To EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com To BenefitsLink home page

BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter

September 20, 2011 Get Health & Welfare News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Payroll Tax Accountant
for National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) in VA

Associate
for Baker & McKenzie LLP in CA

Inside Sales Consultant
for Dedicated Defined Benefit Services in CA

Marketing Manager
for Cammack LaRhette Consulting in MA, NY

Post Your Job on EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com

View All Jobs

RSS feed for jobs RSS Feed: All Jobs


We also publish the BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter (free): Subscribe

[Official Guidance]
Information about PBGC Premium Filings for Plan Administrators and Other Practitioners Who Prepare Premium Filings (PDF)
"The filing requirements for 2012 are almost identical to the filing requirements for 2011. PBGC expects to post the premium instructions on its website at www.pbgc.gov/premium-payment-instructions in December 2011." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation)


Secure Web Portals for Daily & Non-Daily Plans   [Advert.]

Sponsored by ASC

Plan sponsor internet access with the same functionality as the largest financial firms without the large cost. Secure upload of payroll and census files, and download of historical statements and other documents. Click to learn more.


[Official Guidance]
Form 5500 Version Selection Tool Instructions
"With the change to an all electronic filing system and changes to the Form 5500 as well, you may have questions about what to file for plan years prior to the current year or how to amend prior year filings. The Form 5500 Version Selection Tool will help you to determine which version of the Form 5500 and which schedules you should use." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)

[Official Guidance]
DOL Decides to Re-propose Reg on Definition of Fiduciary; Expected in Early 2012
"Today's decision to re-propose means that this important consumer protection initiative will benefit from additional input, review and consideration. . . . [T]he agency anticipates revising provisions of the rule including, but not restricted to, clarifying that fiduciary advice is limited to individualized advice directed to specific parties, responding to concerns about the application of the regulation to routine appraisals and clarifying the limits of the rule's application to arm's length commercial transactions, such as swap transactions. Also anticipated are exemptions addressing concerns about the impact of the new regulation on the current fee practices of brokers and advisers, and clarifying the continued applicability of exemptions that have long been in existence that allow brokers to receive commissions in connection with mutual funds, stocks and insurance products." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)

[Guidance Overview]
DOL to Re-Propose Amendments to Fiduciary Definition Regulation (PDF)
"First, the DOL specifically noted that it intends to clarify that'fiduciary advice' is limited to individualized advice directed to specific parties. This should be helpful in avoiding fiduciary status in the development of advice products before there is a specific customer in mind." (Groom Law Group)

DOL Delays Pension Oversight
"The new rule proposal will take into account the feedback received this year and more analysis of costs and benefits, Ms. Borzi said Monday. She said the White House, Treasury and other regulators have been supportive of the decision to repropose the rule. 'We're committed to continuing the work we're doing,' she added." (The Wall Street Journal)

[Guidance Overview]
Foreigners Employed in China Now Required to Participate in Social Insurance (PDF)
"Employers will be obliged to withhold contribution premiums on a monthly basis in the same way as for local Chinese employees and penalties will apply for failure to register employees or withhold contributions." (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
Expanded Electronic Delivery Options for 401(k) Participant Fee Disclosures
"An interim [DOL] enforcement policy for electronic delivery of participant fee disclosures aims to help sponsors of 401(k)-type plans distribute next year's required notices in a cost-effective manner." (Mercer LLC)

Financial Professionals Increase Retirement Confidence
"Forty-two percent of workers who use an adviser say they are saving enough money in order to live comfortably in retirement, compared to 22% who do not use an adviser." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

A Stress Test for the Private Employer Defined Contribution System
"This chapter explores how the U.S. private employer-sponsored defined contribution system fared during the financial market implosion followed by a prolonged macro-economic downturn. While data are still preliminary, we conclude that many plans did well, resulting in little change in employer sponsorship and employee participation. Moreover, account balances and contributions have recovered, boding well for the future." (Pension Research Council; free registration required to download papers)

