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May 6, 2011 Get Health & Welfare News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

[Official Guidance]
Draft of IRS Form 8955-SSA: Annual Registration Statement Identifying Separated Participants With Deferred Vested Benefits (PDF)
"This is an advance proof copy of an IRS tax form. It is subject to change and OMB approval before it is officially released." (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)


What Does OPR Require of ERPAs? [Advert.]

Sponsored by AIRE, LLC

Live at the ERPA Conference, June 2-3 in LA: Karen Hawkins, Dir. IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, answers ALL your questions about obtaining and maintaining the ERPA credential - continuing ed., OPR requirements, ethics expectations, more!


[Official Guidance]
Text of IRS Notice 2011-41: 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 May 2011; the 24-month average segment rates; the funding transitional segment rates applicable for May 2011; and the minimum present value transitional rates for April 2011.'Update for Weighted Average Interest Rates, Yield Curves, and Segment Rates (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[Guidance Overview]
IRS Guidance on Public Sector Defined Contribution Plans
"Over the past several months, the [IRS] has published helpful guidance on two important issues for governmental plans: Revenue Ruling 2011-7 clarifies certain issues related to the termination of § 403(b) plans. Revenue Ruling 2010-27 provides additional examples of permissible 'unforeseeable emergency' distributions from a § 457(b) plan." (The Segal Group, Inc.)

[Guidance Overview]
Plan Participants Denied Share of Motorola Securities Suit Settlement
"The events underlying the securities-fraud case spawned parallel class-action litigation filed by current and former Motorola employees under [ERISA]." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Defined Contribution Plan Participation and Contributions by Earnings Levels Using Administrative Data (PDF)
"[W]e find that workers in the lower part of the earnings distribution are less likely to participate in a DC plan, and the contribution rates for those who do participate are lower than those for workers with higher earnings." (U.S. Social Security Administration)

Who Never Receives Social Security Benefits? (PDF)
"We estimate that about 4 percent of individuals aged 62-84 in 2010 will never receive Social Security benefits. This article describes the prevalence, demographic characteristics, and economic well-being of this group." (U.S. Social Security Administration)

The Governance Components of the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust (PDF)
"This article reviews management and governance aspects of the NRRIT as they relate to its political independence by focusing on the Trust's legal status, mandate, governing board characteristics, investment policy, and oversight. If Social Security were to adopt such an investment policy, examining the NRRIT's design and experience in these areas could provide useful guidance." (U.S. Social Security Administration)

California Teachers' Pensions Fall Short of Other Public Workers' Pensions, According to Study
"The study found that public school teachers' retirement benefits -- at least the part taxpayers pay for -- are smaller than those of virtually any other type of public employee, despite frequent claims that teachers' pensions are excessive and diverting precious dollars from education and other essential government services." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Even Beneficiary Designation Forms Can Create Significant Issues for Benefit Administration
"Employee benefit administrators, 401(k) vendors, recordkeepers and benefits professionals regularly recommend that participants in qualified retirement plans periodically review and update their beneficiary designation forms." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Website: Financial Security Project at Boston College
"The Financial Security Project was established in 2009 through a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration and is an initiative of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Our mission is to help people make smart decisions throughout their lives so they are financially secure at retirement." (Center for Financial Security at Boston College)

How Business Officers Use Expanded Fiduciary Responsibilities to Improve Benefits (PDF)
"Most plans at independent schools are in excellent shape in two of five critical investment fiduciary functions: high enrollment and appropriate contribution rates. However, there is often a need for improvement in plan asset allocation, plan income preparation, and in helping the board understand its responsibilities." (Net Assets magazine, a publication of the National Business Officers Association)

Five Things You Must Be Aware of as a Plan Fiduciary
"Knowing that you ARE a fiduciary is, obviously, the first thing you need to be aware of, because there are legal requirements that need to be followed. Many fiduciaries do not know that by not following the basic standards of conduct, they are likely to be personally liable to restore any losses to the plan." (401khelpcenter.com)

