|
The ERISA Outline Book, 2011 Edition Available Now! [Advert.]
Industry bestseller! Valued by every practitioner. The ERISA Outline Book by Sal L. Tripodi, J.D., LL.M. provides everything you need to know affecting retirement plans. Subscribe online and get automatic updates!
|
|
[Guidance Overview]
Participant Advice: Plan Sponsor Liability & Responsibility
"[T]he most pertinent questions remain unanswered. Do sponsors who facilitate or offer sponsor selected participant advice increase their liability? Additionally, if they do facilitate or provide participant advisory services, what are their duties and responsibilities as fiduciaries?'
(Center for Due Diligence)
|
Video / Commentary: Women's Retirement Risks
"Richard W. Johnson, director of the Program on Retirement Policy, explains the financial and health challenges women commonly face with age, what retirement looks like for women in the 21st century, and policy recommendations to help women in their golden years."
(Urban Institute)
|
Target-Date Series Research Paper: 2011 Industry Survey (PDF)
"The 2011 Industry Survey updates much of the data from the 2010 edition while providing new features on asset allocation, performance attribution, and portfolio composition -- particularly among retirement-income funds, the terminal funds in many target-date series."
(Morningstar, Inc.)
|
Target-Date Funds Win Assets as Criticism Abates
"Morningstar's 2011 Target-Date Series Research Paper, an annual look at broad trends across target-date funds, found that target-date funds saw healthy inflows in 2010 relative to other mutual fund categories."
(Morningstar, Inc.)
|
|
|
Tougher 401(k) Rules Seen As 'Full Employment Act' for RIAs
"As the Labor Department prepares to issue stricter rules for the retirement fund industry, financial advisers at RIA firms are licking their chops over the prospect of poaching business from broker-dealers and insurance agents."
(Investment News; free registration required)
|
|
|
Oklahoma Pension Commission Recommends Nixing Unfunded COLAs
"The Oklahoman newspaper said for decades, benefit increases have been granted to members of the retirement systems without those benefits being funded by the Legislature. Just eliminating the assumed 2% cost-of-living raises will save the state's pension plans $5 bil.lion over 25 to 30 years . . . ."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
|
ASPPA Recommends Streamlined Participant Communications
"Specifically, ASPPA said the [Treasury] Department should combine and integrate required notices where possible, coordinate timing requirements so that participants do not receive multiple notices on various topics throughout the year, and coordinate with [DOL] to eliminate duplicative disclosures."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
|
Retirement Landscape Shift Creates Disproportionate Benefits, According to GAO
"According to the report, about 92% of newly formed plans in the period between 2003 and the end of 2007 were defined contribution . . . plans, with the rest being defined benefit . . . plans. . . . The GAO said the benefits of new DB plans disproportionately benefit workers at a few types of professional firms."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
|
|
GAO Report: Some Key Features of Private Pensions Lead to an Uneven Distribution of Benefits
"Despite sizeable tax incentives, private pension participation has remained at about 50 percent of the workforce. For those in a pension plan, there is concern that these incentives accrue primarily to higher income employees and do relatively little to help lower income workers save for retirement. The financial crisis and labor-market downturn may have exacerbated these difficulties."
(U.S. Government Accountability Office)
|
2011 ESOP Legal Update
The 2011 ESOP Legal Update, available in print and PDF formats, covers judicial, regulatory, and legislative developments in 2010 and into early 2011 affecting ESOPs and 401(k) plans that invest in company stock.
(National Center for Employee Ownership)
|
|
|
Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
|
[Guidance Overview]
A Discussion of Common 409A Errors
"In the April 2011 edition of the Trucker Huss Benefits Report, attorneys from the firm list some common Internal Revenue Code Section 409A errors."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
|
[Guidance Overview]
Federal Tax and Benefit Implications of Civil Unions
"In this post, we [address the ways in which the Delaware's Civil Union and Equality Act of 2011, which will become effective on January 1, 2012,] may or may not affect employers whose benefit structure is governed by federal law."
(Delaware Employment Law Blog)
|
FASB Committee to Discuss Disclosure of Employer Participation in a Multiemployer Plan
"The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board . . . Private Company Financial Reporting Committee will hold a meeting on Thursday, May 5, 2011 [to discuss] a variety of topics including the disclosures about an employer's participation in a multiemployer plan. The meeting will be available by audio webcast. A meeting preregistration form is available."
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)
|
|
The Aging of America, as Opportunity
"In 'The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife' . . ., Marc Freedman argues that we need a 'new map of life' to deal with this powerful demographic change."
(The New York Times; free registration required)
|
Fifth Annual Study of Employee Benefits: (PDF)
"Once again, the [Study] explores the attitudes and opinions of key industry constituencies to provide a perspective on past trends, current issues, and insights into trends that will shape the employee benefits landscape over the next five years."
(The Prudential Insurance Company of America)
|
ERIC Suggestions for Reducing Regulatory Burdens
"The ERISA Industry Committee . . . urged the Treasury Department to be more responsive to easing the regulatory burden on sponsors of benefit plans in order to ensure that companies continue to provide health and retirement benefits."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
|
[Opinion]
A Tale of Two Futures: Retirement Income, and Retirement Health Benefits
"The future of retirement income in America is really about a psychological adjustment to a more realistic set of compound interest calculations. For those with poorly funded retirement plans, the required adjustment can be summed up with just one word: 'more.' More resources are needed in retirement -- whether from saving at a higher rate, working longer, or a combination of the two."
(The Vanguard Group, Inc.)
|
Press Releases
|