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[Guidance Overview]
Resolving Employee Benefit Plan Audit Problems and Late or Amended Forms 5500
"Under the Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program (DFVC), an employer can file a late Form 5500 for a penalty of $10 per day measured from the original, unextended filing deadline. Penalties may be capped depending up on the circumstances. If an audit reveals a prior year issue that necessitates an amended return, the employer may select the correct form with the DOL's new correction tool."
(Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP)
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Illinois Law Gives Huge Pension Perks to Union Leaders
"All it took to give nearly two dozen labor leaders from Chicago a windfall worth millions was a few tweaks to a handful of sentences in the state's lengthy pension code. The changes became law with no public debate among state legislators and, more importantly, no cost analysis."
(Chicago Tribune)
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Boomers' Spending Binge Presents Additional Retirement Planning Challenge
"Around the time they turn 50, many people unconsciously begin to ratchet up their spending. Instead, prominent retirement planning scholar Alice P. Munnell thinks financial planners and employers need to wage a campaign to get their clients and employees to hit the pause button at this crucial midpoint in their lives."
(Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
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Participant Reaction to the August 2011 Market Sell-Off
"During the market volatility of early August 2011, trading activity among defined contribution plan participants increased, but the absolute number of participants trading remained low. In August, 2.5% of participants traded—up from the year's low of 1.3% in May and June, but nevertheless a small percentage."
(The Vanguard Group, Inc.)
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National Save for Retirement Week, October 16–22, 2011
"A Resolution has been passed by the Senate (S. Res. 266) calling on the week of October 16, 2011 as National Save for Retirement Week. The Resolution was introduced by Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) and cosponsored by Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Ben Cardin (D-MD)."
(NAGDCA)
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New Policy Center Advises Rhode Island Lawmakers about Pension Reform
"[The Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity, a newly constituted non-profit corporation] is encouraging the General Assembly to clearly annunciate the critical public interest at stake if the pension system is not modified. In doing so, lawmakers may ward off further court decisions that could hinder changing the system."
(The Providence Journal Co.)
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'Airtime' May Boost Sacramento County's [California] Pension Costs
"Sacramento County employees are using a controversial perk to boost retirement benefits, possibly adding to the county's rapidly growing pension debt. They're purchasing up to five years' service credit for time they didn't work—a benefit commonly referred to as 'airtime.'"
(The Sacramento Bee)
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[Opinion]
Maryland Court Ruling Jeopardizes Actuarial Relations
"A Letter-to-the-Editor from Milliman Chairman Brad Smith appears in the September 19, 2011 issue of Pensions & Investments magazine. The letter deals with the anticipated fallout from a recent 4–3, split decision in which the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled against Milliman in a lengthy dispute over a coding error."
(Milliman, Inc.)
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[Opinion]
Fiduciary Standard Loses Three Battles, but War's Not Over Yet
"As long as only the costs of implementing a fiduciary standard are studied by either the DOL or the SEC, any cost-benefit analysis will be hopelessly skewed. Protecting the investing public, which is the mandate of both departments, can only be achieved by accurately calculating the true costs of the current regulatory schemes to investors, in the form of excessive fees, underperforming holdings and hidden investment risk."
(AdvisorOne)
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[Opinion]
Mil.lion-Dollar 401(k): Fantasy or Reality?
"Amassing $1 mil.lion in an 401(k) plan is possible, but up to this point not very probable. Recently, I contacted both Fidelity and Vanguard retirement plan services to determine how many individual 401(k) account balances exceed $1 mil.lion dollars."
(Forbes.com LLC)
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[Opinion]
Mass Public Revolt over Proposal To End Retirement Plan Fleecing
"While the liberal media is busy fabricating stories about riots in Europe over austerity measures, only the Wall Street Journal today in an article on its Opinion page 'Defusing a Savings Bomb' had the courage to report about the 'mass public revolt' in response to a Department of Labor proposal that would have subjected more financial advisers to a fiduciary standard to address conflicts of interest within the retirement planning industry."
(Forbes.com LLC)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
Noncompete As Condition for Option Exercise in Texas
"Distancing itself from earlier precedent, the Supreme Court of Texas recently concluded that an employer could require an employee to give a covenant not to compete in exchange for allowing the employee to exercise stock options, if the noncompete were reasonable as to time, scope of activity, and geographical area."
(Utz, Miller & Eickman, LLC)
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PwC Releases Results from Human Resource Services 2011 Global Equity Incentives Survey
"Since 2009, performance-based equity has surpassed all other equity vehicles as the compensation vehicle of choice. Sixty-one percent of Restricted Share Units (RSUs) granted in 2011 had performance metrics attached to the vesting schedule; only 39% had service-based (i.e. time-based) vesting. Forty-three percent of Restricted Shares (RS) granted had performance metrics attached to the vesting schedule."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
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Lifestyle Benefits Are Becoming More Important to Employees
"'The big focus now is on offering people pleasers,' explains Marie Dufresne, a Dallas-based senior principal with Hay Group. She defines these pleasers as offerings that cost the employer little to nothing, but save the employee on something that they would be paying for anyway, or perhaps couldn't quite afford."
(Workplace Management: free registration required)
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Press Releases
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