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[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)
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[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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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[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)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Press Releases
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