[Official Guidance]
IRS Retirement News for Employers, Winter 2011 Edition, February 23, 2011
The newsletter contains information on: Pre-Approved Retirement Plans; Fixing Common Plan Mistakes - SIMPLE IRA Sponsors with a Related Business; Procedures to correct plan failures if you are part of a controlled or affiliated service group; Webinar - Plans for Small Businesses (April 7, 2011); How to start and operate a low-maintenance retirement plan; Compliance Checks; and the Latest 401(k) Questionnaire Developments.
(U.S. Internal Revenue Service)
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2011 NIPA Annual Forum & Expo (advert.)
The 2011 NIPA Annual Forum & Expo provides timely information on all aspects of the retirement plan industry including impacts of recent legislation, industry trends and practical tools to help you advance your pension administration knowledge.
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[Guidance Overview]
New IRS Guidance on Section 403(b) Plan Terminations
"With regard to individual annuity contracts, the employer must issue or distribute the actual contracts to participants and beneficiaries upon termination, although a participant or beneficiary can wait to receive payments from such contracts."
(Ballard Spahr LLP)
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The Economics of State and Local Public Pensions
"[The authors] discuss the large degree to which public pension liabilities exceed the assets set aside to fund them. [They] summarize issues related to the optimality of pre-funding, portfolio allocation, the discounting of liabilities, as well as how plans operate in practice."
(National Bureau of Economic Research; paid subscription or individual purchase required to retrieve fulltext)
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PBGC Gets Funding Agreement for Chicken of the Sea Plan
"Under the agreement, the company will pay $3.7 mil.lion to the Retirement Plan for COS Samoa Packing Company Production Employees over the next three years. The payments exceed the company's required plan contributions."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
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Financial Literacy Research Consortium Annual Conference 2010
"These videos offer the presentations of the first annual conference of the Financial Literacy Research Consortium, entitled New Insights and Advances in Financial Literacy: Translation, Dissemination, Change. The event on Nov. 18 and 19, 2010 brought together scholars from the Consortium to present their work and discuss how programs, educational products, and policies can best promote financial planning and financial security."
(RAND)
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The Mayor of San Jose, California, Facing Down the Budget Gap
"In an interview, [the mayor, Chuck Reed] discussed the fiscal crisis and how he hopes to address it: WSJ: Why does San Jose have such a big budget gap? Mr. Reed: Expenses are going up faster than revenues. Expenses are driven by skyrocketing costs for retirement benefits. Revenues are essentially flat."
(The Wall Street Journal)
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New 401(k) Obligations for Company CFOs
"CFOs must evaluate the information to ensure that all plan fees are reasonable and there are no conflicts of interest with any plan service providers, and to ensure that any of the information that must be furnished to plan participants and beneficiaries . . . is provided timely and in the proper format."
(cfo.com)
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Lawmakers Backing Away from Florida Governor's Stringent Pension Reform Plans
"Besides the mandatory contributions - which Scott said would save state and local governments $1.3 bil.lion next year - and closing the 'defined benefit' plan, Scott would also eliminate the annual 3-percent cost-of-living adjustments for new retirees and reduce the annual service credit, which determines an employee's percentage of salary paid at retirement."
(Orlando Sentinel)
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[Opinion]
The Scamming of Unions and Public Employees
"Government workers have long accepted a tradeoff. They get lower pay than they might get in the private sector, but better retirement benefits. They give up some current luxuries for more security later on."
(Chicago Tribune)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Does Tax Policy Affect Executive Compensation? Evidence from Postwar Tax Reforms
"[The authors] explore several potential explanations for the conflicting impressions given by the long-run and short-run correlations between taxes and pay, including changes in social norms and concerns about pay equality."
(National Bureau of Economic Research; paid subscription or individual purchase required to retrieve fulltext)
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SSA's Annual Statistical Supplement, 2010
This data resource covers the nation's social insurance and welfare programs: Social Security; Supplemental Security Income; Medicare; Medicaid; Unemployment Insurance; Workers' Compensation; Temporary Disability Insurance; Black Lung Benefits; and, Veterans' Benefits.
(U.S. Social Security Administration)
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Profiles of Significant Collective Bargaining Disputes of 2010
"This article presents the most recent labor statistics available on major work stoppages and discusses the collective bargaining issues surrounding three significant work stoppages that occurred in the United States in 2010."
(U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
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What the G.ay Marriage News Means for You
"[I]t is up to the courts to decide. Only then will it become possible for, say, a legally married same-s.ex couple to get health insurance through their spouse's employer without having to pay extra taxes that a heterosexual spouse does not have to pay."
(The New York Times; free registration required)
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Department of Justice Will No Longer Defend DOMA
"U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that President Obama has made the determination that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), . . . as applied to same-s.ex couples who are legally married under state law, violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
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[Opinion]
Wisconsin's Attack on Unions Is Misguided, But That Doesn't Mean the Status Quo Is Sustainable
"Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's claim that public employee unions must be crushed in order to balance the state's budget is deeply disingenuous. Though it's true that raising workers' pension and healthcare contributions would help reduce the state's $3.6-bil.lion shortfall, that's no reason to take away collective bargaining rights on such benefits in perpetuity."
(Los Angeles Times)
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Press Releases
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