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BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter
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Retirement Age Expectations of Older Americans Between 2006 and 2010 (PDF)
"In 2008, during the recession, 22.4 percent of the workers age 50 or over said they plan to never retire. That declined to 16.3 percent in 2010 after the recession. Over the 2006–2010 period (before, during, and after the recession), another 14–18 percent of workers said they don't know when they will retire."
(Employee Benefit Research Institute)
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Web Based Plan Design System. Simple and Affordable. [Advert.]
Use LIMITED CENSUS DATA and a FIVE MINUTE UPLOAD to create a side-by-side analysis of various retirement plans: Integrated, Age Weighted, New Comparability, Cash Balance, and 401k. At a glance, assess financial and tax advantages and identify an optimal solution. Learn more.
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BLS Data Shows Dominance of DC Plans in Private Industry
"Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $30.11 per hour worked in September 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported. Wages and salaries averaged $20.91 per hour worked and accounted for 69.4% of these costs, while benefits averaged $9.21 and accounted for the remaining 30.6%."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
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Best 401(k) Mutual Funds for 2012
"[Here are 10] mutual funds to consider for 2012, with two picks each across five distinct investment classes: blue-chip stocks, midsize stocks, small stocks, global investments and bonds."
(InvestorPlace Media, LLC.)
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Companies Trim Investment Options in 401(k)s
"While the menus are streamlined, generally they aim to offer something for everyone; at the least a cash alternative, a target-date fund for those savers who don't want to create their own portfolio, and a brokerage window for savvier investors to access a broad array of choices."
(MarketWatch, Inc.)
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401(k) Plans Add Lifetime-Income Options
"Some companies are now letting workers invest in annuities, so that their 401(k) savings will eventually yield an income stream, but there are advantages and pitfalls to this new retirement option."
(MarketWatch, Inc.)
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Meeting California's Retirement Security Challenge (PDF)
"This volume brings together rigorous academic and policy research in order to inform . . . choices for California policymakers, employers, and workers. . . . What retirement prospects do California workers face? What are major obstacles for US workers and firms in providing for adequate and secure retirement income?"
(UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education)
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Woman May Lose Same-S.ex Spouse's Death Benefits to In-Laws
"[P]rivate employer benefits plans aren't necessarily restricted by federal and state laws. According to legal experts, a private employer can define the term spouse in its benefits plan to include same-s.ex couples. However, Cozen O'Connor's plan had no such language. The parents claim that because the law firm did not specify, spouse only applies to opposite-se.x couples."
(TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc)
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[Opinion]
A Transatlantic Crisis for Pension Plans: Italy, Ireland, and Greece Are Just the Beginning (PDF)
"[Plan sponsors, both governments and companies, face financial obligations to retirement programs] they do not have the wherewithal to meet. Steps taken to address the crisis will worsen the financial condition of pension plans worldwide. On top of this, pension plans on both continents operate under restrictive regulatory regimes that provide insufficient flexibility for the plans themselves to address the current difficulties they are facing."
(The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. via Kraw & Kraw)
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[Opinion]
Why Americans Spend Too Much, Save Too Little and Borrow and Barrow
"We need to clearly do more to curb predatory lending, and I think we need to revise our tax laws, which right now incentivize really affluent taxpayers to contribute to their retirement accounts and to buy more and more housing, while not incentivizing lower- and middle-income households to put more of their money away in savings. In many countries, small savings accounts are tax exempt. Here we have the opposite -- tax exempt advantages incentivize borrowing, not saving."
(NPR)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
New IRS Ruling Discusses Tax Deductions for Cash Bonus Payments
"The IRS recently published Rev. Rul. 2011-29 relating to the federal income tax deduction for cash bonus payments by accrual basis taxpayers. The legal issue was whether the first requirement of the 'all events test' was satisfied at the end of the employer's tax year."
(Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey, P.L.C.)
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[Guidance Overview]
Supreme Court Declines to Apply Fiduciary Exception to Attorney-Client Privilege: What Implications for ERISA Plans?
"[T]he U.S. Supreme Court considered the 'fiduciary exception' for the first time in a non-ERISA setting and found that the United States, as trustee of tribal property, was entitled to confidential communications with its legal counsel despite its fiduciary status. The Supreme Court's rejection of the 'fiduciary exception' in this context has raised hope that ERISA fiduciaries may be entitled to greater confidentiality in obtaining legal advice regarding plan administration."
(McGuireWoods LLP)
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[Guidance Overview]
Employee Benefit Plan Year-End Action Items
"[This] information contains important action items plan administrators may need to process prior to year-end. The items include amendments, notices and other compliance matters for tax-qualified retirement plans, 403(b) plans, nonqualified deferred compensation and welfare plans."
(O'Connor Davies Munns & Dobbins LLP)
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Press Releases
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Lois Baker, J.D., President
Holly Horton, Business Manager
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