[Guidance Overview]
IRS's New Form 8955-SSA
"Without any direction from the IRS, some plan administrators have submitted a Schedule SSA to the IRS for the 2009 plan year. To avoid the need to resubmit the information, the IRS will treat a Schedule SSA filed with 2009 or 2010 plan information no later than April 20, 2011, as satisfying the reporting requirement."
(SunGard Relius)
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DATAIR Defined Contribution Plan Software (advert.)
Software for proposals, compliance testing, statements and periodic administration for "DC" plans. System handles 401(k), Profit Sharing (including Cross Testing), 403(b), ESOP, and NQ plans. Cost-effective PC-based system for TPAs and consultants.
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Guidance Defines Readily Tradable Employer Securities Held by Retirement Plans
"The notice is effective for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2012. However, the notice is not effective until plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2013, for any employer-sponsored plan with respect to which, as of March 14, 2011, neither the employer nor any member of its controlled group has any common stock that is readily tradable on an established securities market . . . ."
(Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
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ASPPA Clarifies Its Position on 'Definition of Fiduciary' Proposed DOL Regulation
"Recently, several articles have misconstrued ASPPA's position on the DOL's proposed regulation that would modify the definition of 'fiduciary' for purposes of providing investment advice to retirement plans. ASPPA and its affiliated organizations, the Council of Independent 401(k) Recordkeepers (CIkR), and the National Association of Independent Retirement Plan Advisors (NAIRPA) would like to clarify that they strongly support the DOL's efforts to update the regulation and by doing so, provide plan fiduciaries with the necessary information to understand what type of recommendations they are receiving."
(American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA))
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Annuities Offer Steady Income and Big Drawbacks
"What has limited the appeal of annuities is that they require investors to make a decision about their financial future that is difficult, sometimes impossible, to change later."
(Bloomberg BusinessWeek)
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Are Target Date Funds a Bad Idea? (PDF)
"The most common complaint about TDFs is generally expressed as follows, 'No fund based solely on years-to-retirement can be the best investment strategy for every participant with the same number of years to retirement.'"
(Target Date Analytics LLC)
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A Brief History of Target Date Funds (PDF)
"The first target date funds were introduced in March of 1994 by Wells Fargo and Barclays Global Investors -- the two firms had some departments in common back then and when they separated Wells Fargo continued to use BGI for their glidepath management. It's important to understand why they created these funds."
(Target Date Analytics LLC)
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Public Pension Changes Approved by New Mexico House
"Under the legislation, there would be a minimum retirement age of 55 for state and local government workers, and a worker's age and years of work experience would have to total at least 80 to retire with full benefits . . . ."
(PLANSPONSOR)
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Oklahoma Senate Approves Changes to Teachers Retirement System
"Bloomberg reports the bill increases the number of years a new teacher must work to become eligible to participate in the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System . . . from five to eight years. It also increases from 62 to 65 the age at which a new teacher would become eligible for retirement."
(PLANSPONSOR)
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Florida House Bill Would Raise Retirement Age for State Workers
"A House committee rewrote Gov. Rick Scott's pension reform plan Thursday by raising the retirement age of all workers, including police officers and firefighters, and rejecting his call for ending defined pensions for new workers."
(St. Petersburg Times)
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[Opinion]
Video Commentary on States, State Workers, and Pensions
"[A] senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center [explains] the reality of a typical state pension, how states are talking about reforming pensions, and the risks posed to the economic security of new, veteran, and retired state employees, as well as states themselves."
(Urban Institute)
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[Opinion]
State and Local Government Pension Reformers Shift Focus to Current Employees
"Reform for current employees is unavoidable and necessary. Authors and analysts for both the California and Pennsylvania reports have come to the conclusion long held in my columns: The stock market alone cannot save today's pension funds from the $800 bil.lion in underfunding problems that they have accumulated from overly generous benefits increases, a decade of stock-market underperformance, and employer underfunding."
(Governing)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Comparing CEO to Worker Pay Too Costly, Firms Tell SEC
"As part of the Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul, public companies including those with global operations like United Parcel Service Inc. and McDonald's Corp. eventually will have to work out what they pay each employee . . . ."
(Yahoo! Finance)
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Ohio's Collective Bargaining Law's Proposed Overhaul Called a 'Nightmare'
"The bill would . . . outlaw strikes by all public employees, limit discussions at the negotiating table to wages and terms and conditions of employment, require employees to pay at least 15 percent of their health insurance benefits, and prohibit governments from picking up part of an employee's share of pension contributions."
(Toledo Blade)
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[Opinion]
The Dilemmas of Entitlement Reform
"There's a bipartisan consensus that the only politically plausible path to entitlement reform requires maintaining the existing level of benefits for current retirees, and then easing the system in a more sustainable direction for the under-55 population."
(The New York Times; free registration required)
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Press Releases
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