[Guidance Overview]
New Participant Fee Disclosure Rules: What Plan Sponsors Need to Know (PDF)
"The new participant disclosure rules are intended to help ensure that all participants and beneficiaries in participant-directed individual account plans have the information necessary to make informed decisions about plan participation and selection of investment choices for their accounts." (Pensions & Investments; free registration required)

ftwilliam.com launches their DB(k) plan document. (advert.)

The DB(k) document is available under any volume submitter 401(k) plan (prototype or IDP format) included in the retirement document package. See how to create a DB(k) and learn about issues raised by these new document types in our technical update.

[Guidance Overview]
Seventh Circuit Opens Door for Class Action Fiduciary Breach Claims Under 401(k) Plans
"The court suggested that a more clearly defined class could satisfy the Rule 23(a) requirements. In defining the class more narrowly on remand, the trial court would, however, need to assure the class representatives, at a 'meaningful level of detail' stand in the same position as the absentee members of the class." (Wolters Kluwer)

[Guidance Overview]
Annuity Investment Accounts and 408(b)(2)
"The regs are short, . . . yet they are packed with meaningful rules which will apply in different ways to different product and services." (Robert J. Toth, Jr.)

[Guidance Overview]
New ERISA Fiduciary Requirements for Expense Disclosure
"There are some exceptions to the ruling, based on feedback received during the public comment period. These exceptions include: IRA based plans under the [IRC, including SEPs and SIMPLEs.]" (HG.org - HGExperts.com)

[Guidance Overview]
DOL Extension of Applicability Date for Service Provider Fee Disclosures to January 1, 2012
"The announcement indicates that, as a result of input received on the interim rules, the extension will allow the DOL sufficient time to 'get the final rule right,' which may include providing a summary document to assist plan fiduciaries in their review of the new fee disclosures." (Thomson Reuters/EBIA)

Effective Fee Disclosure Means Sponsors Must Think Beyond Regs
"For fee disclosure to have its intended impact, employers need to think beyond the regulatory requirements, to the behavioral-economics aspects that affect participants. Here are three elements experts stress . . . ." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Automate Your Finances to Win Big in Retirement
"If you are using one of the major retirement providers (Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, and many others) there should be an option to automatically withdraw funds from a checking account that you designate." (Retirement Online LLC)

Profile of Mutual Fund Shareholders, 2010 (PDF)
"[M]utual fund holdings represent a significant component of the savings and investments of many American households, with mutual fund assets now accounting for one-fifth of households' financial assets." (Investment Company Institute)

Will New Rules Increase 401(k) Costs?
"[One CEO of a firm that] administers 401(k) plans for small companies, says that if the bill becomes law, his costs might rise by at least 5% -- and plan sponsors' costs would go up, too." (cfo.com)

Year-End Bonuses for San Diego Retirees Have Grown Over the Years
"Retired city workers have received $73.5 mil.lion in bonus checks over the past 27 years under a policy that requires the San Diego pension system to make the payments in years with higher investment returns." (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The Pension Crisis: Promises Unkept
"'Across the United States there is a difference of $3 tril.lion between the amount of money that we have promised public employees and the amount that has been set aside,' said Joshua Rauh, who teaches finance at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management." (CBS Interactive Inc.)

Too Many Workers Focus on One Aspect of Retirement
"If you want to maximize the standard of living that can be supported by your resources in retirement, focus on controlling risk and neutralizing threats. That's because downside surprises tend to do more damage to retirement cash flow than upside surprises do to improve it." (Gannett Government Media Corp.)

Cincinnati Pension Crisis at 'Turning Point'
"Numerous factors - unusually lucrative benefits, a calamitous 27 percent loss in the 2008 stock market meltdown, rising health costs, investment earnings that often have failed to meet an annual 8 percent goal, increasing life expectancies and years of inadequate funding by City Hall, among others - have left the $2.1 bil.lion pension system in a $1 bil.lion long-term hole." (CommunityPress.Com)

Final Settlement of Ford Stock Suit Dictates Plan Provisions
"[T]he settlement called for non-monetary concessions for plan participants. Ford will provide free financial advice for four years to hourly and salaried retirees and employees who invested in Ford stock since April 2000 [along with other education and communication provisions]." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Improved Funding Required for COLA under Oklahoma Pension Measure
"Committee members also approved legislation that would replace the defined benefit plans for new statewide officials and members of the Legislature with an existing state 401(k)-style defined contribution plan called Save Oklahoma . . . ." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

ERIC Argues Stock Drop Dismissal Should Stand on Appeal
"ERIC took that position in a friend of the court brief . . . in Sewright v. ING Groep, NV, et al., which is an appeal of the lower court decision. Plaintiffs had argued ING should have no longer allowed stock purchases from within its retirement savings plan since the share price had dropped significantly as a result of the economic downturn." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Public Pension Fight Surfaces in California
"[The governor] wants the legislature to authorize a ballot initiative that would ask voters to approve the extension of a temporary tax increase as part of his plan to deal with the state's deficit. But some businesses say they won't support a tax referendum unless [he] agrees to tackle a public-employee pension overhaul as part of his fix." (The Wall Street Journal)

Retiring Boomers Find 401(k) Plans Fall Short
"The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account has less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to maintain its standard of living in retirement . . . ." (The Wall Street Journal)

Comparing Missouri's Past and Present Pension Plans
"The new plan applies to state employees hired for the first time on or after Jan. 1, 2011." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Illinois Governor May Ask Feds to Back State's Pension Debt
"The $3.7 bil.lion in bonds [the governor] wants to use to pay the state pension fund were supposed to go on sale Thursday, but the transaction has been scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. The likelihood that the federal government would back the debt is small, since Republicans have hinted that they would oppose that kind of support." (Crain Communications, Inc.)

