[Guidance Overview]
Divided Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Adviser in Prospectus Disclosure Case (PDF)
"The ruling is widely viewed as providing additional insulation for the investment advisory industry from suits by the plaintiffs' securities litigation bar and virtually eliminates liability in private suits for the investment adviser and other service providers who draft and often insist on the language contained in a fund's prospectus."
(Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP)
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Western Benefits Conference 2011 [Advert.]
Featuring groundbreaking sessions for plan sponsors, attorneys, consultants, health & welfare professionals, actuaries, investment advisors and TPAs, the WP&BC and ASPPA present the Western Benefits Conference July 24-27 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
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[Guidance Overview]
Loan Refinance Rules
"A loan refinancing occurs when a participant replaces his or her existing plan loan with another. Plan loan refinancing is an optional plan provision and is generally adopted and communicated to participants through the plan's administrative loan policy."
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)
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[Guidance Overview]
Some Relief Granted for Prior Year FBAR Filings (PDF)
"The final regulations declined to grant a blanket exemption to the FBAR filing requirements for employee benefit plans and plan personnel and, therefore, benefit plan sponsors and related plan personnel may be subject to the FBAR filing requirements."
(Alston & Bird LLP)
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[Guidance Overview]
Final FBAR Rules
"Retirement plans that do not hold foreign financial accounts need not be concerned with the FBAR final regulations."
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)
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[Guidance Overview]
New Circular 230 Highlights
"The Final Regulations on Practicing Before the IRS That Update Circular 230 printed in the Federal Register on June 3, 2011 and effective August 2, 2011 were discussed by Karen L. Hawkins, Director of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility at the Second Annual ERPA Conference on June 2, 2011 in Los Angeles."
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)
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The 401(k) Auditor's Wish List
"As an employee benefit plan auditor with more than 18 years of experience working with hundreds of defined contribution plans, I have gone over my past interactions with plan sponsors and created a 'wish list' for the things all auditors would like from their plan sponsor clients. These wishes fall into three main categories: Be Prepared. Be Available. Be Proactive."
(Employee Benefit News: free registration required)
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Why Retirement Plan Sponsors Shouldn't Only Focus on Low Fees
"While paying unreasonable plan expenses is a breach of fiduciary duty, picking providers solely or mainly because they are low in fees can also breach the fiduciary duty. Retirement plan sponsors also have a duty of prudence as a one of their fiduciary duties."
(The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C. via JD Supra, LLC)
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The 2011 Higher Education Retirement Confidence Survey (PDF)
"Individuals in the higher education workforce are more likely than U.S. workers in general to be saving for retirement and to have calculated how much they need to accumulate. Not surprisingly then, higher education workers have greater confidence in their prospects for a financially secure retirement."
(TIAA-CREF Institute)
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Implications of Full and Partial Retirement for Replacement Rates in a Defined Benefit System
"We find that in the full retirement scenarios the replacement rates depend substantially on the underlying parameters of the pension system and on worker characteristics. In the partial retirement scenarios these changes are much less substantial. We also find that partial retirement results in a much smoother income path and encourages employees to defer their pension claims beyond age 65."
(Social Science Research Network)
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Mapping the Mindset of the Retirement Consumer
"New materials explore some of the many emotions and psychological barriers individuals have that can prevent them from productive retirement savings and investing actions.'
(ING North America)
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IRS and DOL Increase Scrutiny of Section 403(b) Plans
"[T]here is at least anecdotal evidence that tax-exempt employers may also now be subject to increased plan audit activity from the DOL's employee plans division, the Employee Benefits Security Administration."
(E Is for ERISA)
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Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Workplace Benefits Report
"The Report, which examines the ways in which employers are helping to address the financial needs of a diverse workforce, includes responses from 650 senior executives and human resources and benefit plan leaders."
(Bank of America Merrill Lynch)
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Straddling the Pension Conundrum of Who Will Bear the Pain
"Too much policy making at the state level seems to occur without much thought about future consequences. Our lawmakers can't seem to think beyond the next run for office, and tend to create policy that won't endanger their plans to get re-elected, or to move up the political food chain."
(Santa Maria Times)
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[Opinion]
Get Radical: Raise Social Security
"A bigger pension — a raise in Social Security benefits — is the stimulus this demoralized country needs."
(The New York Times; free registration required)
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[Opinion]
Does Pending Appeal Decision Doom 401k Plan Sponsors?
"It will take Tribble and other cases of large size to knock the Pension Barons in the head before they start to act like reasonable human beings. Hoorah, for the federal district court in California who helped put these crooked jerks in their proper light."
(Fiduciary News)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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With Executive Pay, Income Disparity in America Growing
"The evolution of executive grandeur — from very comfortable to jet-setting — reflects one of the primary reasons that the gap between those with the highest incomes and everyone else is widening."
(The Washington Post; free registration required)
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Press Releases
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