[Guidance Overview]
House OKs Increase in Manager Tax, Defined-Benefit Funding Relief
Excerpt: "The legislation, The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010, now goes to the Senate, which has adjourned for the Memorial Day recess but returns June 7."
(Workforce Management)

How Does Your Retirement Program Stack Up? - 2010 Edition of Mercer Survey
54 pages. Excerpt: "The report [using data for employers in the S&P 1500] includes perspectives and in-depth analysis on the current state of pension programs (pension health and materiality), risk management with regard to benefits earned and the assets backing them (volatility), delivery of future benefits and retirement program life cycles (sustainability), and management assumptions and decisions that drive accounting results."
(Mercer)

Public Pension Funds Could Be in for Big Shock from Upcoming GASB Report
Excerpt: "The Government Accounting Standards Board is preparing to release a document that could send shivers through public pension systems and the taxpayers who fund them. The document, tagged a preliminary view of proposed pension accounting reforms, is scheduled for release this week."
(PittsburghLive.com)

Wanted: A Gold Standard for Governmental Pension Plan Governance
Excerpt: "The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), whose membership includes public pension plan officers and thousands of chief financial officers for public employers and plan sponsors, has issued recommended governance practices that provide clear guidance to pension trustees and administrators on how to govern their plans."
(Governing.com)

California Senate Unanimously Passes Bill Preventing 'Pension Spiking' by State Employees
Excerpt: "Pension spiking is the practice of boosting an employee's final salary before retirement by cashing out on vacation time or administrative leave, among other methods."
(California Chronicle)

Automatic 401(k) Plans: Employer Views on Enrolling New and Existing Employees
Excerpt: "Although nearly all large employers with 401(k) plans are at least somewhat familiar with automatic enrollment, the majority have not adopted it for their own 401(k) plan."
(AARP)

Observations and Data on Global Pension Risk Strategy
Excerpt: "For a multinational company, there is still a need to fully understand where the liabilities and risks are before managing them effectively."
(Mercer)

Distributional Effects of Alternative Social Security Reforms: Details Matter
Excerpt: "Using a microsimulation model, we show distributional effects of illustrative benefit-cut and revenue-enhancement options on retirees. Results show that impacts differ greatly for workers in different generations and age groups and with different lifetime earnings."
(Urban Institute)

Summary of H.R. 4213, The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 (PDF)
28 pages. A description of pension provisions begins at page 8, including 'Temporary single employer plan funding relief.' See also page 19, 'Extension of tax-free distributions from individual retirement plans for charitable purposes."
(Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives)

[Opinion]
State Plan Administrators Take Issue with Paper Projecting Pension Insolvency Dates
Excerpt: "In his paper 'Are State Public Pensions Sustainable?,' Northwestern University Assistant Professor Joshua D. Rauh concludes that 'many state systems will run out of money in 10-20 years if some attempt is not made to improve the funding of liabilities that have already accrued.' . . . . We disagree with his analysis for the following reasons: . . ."
(National Association of State Retirement Administrators)

Ethics: What ERPAs and Pension Administrators Need To Know
Nationwide on July 22, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

Ethics: What ERPAs and Pension Administrators Need To Know
Nationwide on September 1, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

Ethics: What ERPAs and Pension Administrators Need To Know
Nationwide on December 1, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

Strategic and Tactical Action Plan Creation Workshop
Nationwide on October 7, 2010
presented by National Institute of Pension Administrators

Click to post your webcast or conference

Social Security Averages 40% of Income of Elderly
Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)

PenChecks Launches New Website
PenChecks, Inc.

Mercer Introduces Mercer EnrollNet
Mercer

Beth Essey Joins Henderson Brothers Employee Benefits Division
Henderson Brothers

Click to post your press release

PSP/401(k)/Pension Administrator
for Administrative firm - design/installation/recordkeeping for smaller employers.
in GA

Systems Engineer
for New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in MA

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