[Official Guidance]
Text of Technical Revisions to Actuarial Information on Form 5500 Annual Return/Report for Pension Plans Electing Funding Alternatives (PDF)
"This document announces that certain technical revisions to the Schedule MB (Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plan and Certain Money Purchase Plan Actuarial Information) and the Schedule SB (Single-Employer Defined Benefit Plan Actuarial Information) of the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan have been adopted in IRS Notice 2010-83 . . . and IRS Notice 2011-3 . . . to reflect funding relief alternatives retroactively available to defined benefit pension plans . . . ."
(U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)
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[Guidance Overview]
Court Won't Hit Participants for ERISA Lawyers' Fees
"A federal judge in Colorado has turned aside an employer's demand that its lawyers be paid $1.5 mil.lion in fees for litigating a cash balance plan charge that was ultimately decided in the company's favor."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Guidance for Terminating 403(b) Plans (PDF)
"In the new guidance, the IRS describes four scenarios, involving non-ERISA plans and ERISA plans, as well as assets invested in individual annuity contracts, group annuity contracts and custodial accounts. These scenarios illustrate that some additional steps are required to terminate a 403(b) plan and distribute plan benefits."
(Prudential Retirement)
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[Guidance Overview]
Final FBAR Rules: Some Retirement Plan Relief But Reporting Obligations Remain (PDF)
"Significant questions and comments have been raised regarding the extent to which FBAR reporting applies to retirement plans (through, generally, the plan's trust) and the scope of the types of foreign investments by retirement plans which could give rise to a reporting obligation on the part of the plan, the plan's participants, and the fiduciaries and other persons who provide investment-related services to the plan . . . ."
(Patterson BelknapWebb & Tyler LLP)
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[Guidance Overview]
Court Decides More Facts Needed in Stock Drop Suit
"The [District Court] ruled that the presumption of prudence is not enough to dismiss claims a company breached its [ERISA] fiduciary duties relating to offering company stock as an investment option. [The judge] noted that despite the prevalence of the presumption established in Moench v. Robertson, it is not universally accepted, and several courts have found that the application of the presumption is inappropriate at the Motion to Dismiss stage."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
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[Guidance Overview]
Bank Wins Dismissal of Company Stock Suit
"Another court has used the 'presumption of prudence' standard to rule for the employer in a case where participants allege a breach of fiduciary duty for continuing to offer company stock as a retirement plan investment during a time of corporate financial woes."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
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Presentation Available from Pension Risk and Your Retirement Briefing
"The Academy's Pension Practice Council presented a briefing, Pension Risk and Your Retirement, April 4 on Capitol Hill. Presenters Ethan Kra and Lane West addressed the risks inherent with retirement plan designs and the implications for retirement planning and public policy."
(American Academy of Actuaries)
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The 401(k) Auditor's Wish List
"As an employee benefit plan auditor with more than 18 years of experience working with hundreds of defined contribution plans, I have gone over my past interactions with plan sponsors and created a 'wish list' for the things all auditors would like from their plan sponsor clients."
(Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
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Public Pension Crisis Has Some Bracing for Worst
"Legislative ambiguity about public pension funds, as well as their underfunded status, has financial advisers who work with public employees scrambling to plug holes in their retirement plans."
(Investment News; free registration required)
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[Opinion]
Industry Group Letters to Senate and House Regarding PBGC Premiums (PDF)
"As we understand it, the Administration's proposal would grant the Executive Branch (through the PBGC Board) the authority to set and adjust the level of premiums that a retirement plan sponsor would pay. In setting those premiums, the PBGC Board would be required to take into account an employer's credit rating, despite serious questions that have been raised in recent years about the methodology used in determining such ratings, and their reliability in certain circumstances."
(American Benefits Council)
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[Opinion]
To Cut the Deficit, Look to Social Security
"The key question is how much of Social Security's financing gap should be closed by cutting benefits versus raising taxes. Some of both will be needed, but slashing benefits is dangerous because retirements are already at risk."
(The New York Times; free registration required)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
SEC's Proposed Rules for Compensation Committee Advisers
"These are critical issues to nearly all readers. However, the Proposed Rule provides very little guidance or elaboration on the statutory terms. Instead, as I noted last week, the Proposed Rule mainly repeats the provisions set forth in Sections 10C(c), (d) and (e) (added by Dodd-Frank Act Section 952) regarding . . . ."
(Michael S. Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)
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Press Releases
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