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BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter
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GASB In-Depth Webcast on Pension Accounting Proposals Scheduled for September 7
"The webcast, An In-Depth Look at the GASB's Pension Proposals will focus on two recently issued Exposure Drafts relating to pension accounting that propose significant changes in financial reporting by the governments that provide pension benefits and the reporting by the individual pension plans that administer those benefits."
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)
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Battle Brewing Over Texas Public Pensions
"A group of high-powered Houston business leaders is starting a statewide campaign to overhaul retirement for future teachers, firefighters, police officers, judges and other state and local government workers. 'I think the state needs to get the hell out of this (pension) business completely,' said lawyer Bill King , who is forming Texans for Public Pension Reform . . . ."
(Statesman.com)
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The Defense Secretary and the Question of Military Retirement
"[Using the example of young people who join the military and then leave after a four-year tour,] Panetta said, 'under the present system, they get nothing. So there is some thought that maybe they're entitled to some retirement to be able to move those funds to other systems. I think that's worth looking at.'"
(The Washington Post; free registration required)
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Pension Funding and Human Capital
"We find that a Bismarckian PAYG-style pension system like the German one strongly enhances on-the-job human capital formation and redistributes from the lower to the higher skilled . . . ."
(Social Science Research Network)
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The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions
"We find that peer information increased savings of non-unionized recipients but decreased savings of unionized recipients. Our results highlight the possibilities and limitations of peer information interventions."
(National Bureau of Economic Research; paid subscription or individual purchase required to retrieve fulltext)
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[Opinion]
The Wall Street Journal's Contribution to the Fiduciary Argument
"[I] was particularly dismayed to read the August 12 WSJ editorial entitled 'The Borzi Savings Bomb,' with the tagline: 'An Obama appointee concocts a fictional crisis that will have real costs.' Apparently, in today's highly charged political environment, even the Journal editorial staff is unable to look beyond partisanship to examine an important issue on its merits, alone. As the title and tagline suggest, WSJ editors are upset with Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis Borzi's attempt to provide IRA investors with the same protections that other retirement savers have in pension plans including defined benefit plans, 401(k)s, and 403(b)s."
(AdvisorOne)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
Individual Employment Agreement Was Not ERISA Plan
"We caution against concluding, based on this opinion, that one-employee arrangements can never be subject to ERISA, particularly for employers outside the Eighth Circuit . . . . Resolution of these cases tends to be highly fact-specific, and a different court could very well reach a different conclusion on similar facts."
(Thomson Reuters/EBIA)
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The Practice of Upward Stock Option Repricing
"[A]ffected employees must be allowed to elect whether to accept the repricing offer. If they do not accept the offer, the options remain discount options. While accepting the repricing offer provides the employees the tax benefits accorded to ISOs, it does not necessarily maximize their future payoffs from the options because of the increase in the exercise price."
(American Institute of Certified Public Accountants)
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Which Business-Trip Costs Will Employers Cover?
"For example, 91% of corporate travel managers who were surveyed recently said they would reimburse employees for checked-baggage fees, but only 3% said they would cover in-flight entertainment charges."
(Los Angeles Times)
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The Most Outrageous Workplace Luxuries
"Prof. Jeffrey Pfeffer, of Stanford University, studies workplaces extensively and says such added benefits are useful only where there's a positive corporate culture that values employees and rewards their work beyond just attractive perks. 'What matters is whether companies let employees make decisions, offer them reasonable job security, and treat them with respect. Not whether or not they give them free food,' he says."
(Forbes.com LLC)
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Press Releases
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