statistics counter
To BenefitsLink home page

BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter

View all employee benefits jobs on EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com
April 8, 2011 Get Health & Welfare News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

[Official Guidance]
Text of IRS Update for Weighted Average Interest Rates, Yield Curves, and Segment Rates (PDF)
"Updates for the corporate bond weighted average interest rate for plan years beginning in April 2011; the 24-month average segment rates; the funding transitional segment rates applicable for April 2011; and the minimum present value transitional rates for March 2011." (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)


The IRS in Your Backyard!

Sponsored by ASPPA

Come discuss employee benefits issues with industry colleagues and local, regional and national experts from the IRS, DOL and the private sector. Programs focus on current regulatory, legislative, administrative and actuarial topics.


[Guidance Overview]
IRS Revision of Form 5500 Schedules MB and SB
"Plan administrators, plan sponsors and employers that file Schedule MB (Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plan and Certain Money Purchase Plan Actuarial Information) and Schedule SB (Single-Employer Defined Benefit Plan Actuarial Information) to the Form 5500 will be filing revised versions of those schedules. The IRS on April 5 announced that it has made technical revisions to the schedules." (Thompson Publishing Group)

[Guidance Overview]
Final FBAR Regulations Offer Some Relief For Plan Sponsors, but Filing Obligations Remain
"June 30, 2011 is the deadline for FBAR filings required for the 2010 calendar year and any applicable prior years. Plan sponsors should review plan investments for the existence of foreign financial accounts to determine filing obligations." (McDermott Will & Emery)

[Guidance Overview]
A Primer on ERISA Lawsuits Seeking Relief Based on Alleged Violations of the FLSA
"[This] article examines the viability of 'hybrid' lawsuits in which plaintiffs seek relief for alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, while also asserting that the alleged compensation errors deprived them of the full value of ERISA plan benefits, thus giving rise to an ERISA claim for breach of fiduciary duty." (Proskauer Rose LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
The ERISA Litigation Newsletter, April 2011
"[Highlighted is] the Renfro v. Unisys class action pending before the Third Circuit. The Renfro plaintiffs challenged the reasonableness of retail mutual funds as 401(k) plan investment options, as well as the applicability of the Section 404(c) defense to fiduciary breach claims." (Proskauer Rose LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
Repayment and Full Distribution to Plan Participants Did Not Excuse Company's Failure to Timely Remit 401(k) Elective Deferrals
"Prior to addressing the conditions of 18 U.S.C. 664, the court dispensed with the argument that there was insufficient evidence of criminal intent to support the convictions. The claim that a party was only 'borrowing' funds from a plan and intended to repay the amounts is not a defense to embezzlement or conversion, the court stressed." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)

Impact of the Financial Crisis on Retirement Plans Through 2008
"To quantify how the stock market collapse affected participants and plan sponsors early in the financial crisis, we look at the Form 5500 series for the 2007 and 2008 file years and compare pension financials at year-end 2007 with those at year-end 2008. We also use historical Form 5500 data for years 1975 to 2008 to examine long-term trends." (Towers Watson)

401(k) Distribution Annuities: Its Just Not About 'GMWB'
"[T]here is a whole range of 'living benefits' beyond ['guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits'] which may be appropriate for distribution under a 401(k) plan." (Robert J. Toth, Jr)

Funding a New Business With a 401(k)
A Rollover as Business Startup, or ROBS, is a little-known and somewhat controversial tax move. 401(k) participants can fund an enterprise without paying early-withdrawal penalties. (SmartMoney)

Tax-Saving Tips to Retirement Plan Participants
"Rising taxes were cited as the biggest investment concern by 37 percent of respondents with annual incomes below $50,000, followed by inflation and market volatility, according to The Hartford's 2011 Taxes and Investment Study . . . ." (401khelpcenter.com)

Seeing Through the Pension Transparency Act
"[Paul] Zorn concludes that rather than providing meaningful measures, the proposed legislation could create a distorted picture of pension liabilities, driven largely by changes in the 30-year Treasury bond yields and, rather than providing transparency, the measures would likely create confusion among decision-makers, potentially leading to abandonment of public pension plans." (Cypen & Cypen)

California Governments Continued to Enhance Pensions Amid Economic Collapse
"A state oversight panel has identified about 180 local governments that increased pension benefits at a time when the state's unemployment rate was rising, housing prices were falling and the nation's banking system was in crisis." (Los Angeles Times)

Having Second Thoughts About Your Roth IRA Conversion?
"Recharacterization is the tax-law equivalent of a second chance. You can undo the conversion, transfer the converted amounts and earnings back to a traditional IRA, and eliminate any taxes you may owe -- as though the conversion never occurred." (The Vanguard Group, Inc.)

Reporting on Pensions: The Discount Rate Makes All the Difference
"The problem with underfunding a public-sector pension scheme is twofold. First, it assumes that the employer will be able to make larger contributions in future to fill the hole, which may be unrealistic. Second, if a fund has to sell assets at market lows to pay benefits, it will not be able to take full advantage of market rebounds." (The Economist)

[Opinion]
Public Pension Fund Opportunities to Invest in Venture Capital
"[T]here is both a need for, and a shortage of, investment capital willing to make long-term investments in start-up and mezzanine companies. That tells me there is a solid investment theme for public pension funds to pursue: Investing now in viable venture capital deals that will likely pay off later in this business cycle or the next one." (Governing)

[Opinion]
FINRA's Back Door Regulation of Fiduciaries
"FINRA has had ample opportunity over the years to integrate a fiduciary duty into its existing rules without waiting for Congress to act." (fi360 Blog)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

Review of Effects of Annual Changes in Interest Rates, Social Security Figures and Thrift Savings Plan Limits
The article covers Federal salary issues, Social Security figures, Federal retirement plans, and Medicare changes. (Government Executive)

[Opinion]
Why Should Social Insurance Reform Not Affect Those Over Age 54?
"If seniors are receiving tens of thousands of dollars more than what they paid in for Medicare, then they should not be allowed to hide behind the tired old argument of being too old to bear any adjustment cost. Indeed, seniors hold most of the nation's assets and a progressive-minded reform would ask them to fork over a small share to relieve the financial burden that must otherwise be imposed on young workers and future generations." (Cato Institute)

Press Releases

Employee Benefits Jobs

Employee Benefits Attorney in IL for Aon Hewitt

Health Actuarial Position in GA for Swerdlin & Company

Post Your Job on EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com

View All Jobs

RSS feed for jobs RSS Feed: All Jobs


Webcasts and Conferences

Federal Health Care Reform Continues to Make Headlines
in California on April 19, 2011 presented by Western Pension & Benefits Conference, San Diego Chapter


Subscribe to the free BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter, Too!


This email has been published by:
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park FL 32789
(407) 644-4146
Fax: (407) 644-2151

Jeanette Hull, News Editor
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
dbaker@benefitslink.com

Copyright 2011 BenefitsLink.com, Inc., but feel free to forward this newsletter in its entirety.

Useful links: