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December 8, 2011 Get Health & Welfare News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Employee Benefit / Insurance Sales Professional
for Northwestern Benefit Corporation of Georgia in GA

Client Services Manager
for Milliman in WA

DC Plan Conversion Specialist /Sales Assistant
for Retirement Plan Design & Consulting firm in MD

401(k) Administrator
for Caribbean Pension Consultants, Inc. in FL

Analyst/Consultant - Defined Contribution Consulting Practice
for Aon Hewitt in GA

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Webcasts and Conferences

An Overview of 401(k) Wrap, 457(b), 457(f) and Other NDCQ Plans
Nationwide on December 13, 2011 presented by Erisafile Qualified Pension Consulting, Inc.

Retirement Practitioner Research Tools
Nationwide on January 26, 2012 presented by McKay Hochman Co., Inc.


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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Extension of Year-End Deadline for Defined Benefit Plan Amendment
"Notice 2011-96 . . . extended (to Dec. 31, 2012, or later) the deadline for amending defined benefit pension plans to comply with Code Section 436. The notice also provided sample plan amendment language." (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)


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[Guidance Overview]
Year-End Compliance Issues for Multiemployer Retirement Plan Sponsors (PDF)
This review looks at key areas that plan sponsors should address by December 31, 2011. (Milliman, Inc.)

[Guidance Overview]
New Michigan Withholding Requirements on Retirement Plan Distributions Effective Soon
"The new withholding requirements apply to distributions from defined benefit pension plans, IRAs and most defined contribution plans (such as 401(k) and 403(b) plans)." (Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey, P.L.C.)

[Guidance Overview]
Fiduciary Investment Advice for Retirement Plan Participants (PDF)
"If a plan sponsor wants to make investment advice available to participants, the plan sponsor, acting in its fiduciary capacity, needs to make certain practical and legal decisions." (Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP)

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)


Web Based Plan Design System. Simple and Affordable.   [Advert.]

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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.


Merrill Lynch Agrees To Restore More Than $170,000 To Settle With U.S. Labor Department Over Allegations Of Pension Plan Misconduct In Alabama
"Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. has settled allegations made by the U.S. Department of Labor that the company and one of its employees violated [ERISA] by failing to prevent the fiduciaries of pension plans of two Alabama-based companies from engaging in prohibited [loans]." (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA))

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)

National Compensation Survey: Retirement Benefits in the United States, March 2011
Data includes Access, participation, and take-up rates; Employee contribution requirement and method of contribution; Benefits accrual for Defined benefit frozen retirement plans. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

401(k) Discrimination Testing and Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches (PDF)
"401(k) testing is both an art and a science and, as this article demonstrates, simple steps can produce tremendous cost savings and other improvements." (The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. via Alston & Bird LLP)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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)

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)

[Opinion]
Government Workers Underreport Retirement Plan Availability in the Current Population Survey
"[I]f a substantial portion of relatively well-educated government workers do not know that their government employer offers a retirement plan to any of its workers, how can we expect the private sector workforce to be more accurate in their response to the question?" (Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America)

[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)

[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)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

[Official Guidance]
Text of Correction to IRS Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Indian Tribal Governmental Plans (PDF)
"As published, this advance notice of proposed rulemaking (REG-133223-08) contains errors that may prove to be misleading and are in need of clarification." (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[Official Guidance]
Text of Correction to IRS Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Determination of Governmental Plan (PDF)
"As published, this advance notice of proposed rulemaking (REG-157714-06) contains errors that may prove to be misleading and are in need of clarification." (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

[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.)

[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)

[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)

Executive Retirement Benefits and Perquisites: The Latest Trends
The target page provides links to the Hay Group webinar presented on December 6, 2011. You can view the full presentation with audio, or the slideshow, or download documents. (Hay Group)

Press Releases



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