[Opinion]
Despite Public Pension Lobbyists' Claims to the Contrary, Here's the True Cost of Pension Plans to Taxpayers
"The argument, which has made the rounds through the public pension community, is that public employers -- and hence the taxpayers -- only contribute about 20 percent of the cost of public pensions." (Governing)

[Opinion]
How Public Pensions Killed Progressive California
"California's state and local governments employ somewhere between 1.5 mil.lion and 2 mil.lion workers, representing 4 percent to 5 percent of the state's total population. When they retire, all of those employees are contractually entitled to generous pension benefits -- so generous that, collectively, they can't be paid even by a pension system that ladles out more than $20 bil.lion a year and is one of the largest investment pools on Wall Street." (Reason Magazine)

[Opinion]
Study Gives Bad Advice on State Pensions
"All these reports grossly overstate public pensions' unfunded liabilities. They have fueled hysteria about pension costs pushing governments to the brink of insolvency and default. And they've been exploited by politicians who despise public employee unions and their defined-benefit plans, and want to entrust families' retirement security to Wall Street's good graces." (San Jose Mercury News)

Don’t Miss Pensions & Investments 401(k) Investment Lineup Summit (advert.)

Join P&I and an elite group of your peers for this informative conference that will provide the most up-to-date thinking on how to best design a DC investment lineup and present you with valuable networking opportunities. Plan sponsors attend FREE.

[Guidance Overview]
State Law Determines Whether a Tribal Court Domestic Relations Order Can Be a QDRO
"ERISA does not require that a domestic relations order be issued by a state court; rather, it requires that the order be authorized by a state authority that the state recognizes as empowered to achieve a division of property under state domestic relations law." (Thomson Reuters/EBIA)

Secunda on Wisconsin's Public Union Bill
"[Professor Paul Secunda also questions] whether this really has anything to do with the state budget--a question that has particular weight given that the governor just last month pushed through a large tax break package." (Workplace Prof Blog)

Strapped for Money, Some Municipalities in California Skirting Law and Using Redevelopment Funds to Pay Salaries and Benefits
"[The governor] wants to shut down the state's approximately 400 municipal redevelopment agencies and send much of the $5 bil.lion in property taxes they take in each year to schools, counties and the state instead." (Los Angeles Times)

Wisconsin Leads Way As Workers Fight State Cuts to Bargaining Rights and Benefits
"In many states, Republicans who came to power in the November elections, often by defeating union-backed Democrats, are taking aim not only at union wages, but at union power as they face budget gaps in the years ahead." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)

[Opinion]
A Seminal Showdown Between Public Unions and Taxpayers in Wisconsin
"The reality is that the unions are trying to trump the will of the voters as overwhelmingly rendered in November when they elected Mr. Walker and a new legislature. As with the strikes against pension or labor reforms that routinely shut down Paris or Athens, the goal is to create enough mayhem that Republicans and voters will give up." (The Wall Street Journal)

PBGC Moves to Protect Pensions at Relizon Co.
(Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC))

ERIC Urges Appeals Court to Uphold District Court’s Dismissal of “Stock Drop” Case
(ERIC (ERISA Industry Committee))

Building Wealth: The Web's 10 Best Tools For Reaching Your Financial Goals Through Saving
(Alliance for Investor Education)

ING Encourages Americans to Save the 2% FICA Tax Reduction into their Workplace Retirement Plan
(ING Retirement Services)

PlanServe Data Systems' Pension Portal Selected by Administaff
(PlanServe Data Systems)

DALBAR Releases Report on Retirement Plan Statements
(DALBAR)

Listen to the New IRA/ Roth IRA Rules or Your Loved Ones Could Lose Money
(Odin, Feldman & Pittleman)

ASPPA

Benefits Manager in OH for Western & Southern Financial Group

Director of Benefits Compliance-IRC15207 in VA for NRECA

Onsite Participant Counselor in CA for Diversified Investment Advisors, Inc.

Benefits Manager (SF)(Job ID: 21686) in CA for Morrison & Foerster LLP

Benefits Analyst (Health & Welfare) (Job ID: 21773) in CA for Morrison & Foerster LLP

Plan Administrator - Defined Contribution Plans, PT in NJ for Retirement Strategies Group, L.L.C.

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401(k) Rekon Advisor Symposium- Dallas
in Texas on March 22, 2011 presented by 401(k) Rekon

COBRA for Rookies: Understanding the Basics to Avoid Liability
Nationwide on February 17, 2011 presented by EBIA / Thomson Reuters

Form 5500 for Health and Welfare Plans: Compliance in an Electronic World
Nationwide on March 24, 2011 presented by EBIA / Thomson Reuters