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May 11, 2011 Get Health & Welfare News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

[Official Guidance]
Text of EBSA Grant of Individual Exemptions from Certain Prohibited Transaction Restrictions (PDF)
"This document contains exemptions issued by [DOL] from certain of the prohibited transaction restrictions of [ERISA] and/or the [IRC]." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)


Attend our CE Credit Webcast: Managing Plan Forms & Notices! [Advert.]

Sponsored by ASC

Obtain CE credit while learning to mange qualified plan forms and notices – from plan inception through on-going administration and plan termination. Led by ERISA expert, John Griffin, J.D., LL.M. For more info & registration click here.


[Guidance Overview]
Form 8955-SSA: Highlights from FAQs
"The due date of both the 2009 and 2010 Form 8955-SSA is the later of (1) the unextended due date of the 2010 Form 5500 or (2) August 1, 2011." (SunGard Relius)

[Guidance Overview]
No Waiver of 60-Day IRA Rollover Limit to Help Mom
"The taxpayer requested a waiver of the 60-day limit under Rev. Proc. 2003-16, claiming that he used the IRA distribution for a short-term purpose but that he always intended to roll over the same amount back into his IRA . . . ." (Tax Management Inc.)

Social Security Benefits, Finances, and Policy Options: A Primer
"Users can download the PowerPoint presentation and sort the slides in a different order or pick and choose a subset to use. The presentation includes talking points that go with each slide. . . . The PDF versions include both the slides and the notes pages that go with them on the same page." (National Academy of Social Insurance)

Defined Contribution Plan Participants' Activities, 2010 (PDF)
"The share of participants that stopped making contributions in 2010 was significantly lower than the share that stopped contributing in 2009." (Investment Company Institute)

Is Today's Price-Earnings Ratio Too High?
"More than half of households' retirement savings are invested in stocks. During the recent financial crisis, stocks lost more than one-half their market value from the fall of 2007 to their lows in the spring of 2009." (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

Benchmarking of Retirement Plan Expenses (PDF)
"This analysis is based upon data entered into PlanTools by professionals evaluating retirement plans. The data reflected in this analysis is not from a survey - what a service provider might charge a client, but instead actually identifies what a service provider has charged a client for the categories of services listed in this analysis." (PlanTools, LLC)

California Public Pension Reform Measure Could Save Billions
"The controversial 'Public Employee Pension Reform Act' - which would 'reform the excessive pension benefits provided to current government employees' - would save billions over the long haul and give local governments more room to maneuver in tight fiscal times, according to an analysis by the Legislative Analyst." (Orange County Register Communications)

DB Sponsors Increasingly Adopting Liability-Driven Investment Strategies
"A new survey from Aon Hewitt found that pension plan sponsors are shifting their asset allocation away from domestic equities in favor of liability-matching investments in an effort to reduce plan volatility." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Amidst Retirement Exodus, NH Answers Questions on Legislation
"The New Hampshire Retirement System . . . has updated its Web site to answer inquiries about pending legislation and to correct misinformation about the financial status and overall funding of the retirement system." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Key Drivers of Investor Behavior
"This paper looks at how participants' decision-making is influenced by: Prevailing market conditions; Level of engagement and inertia; Advances in plan and investment menu design." (The Vanguard Group, Inc.)

Oklahoma Governor Signs State Pension Overhaul Bills
"The bills require, among other things, that some new public employees and teachers work longer before retiring and mandating that cost-of-living adjustments be funded by the Legislature." (CNBC LLC)

[Opinion]
Eight Facts and Three Thoughts About Social Security
"Earlier, I criticized Alan Simpson for not knowing -- and, more to the point, being actively hostile to -- accurate demographic data about Social Security, but perhaps it'd be more useful to run through some of the numbers I find it helpful to keep in mind while writing about the issue . . . ." (The Washington Post; free registration required)

[Opinion]
Discussion of Issues Attendant with Current Asset-Based Fee Structure for Retirement Plans
"One of the great ironies of asset-based fees is that they do sometimes go down, and at the most 'inconvenient' times. One need look back only as far as the fourth quarter of 2008 to remember that precipitous decline in asset values - and asset-value-based fees - at the very same time that many noted a steep increase in the 'care and feeding' of plan sponsors and participants . . . ." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

IRS 'Hot Button' Issues Put Exempt Organizations at Risk for Penalties
"The biggest area of IRS audit concentration regarding noncompliance related to governance issues for tax-exempt groups is executive compensation, according to IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner." (McguireWoods LLP)

Press Releases

William C. Grossman Receives NIPA 2011 Outstanding Volunteer Award
(National Institute of Pension Administrators)

PBGC Negotiates more than $900,000 Additional Pension Funding for Workers at EGS Electrical Group, LLC
(Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC))

Great-West Retirement Services Enhances Its Participant Website, Provides Engaging, Intuitive Resource To Help Employees Plan For Retirement
(Great-West Retirement Services)

Fidelity Reports Average 401(K) Balance Hits All-Time High Alongside Increased Participant Engagement
(Fidelity Investments)

New Website Feature, “About the Fellows", to Assist the Public in Locating Employee Benefits Counsel
(American College of Employee Benefits Counsel)

Implementation of First PROMETHEUS Payment Pilot with Physicians Underway
(Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3))

Assurant Employee Benefits to Implement GettingHired, LLC's FastTrack Return-to-Work Solutions
(GettingHired, LLC)


Employee Benefits Jobs

Principal Program Manager
for National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) in VA

Compliance Manager, Compliance Testing and Analysis
for Vanguard in PA

Defined Contribution Administrator
for Phoenix Actuarial/TPA firm in AZ

Regional Marketing Director, TPA Services
for John Hancock Financial Services in CO

ERISA Consultant
for Pension-Consultants, Inc. in MO

Post Your Job on EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com

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Webcasts and Conferences

"Fundamentals of 401(k) and Other Qualified Plans" - Kansas City
in Kansas on June 8, 2011 presented by SunGard Relius


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