Traditional IRA Investors' Asset Allocation, 2007 and 2008 (PDF)
"By tapping account-level records, research drawn from this database can provide new and important insights into IRA investor demographics, activities, and asset allocation decisions. The database is designed to shed light on key determinants of IRA contributions, rollover and withdrawal activity, and the types of assets that investors hold in these accounts." (Investment Company Institute)

NCPERS Offers Novel Retirement Route
"The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems proposed 'the secure choice pension,' to allow small- to medium-sized firms to buy into public retirement funds." (Thomson Reuters via Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Stable Value Products: An Increasingly Important Component of U.S. Retirement Market (PDF)
"Given the heightened interest in stable value products, one objective for this white paper is to provide an introduction to these products to assist plan sponsors and financial advisors in making retirement plan design decisions. The second objective for this paper is to discuss . . . three reasons why stable value products are likely to play an even more important role in the retirement market in the coming years." (Prudential Retirement)

Retirement Income Solutions: DC Plan Participants Look To Transfer Risk (PDF)
"In evaluating Retirement Income Solutions, it is essential that Plan Sponsors understand the mechanics, benefits and risks associated with these new products as they think holistically about designing and managing a successful defined contribution plan." (CAPTRUST Financial Advisors)

Retirement Sustainability for Defined Contribution Plan Participants (PDF)
"DC plan participants need help in order to avoid running out of money in retirement. We've explored a framework for discussing this issue—the 'withdrawal rate' approach—and have offered three steps individuals can take as they seek to arrive at a reasonable retirement distribution and asset allocation strategy." (Russell Investments)

Summary of the Automatic IRA Act of 2011, S. 1557 (PDF)
"Under the Automatic IRA Act of 2011, employees of firms with 10+ employees that do not sponsor a retirement plan would be automatically enrolled in IRAs at their workplace. Contributions would be purely voluntary; employees would be free to opt out at any time." (U.S. Senate Office of Senator Jeff Bingaman)

Deficit Reduction Package Includes PBGC Premium Hikes
"The annual flat-rate premium, which is $35 per plan participant and generated $1.2 bil.lion in revenue in 2010, gradually would be increased to raise $4 bil.lion in additional revenue by 2021." (Business Insurance)

BP Executives Get U.S. Investor Lawsuit Dismissed
"Other oil spill-related lawsuits brought by BP shareholders—including one brought by New York and Ohio state pension funds alleging securities fraud and another brought by BP employees alleging violations of [ERISA]—are still before [the] court." (Thomson Reuters)

DOL Pulls Fiduciary Rule Proposal
"Investment advisor advocates are breathing easier after the Department of Labor announced Monday that it has pulled its current proposal on the definition of a fiduciary off the table. The agency will take up the issue in early 2012 and repropose a fiduciary definition after more industry input." (Financial Planning and SourceMedia, Inc.)

The Theft of the American Pension
"As Ellen E. Schultz, an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, reveals in her new book, 'Retirement Heist,' it wasn't the dire economy that led these companies to plunder their own employees' earnings, it was greed." (Salon Media Group, Inc.)

Major Business Groups Urge IRS to Change Proposed Hybrid Plan Rules and Delay Effective Date
"The groups . . . ask IRS to expand permissible market rates of return, eliminate conditions on whipsaw relief, provide broad anti-cutback relief for transition and delay the effective date until at least 12 months after final rules are published." (Mercer LLC)

Obama Calls for Raising Federal Employee Contributions to Retirement Plans
"Under the plan announced Monday morning, the employee contribution would increase by 1.2 percentage points over three years beginning in 2013, generating $21 bil.lion in savings over 10 years, the White House said." (The Washington Post; free registration required)

Pennsylvania Won't Take Over Pittsburgh's 62%-Funded Pension
"Had the Public Employee Retirement Commission today deemed the system under 50 percent funded, the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System would have taken it over, as state law requires. That might have meant higher costs." (Bloomberg L.P.)

