[Guidance Overview]
The Presumption of Prudence Persists: In re UBS ERISA Litigation
"Most recently, the Southern District of New York found that the fiduciaries of two UBS retirement plans were entitled to the Moench presumption of prudence regarding their decision to continue to offer the UBS stock fund to employees after the firm suffered serious financial losses at the beginning of the financial crisis."
(Verrill Dana, LLP)
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Eliminate Mail Merge Hassle! [Advert.]
Another reason to use ASCi's Document System (DGEM)! The System automatically finds all your Safe Harbor plans, then simultaneously produces the notices with their pre-populated cover letters, without any mail merges! See how in this 1 minute video.
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IRS Starts 403(b) Universal Availability Higher Education Project Check
"The project, which builds upon a similarly focused 403(b) pilot project involving K-12 public schools, focuses on higher education organizations sponsoring [IRC] section 403(b) plans and their satisfaction of Universal Availability . . . non-discrimination rules and new plan document requirements."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
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Rule 408(b)(2) Amendments 'Fully Drafted' at DOL
"'Right now, the amendments are effective January 1, 2012. Since the probable purpose of the rumored extension -- if true -- is the late issuance of these amendments, it is reasonable to assume that the new effective date would be somewhere in the range of April 1 to July 1, 2012.'"
(AdvisorOne)
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When Smaller Menus are Better: Variability in Menu-Setting Ability and 401(k) Plans
"We illustrate this result [a negative relation between menu size and menu quality, i.e., a smaller menu is better than a larger menu] empirically in the context of 401(k) plans, where we show a negative relation between the number of the investment choices in the 401(k) plan and the quality of optimal portfolio achievable given those investment choices."
(President and Fellows of Harvard College)
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The AARP 401(k) Fee Calculator
"This calculator can: Help determine the fees associated with individual plans and compares them to the average for a low-cost 401(k) investor. [Free registration is required.]"
(AARP)
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Should Social Security's Cost-of-Living Adjustment Be Changed?
"Some recent deficit reduction proposals call for shifting to a chained CPI to determine the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security. Others call for using a special price index for the elderly to adjust benefits. This fact sheet examines the consequences of each change on beneficiaries' incomes, program costs, and the economic security of older Americans."
(National Academy of Social Insurance)
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[Opinion]
The Flushing Effect of the 403(b) Connection Between 408(b)(2), Participant Disclosures and Plan Audits
"So it is with a potential impact 408(b)(2) may have on many 501(c)(3) sponsors of ERISA 403(b) plans. It shows up when you take an 403(b) ERISA plan, impose a fundamentally new set of basic principles (by way of the 2007 403(b) tax regulations); revoke its exemptive relief from reporting requirements (the Form 5500); while nearly simultaneously superimposing a tremendous new disclosure scheme (participant and service provider disclosures); there are inevitably going to be some unusual results."
(Business of Benefits published by Robert J. Toth, Jr)
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[Opinion]
The Impact of Federal Budget Deficits on Your Retirement Income
"If your tax bracket during your working years had been in the 28% or higher brackets, you just received a nice tax benefit for waiting to pay taxes. But what if the brackets went up? [Let's look at Theoretical Increased Taxes on a $1 Mil.lion Portfolio . . . .]"
(Retirement Online LLC)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
Proposed SEC Rules Implementing Compensation Committee Independence Requirements
"Neither Dodd-Frank nor the proposed rules would require a public company to have a compensation committee. However, as a practical matter, most public companies already do have compensation committees in order to comply with existing SRO listing requirements, Section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code."
(McguireWoods LLP)
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Press Releases
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