Assessment of Retirement Plan Coverage by Firm Size, Using W-2 Tax Records (PDF)
"Interestingly, although substantial differences exist in pension coverage and participation by firm size, employees in small firms are not that different with respect to take-up of pension plans than their counterparts in large firms. Finally, after correcting for reporting error, a substantially larger proportion of workers in small firms have access to some type of pension than commonly believed based on survey reports." (U.S. Social Security Administration)

Hearing on the Transparency and Funding of State and Local Pension Plans, May 5, 2011
"The hearing [focused] on the measurement and transparency of funding levels of State and local pension plans and will explore whether improvements to those plans' actuarial assumptions - and enhanced transparency in the reporting of the financial health of those plans - are warranted. Among the approaches to these issues that the Subcommittee will review is H.R. 567." (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means)

Experts See Problem for San Francisco in Union Pension 'Smoothing' Proposal
"In a final push to get a consensus pension-reform measure on the ballot this fall, San Francisco's public-employee unions are lobbying hard for a change in accounting procedures that experts say is legally dubious and would cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars in the long run." (The New York Times; free registration required)

College and University Retirement Plans New IRS Target
"Over 300 large, small, public, and private higher education institutions will receive a 21-item questionnaire from the IRS." (Constangy, Brooks & Smith, LLP)

State Pension Deficits Big Challenge for Budget Shortfalls
"[The article author talked] with pension plan expert and lawyer Marica Wagner on what kind of options states can do to right their lopsided pension balance sheets." (CNBC.com)

Tour Golfers Said to Have the Best Pension Plan in Sports
"The Tour plan is a weird bit of machinery. It most benefits the already prosperous, promising to pay players who have made a bundle an even bigger bundle when they retire." (TI Golf Holdings Inc.)

Pension Plans' Funding Ratios Keep Rising, Reports Say
"The typical U.S. corporate defined benefit pension plan's funding ratio improved 0.7 percentage points to 89.2% in April, according to BNY Mellon Asset Management. The funding ratio has improved 4.9 percentage points since Dec. 31." (Pensions & Investments; free registration required)

Atlanta Public Pension Fund Documents Missing from City Hall
"Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is proposing major changes in the city's three pension funds -- for police, firefighters and general employees. The city approved generous increases for all three funds in 2001 and 2005, but most of the documents that were legally required before those changes could be approved -- are now nowhere to be found." (WSBTV)

California Fight Over Cost of Public Sector Pensions Intensifies
"California's largest companies spend less than a third of what the state government spends on pensions and other benefits for retired workers, a [new study concludes] . . . ." (Reuters)

[Opinion]
Can Anglocentrism Save Social Security?
"Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that The Century Foundation and other progressive institutions mislead the public when we note that U.S. Social Security benefit levels rank near the bottom among the public pensions of economically advanced countries." (The Century Foundation)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

Electronic Disclosure of Benefit Plan Information
"Over the years, clients have conveyed their frustrations with the current safe harbor rules on electronic disclosure, stating while that they have the technology to efficiently and adequately deliver electronic information to participants, the safe harbor limitations effectively prevented them from doing so." (Miller & Chevalier Chartered)

Delaware Governor Signs Legislation Designed to Reign in State Retiree Pension and Health Care Costs
"The Newark (Delaware) Post reports that the legislation requires future state employees to pay 5% instead of 3% of their salary towards their pension after the first $6000 earned and increases the time required to be vested in the state pension system." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

New Resource: Mortality and Other Rate Tables
There are 944 tables starting with the year 1941. (Society of Actuaries)

Press Releases


Employee Benefits Jobs

Employee Benefits Associate Attorney
for Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, LLP in NC

Retirement Plan Administrator
for Caras & Shulman, PC - Certified Public Accountants - Business Advisors in MA

Client Service Manager
for J.P. Morgan in CO, IL, KS

Communications Manager
for Financial Engines in MA

VP, Client Services
for Prudential in PA

Operations Manager, Defined Benefit Calculations Team
for Prudential in CT

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Webcasts and Conferences

New Final Regulations on ADA Amendments Act w/ Craig J. Davidson, CEBS
Nationwide on May 12, 2011 presented by FutureOffice Network

Re-engineering Your Retirement Plan for the 21st Century
in Illinois on June 7, 2011 presented by Plan Sponsor Advisors


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David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
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