[Opinion]
American Bankers Association Statement on DOL Decision to Re-Propose Rule Defining Fiduciary
"As drafted, the proposal would have adversely impacted customer choice in the IRA marketplace and made it very difficult for consumers to receive sound, professional investment advice on retirement planning." (American Bankers Association)

[Opinion]
Three Ways 401k Plan Sponsors Can Help Employees Make Better Investment Decisions
"What's the secret revealed in 'Risk Aversion or Myopia? Choices in Repeated Gambles and Retirement Investment'? If you read the paper, you'll find a long dissertation on a concept known as the 'fallacy of large numbers.' In disproving this concept, Benartzi/Thaler drive a stake into the heart of Modern Portfolio Theory's very foundation." (Fiduciary News)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

[Guidance Overview]
IRS Resolves Tax Impact of Employer-Provided Cell Phones (PDF)
"[T]he IRS put the debate to bed recently by releasing two documents—on employer-provided cell phones and employer reimbursements for the business use of employees' personal cell phones—that provide favorable relief to employers and employees alike." (Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
IRS Hangs Up on Efforts to Tax Employee Cell Phone Use
"The Notice has a retroactive effective date, as it applies to employer-provided cell phone use occurring after December 31, 2009." (McguireWoods LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
IRS Revokes Letter Ruling That Treated Clothing/ Accessories Given to Employees as De Minimis Fringe Benefits
"Private letter rulings on the de minimis fringe benefit exclusion are not common, and this one may help explain why. Whether or not the exclusion applies is a function of the facts and circumstances, which often (as in this case) involve too much variation to permit a ruling. Nevertheless, the facts-and-circumstances determination is not entirely without standards." (Thomson Reuters/EBIA)

[Guidance Overview]
Substantiation Waived for Cell Phones Provided Primarily for Noncompensatory Business Purposes
"As the IRS announced in its news release, tax-free treatment of cell phones is now available without any burdensome recordkeeping requirements (although some employers may still be challenged to demonstrate that a cell phone or cell phone reimbursement was provided 'primarily for noncompensatory business purposes')." (Thomson Reuters/EBIA)

Singing the Praises of QSERPs
"What does [the QSERP] do for the executive? Here are some of the benefits." (Michael S. Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)

Administration's Postal Service Plan Included in Deficit-Reduction Package
"The plan . . . would restructure a massive annual payment to prefund retiree health benefits and refund $6.9 bil.lion the mail carrier says it overpaid into a federal retirement fund." (Reuters via The New York Times; free registration required)

Our Hidden Government Benefits
"[T]he reality is that the vast majority of Americans have at some point relied on government programs—and valued them—even though they often fail to recognize that government is the source of the assistance." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Press Releases

MassMutual Retirement Services Promotes 401(k) Day and National Save for Retirement Week
(MassMutual Retirement Services)

Target-Date Fund Use Grows in 401(k) Plans
(Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI))

ACLI Applauds Department of Labor for Re-Proposing Rule on the Definition of a Fiduciary
(American Council of Life Insurers)

ABA Statement on Labor Department Decision to Re-Propose Rule Defining Fiduciary
(American Bankers Association)

ASBO, NEA & NTSAA Form Joint 403(b) Taskforce to Offer Fee Disclosure Solution
(American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA))

National Association of Business Economics Honors Gad Levanon and Ben Cheng for Paper on Retirement
(The Conference Board)

Benefits Administrators, LLC Is Certified To Industry Best Practices
(Centre for Fiduciary Excellence (CEFEX))

Long-Term Care Insurance Can Be Cheaper Than Do-It-Yourself Caregiving, Leading Agency Advises
(LTC Financial Partners)

Kansas City Employers Saved $11 Million in Health Care Costs by Focusing on Prevention and Improving Health
(Mid-America Coalition on Health Care)

Robert W. Baird & Co. Implements PlanXtra; from UpTick Data Technologies
(UpTick Data Technologies)



BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park, Florida 32789
Phone (407) 644-4146
Fax (407) 644-2151

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

Copyright © 2011 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
All materials contained in this newsletter are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., or in the case of third party materials, the owner of that content. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
Links to Web sites other than those owned by BenefitsLink.com, Inc. are offered as a service to readers. The editorial staff of BenefitsLink.com, Inc. was not involved in their production and is not responsible for their content.

More useful links: