009 Required Minimum Distribution Waiver
Excerpt: "For a participant who died in 2008, the deadline for beneficiary to start life expectancy payments would have been by the end of 2009. . . . [But] Notice 2009-82 did not waive the deadline for identifying the designated beneficiary and so for those who died in 2008, that remained September 30, 2009."
(McKay Hochman)

Congress Weighs Bailout for Multiemployer Pension Plans
Excerpt: "The Moody's study estimated that multiemployer plans in the construction industry are only about 60% funded . . . . In the transportation industry, including many Teamsters plans, the overall funded status was 58.6%."
(Wall Street Journal)

Multiemployer Plan Relief Bill Subject of Senate Hearing
Excerpt: "The controversial portion of the [bill] would allow multiemployer plans to segregate the benefit liabilities attributable to participants of bankrupt former employers who pull out of the program without funding their withdrawal liability."
(PLANSPONSOR)

GAO Testimony: Long-Standing Challenges Remain for Multiemployer Pension Plans (PDF)
Excerpt: "The [Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, U.S. Senate] asked GAO to provide information on (1) the unique characteristics of multiemployer plans and (2) the challenges that multiemployer plans face and how they may affect PBGC.'
(U.S. Government Accountability Office)

Mass Protests Against Raising French Minimum Retirement Age to 60
Excerpt: "The current government, struggling to bring its swollen deficit under control, says it has no choice but to raise it."
(New York Times; free registration required)

California Teacher Retirement System to Reduce Forecast of Investment Returns by One-Half Percent, to 7.5
Excerpt: "The reduction in CalSTRS' investment forecast will be crucial in determining how much taxpayers will have to spend to support the $139 billion teachers pension fund."
(Sacramento Bee)

Summary of House and Senate Single-Employer Plan Funding Relief Legislation (PDF)
12 pages; May 27, 2010.
(Kent Mason of Davis & Harman LLP for the American Benefits Council)

Cheap Source of Startup Capital? Your 401(k)
Excerpt: "An investor sets up a corporation, establishes a new 401(k) plan there, rolls over his or her existing 401(k) or Individual Retirement Account, and then uses part or all of the plan's assets to buy shares of the new company. This funds the new business, while keeping the tax advantages of the retirement plan."
(Investment News)

[Opinion]
New Approaches Needed for Funding Old Age
Excerpt: "Following the global financial crisis, troubled retirement systems around the world face new challenges that may result in sharply reduced income for retirees -- as well as the possibility that younger workers will need to work much longer . . . ."
(Knowledge@Wharton)

[Opinion]
Statement of Law Prof. Norman Stein at Multiemployer Pension Plans Funding Hearing in Senate Committee (PDF)
Excerpt: "By taking on some liability now, the PBGC will avoid taking on much larger liabilities later and will improve the future viability of troubled but critically important industries, such as trucking and mining."
(Prof. Norman Stein via Pension Rights Center)

[Guidance Overview]
Supreme Court Changes Rules for Attorneys' Fees Awards Under ERISA; Increase in Fee Petitions Expected
Excerpt: "The Supreme Court's decision in Hardt may have inadvertently created more issues than it resolved. Importantly, the Supreme Court did not decide the question of whether a remand order to a plan administrator for further consideration qualifies, without more, as 'some success on the merits' that entitles a claimant to fees under ERISA Section 502(g)(1)."
(McDermott Will & Emery)

The Employee Ownership 100: America's Largest Majority Employee-Owned Companies
The NCEO has just released the latest version of the Employee Ownership 100, a list of the largest majority employee-owned companies in the U.S. To be on the list, companies must have at least 50% of their stock owned by an ESOP, a stock purchase plan in which most full-time employees can participate, a profit sharing plan or other trust, or some combination of such plans.
(National Center for Employee Ownership)

1099R – 945 Filing for 2010
Nationwide on November 17, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

Advanced 401(a)(4) Nondiscrimination Testing
Nationwide on August 19, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

Beyond Traditional Communications
Nationwide on August 25, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

Compensation
Nationwide on December 16, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

EBIA's 12th Annual Advanced Cafeteria Plans Conference 2010
in Washington on July 14, 2010
presented by EBIA / Thomson Reuters

End of Year Regulatory Update
Nationwide on December 14, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

M&A Due Diligence for ERISA Attorneys: A Case Study
in New York on June 4, 2010
presented by ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits

Medicaid and CHIP Programs; Meeting of the CHIP Working Group
in District of Columbia on June 14, 2010
presented by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

Plan Document Issues
Nationwide on October 28, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

Service Agreements
Nationwide on September 15, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

Click to post your webcast or conference

Recent Legislation Offers Special Tax Incentives for Small Businesses to Provide Health Care, Hire New Workers
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Ascensus Wins $50 Million 401k Plan
Ascensus

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Senior Client Employee Benefits Advisor
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in DC, NY, PA

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in GA

Senior Consultant (Strategic Client Relationship Manager) for Eastern U.S.
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in FL

Senior Benefits Analyst
for Tupperware Brands Corporation
in FL

Fund Administrator
for The Segal Company on behalf of a client
in KY

Client Service Manager
for Campbells Administration Inc
in CA

DB/DC Pension Analyst
for Boyce & Associates, Inc.
in AZ

Consultant
for Boyce & Associates, Inc.
in AZ

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