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June 15, 2011 Get Health & Welfare News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

[Official Guidance]
Link to 2010 IRS Form 5500-EZ (PDF)
"Annual Return of One-Participant (Owners and Their Spouses) Retirement Plan" (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)


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[Official Guidance]
Instructions for 2010 IRS Form 5500-EZ (PDF)
Plans may choose to electronically file Form 5500-SF instead of the paper Form 5500-EZ. (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[Guidance Overview]
Deadline Approaching for Filing FBAR Reports in Respect of Non-U.S. Equity Awards and U.S. Employee Benefit Plans (PDF)
"The obligation to file an FBAR on behalf of [employee benefit] plans is generally the responsibility of the plan trustee, rather than the plan sponsor, although in very limited circumstances individual plan fiduciaries may be required to file reports. . . . Plans with foreign accounts should review their reporting obligations with their trustee in advance of the June 30, 2011 deadline for the 2010 calendar year and advise individual plan fiduciaries that may have reporting obligations." (Baker & McKenzie)

[Guidance Overview]
SunGard Relius Advises Practitioners to Skip Existing Forms, Wait for New Forms 8955-SSA and 5558
"At a recent ASPPA actuarial conference (ACOPA), an IRS official made several announcements . . . . While the IRS prefers for practitioners to wait for the new Form 8955-SSA, the IRS will continue to accept the old Schedule SSA. This conflicts with printed, official guidance in Announcement 2011-21, stating that the IRS would accept the old Schedules through April 20, 2011. . . . Our recommendation is that practitioners continue to wait for the new [form and for a new Form 5558,] which we expect the IRS to issue shortly." (SunGard Relius)

Research Shows Promoting Electronic Delivery of Retirement Documents Benefits Participants
"The Department of Labor (DOL) should allow defined contribution (DC) plans to make electronic delivery the default mechanism for conveying disclosure notices and information to plan participants, according to a new white paper. Greater use of electronic delivery would provide plan participants with timely and easy access to information in a more user-friendly format that allows a participant to obtain more information or take action in response to the information, according to the paper by independent experts." (American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries)

Hey, Plan Participant: Step Away from That Growing Pile of Money
"[B]orrowing remains a losing proposition. If you borrow $10,000 from your account, and then repay it after five years, it will have lost five years in which it could have been growing for you. What will you lose? Check out the table below: . . . ." (Motley Fool)

Insure Against Longevity Risk With Immediate Annuities
"The insurance industry's pitch: While retirees shouldn't annuitize all of their assets, income annuities offer unique qualities as an asset class when mixed into a broader portfolio of stocks and bonds. Those include high cash flow uncorrelated with equities or bonds, and alpha in the form of mortality credits, which are unique to insurance products." (registeredrep.com)

New PBGC Rules Deny Benefit Guarantees After Employer Seeks Bankrup.tcy
"Final rules adopted by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. will deny PBGC guarantees for benefits earned after an employer files for bankrup.tcy and before the agency takes over the plan." (Business Insurance)

Things Employers Should Tell Employees About Their Retirement Plan As New Participant Fee Disclosure Rules Come Into Effect
"With new participant fee disclosure regulations coming into effect next year, some employees may be in for a shock. Here's what you can do to start prepping them now." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Best New Retirement-Planning Tools
"Three new financial tools, all released in the past few months, can help you with filing for Social Security, tapping your nest egg and finding a financial adviser. . . . AnalyzeNow.com . . . Fidelity Investments' 'Income Strategy Evaluator' . . . BrightScope Inc.'s new 'Advisor Pages'." (SmartMoney)

SmartMoney's Online Retirement Planner
Slider controls are used to set age, retirement age, current salary, and annual savings. From the Wall Street Journal. (Wall Street Journal)

States Face Pension Quandary in Valuing Liabilities
"The Pension Protection Act essentially requires the use of AA-rated corporates for private-sector plans. Government accounting standards, however, rely on the expected rate of return on assets." (ai-cio.com)

Space Shuttle Program's End Leaves NASA With a Pension Bill
"The nation's space agency plans to spend about half a bil.lion dollars next year to replenish the pension fund of the contractor that has supplied thousands of workers to the space shuttle program. . . . This appears to be the first time . . . that a company's main contract has expired and [a federal] agency has had to bear the cost of terminating its plans." (New York Times)

[Opinion]
Defined Contribution Plans to Play Role in Upcoming Deficit Reduction Controversy
"According to the Joint Committee on Taxation . . . 'tax expenditures' [in the form of deductions and other tax breaks] reduce Federal revenue by $1.1 tril.lion annually. The favorable tax treatment of contributions to retirement savings plans accounts for about 10% of this and is among the biggest of these expenditures. . . . The 2013 tax debate will be a barroom brawl with supporters of each tax preference engaged in a no holds barred effort to preserve as much of their program as possible. . . . [V]irtually everyone will be willing to throw the employer-sponsored defined contribution system under the bus." (Profit Sharing / 401k Council of America)

[Opinion]
Text of Comments to IRS by American Academy of Actuaries on Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) Registration Requirements (PDF)
"The Academy's Pension Committee submitted a letter to the Internal Revenue Service with concerns about the implications of the proposed modifications to Circular 230 and registration requirements for PTINs and the application of these rules to various reporting requirements for retirement plan professionals." (American Academy of Actuaries)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

The Employee Benefits Tax in Rhode Island Municipalities: How Much Do You Owe?
"One out of every four dollars cities and towns collected in taxes in 2010 was owed to retiree pensions and health care benefits . . . ." (GoLocalProv.com)

[Opinion]
Text of Comments by Pension Rights Center on Electronic Disclosure by Employee Benefit Plans (PDF)
"We believe that the safe harbor should be strengthened by requiring that participants affirmatively consent to the electronic delivery of a Summary Plan Description or the Periodic Pension Benefit Statement, even for employees who work with computers daily." (Pension Rights Center)

Press Releases


Employee Benefits Jobs

Director—Plan Conversions
for Charles Schwab in OH

Director—Document and Technical Services
for Charles Schwab in OH

Benefits Analyst/Auditor
for MTA NYC Transit in NY

Senior Business Systems Analyst
for Enterprise Iron Financial Industry Solutions Inc. in ANY STATE

Director of Retirement Services
for Office of the State Comptroller in CT

401(k) Administrator
for Duncan Financial Group, LLC in PA

Defined Contribution Plan Administrator
for Tyler, Simms & St. Sauveur, CPAs, P.C. in NH

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Jeanette Hull, News Editor
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager
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