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Secure Web Portals for Daily & Non-Daily Plans [Advert.]
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.
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[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)
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[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)
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[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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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.)
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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.)
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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.)
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[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)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[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)
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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)
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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)
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Press Releases
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