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August 13, 2013          Get Health & Welfare News  |  Advertise
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Employee Benefits Jobs

DC Plan Administrator
for The Retirement Plan Company, LLC in ANY STATE, OH, SC, TN

Senior Benefits Consultant/Team Leader
for Hub International Midwest Limited in IL

Account Coordinator
for The Plexus Groupe LLC in IL, TX

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Webcasts and Conferences

2013 Fall Forum - Boston, MA
September 23, 2013 in MA
(Ascensus)

18th Annual Conference
November 18, 2013 in AZ
(National Business Coalition on Health)

"Focused Topics for the Experienced Practitioner" - New Web Seminar Series, 12 Segments, September - December
September 3, 2013 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

HIPAA Business Associate Contracts: Sample Language and Compliance Steps for Covered Entities and Business Associates
September 12, 2013 WEBCAST
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

Helping Small Business Owners Save for Retirement -- Webcast Archive
August 27, 2013 WEBCAST
(Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), U.S. Department of Labor)

Helping Small Business Owners With New Retirement Plan Fee Disclosures -- Webcast Archive
August 28, 2013 WEBCAST
(Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), U.S. Department of Labor)

Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program Webinar
August 29, 2013 WEBCAST
(Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), U.S. Department of Labor)

View All Webcasts and Conferences


  LinkedIn   Twitter   Facebook Hand-picked links to the web's best news articles,
official guidance, jobs, webcasts and more.

District Court Rejects Equitable Exception to Excuse Interim Withdrawal Liability Payments
"After making one withdrawal liability payment, the employer initiated arbitration to challenge the plan's demand for withdrawal liability and made no further payments. Notwithstanding ERISA's 'pay now, dispute later' statutory withdrawal liability rules, the employer argued that the court should apply an equitable exception to this mandate.... The district court, observing that the Third Circuit had previously expressed skepticism regarding whether a court could apply such an equitable exception, concluded that even if the Third Circuit were to adopt [this] exception, the employer had not shown that the plan's claim was frivolous." [Integrated Grp. Pension Plan v. Black Millwork Co., 2:11-cv-05072-KM-MAH (D.N.J. Aug. 1, 2013)] (Proskauer's ERISA Practice Center)  


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An Actuarial Perspective on the 2013 Social Security Trustees Report (PDF)
"The trust fund is projected to run out of assets during 2033, and if reform is not implemented by that date, benefits will have to be reduced by about one-fourth thereafter.... The unfunded obligation over the valuation period, as a percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), remained unchanged at 0.9 percent and increased from 2.50 percent to 2.57 percent of taxable earnings over the same period. To eliminate the projected deficit (using best estimate assumptions), some combination of an immediate increase of 2.66 percentage points in the payroll tax rate or an immediate decrease of 16.5 percent of benefits for all current and future beneficiaries is required." (American Academy of Actuaries)  

The Employee Ownership 100: America's Largest Majority Employee-Owned Companies
"Companies must be at least 50% owned by an ESOP or other qualified plan or by one or more other kinds of plans in which at least 50% of full-time employees are eligible to participate. Employment includes all full- and part-time employees in the U.S. and worldwide." (National Center for Employee Ownership)  

Target-Date Funds Post 'Respectable' Results
"Target-date funds aren't keeping up with S&P 500, though they are staying ahead of a key fixed-income benchmark ... In the second quarter, target-date funds declined 0.6% on average.... [T]hese figures put target-date funds behind the 2.9% Q2 results and 20.6% 12-month returns of the S&P 500; however, they outpaced the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, which declined 2.3% in Q2 and 0.7% in the past 12-month period." (ThinkAdvisor)  

California Lawmakers Urge Pension Funds to Halt Russia Investments
"Top Democrats in the California Senate [have] asked the state's multibillion-dollar public employee pension funds to refrain from making future investments in Russia, adding their voices to protests against restrictions on gay rights there. A proposed resolution... urges [CalPERS] and [CalSTRS] to halt investments in Russia until the issue is resolved. CalPERS, the largest employee pension system in the nation, has $266 billion invested around the globe, of which $1.4 billion is invested in Russia." (Reuters)  

Pension Funds File Suit Over Change in Dell Voting Rules
"A group of six pension funds is accusing Dell Inc.'s board of manipulating the shareholder voting process by changing rules for a vote on the proposed buyout of the company by Michael S. Dell and Silver Lake Partners, according to a law suit filed in the Court of Chancery of Delaware.... The pension fund group seeks an injunction to require Dell to hold a meeting that will allow shareholders the choice to vote between the Dell/Silver Lake proposed buyout or a joint proposal by Carl Icahn, affiliated Icahn funds and Southeastern Asset Management Inc." (Pensions & Investments)  

Blazing the Oregon Pension Trail
" If pension officials get their wish, the Oregon Investment Council (OIC), the body that oversees a combined $80 billion in pension and other state trust fund assets, will become the Oregon Investment Corp., a quasi-governmental entity with greater control over the state's assets.... [T]he staff of the corporation would report to a fully independent board rather than to just the treasurer. The board would take budgetary authority away from the legislature, be able to scrutinize the cost of the entire program and prioritize human capital and technology resources[.]" (Institutional Investor)  

U.K. Pension Scheme Funding Levels Improve (PDF)
"Pension scheme balance sheets are in better shape than one year ago. Funding levels have improved following favourable returns on growth assets and the impact of increases in corporate bond yields. All else being equal, a further 0.5% increase in yields would eliminate the aggregate UK private sector pension accounting deficit." (JLT Employee Benefits)  

France Mulls Pension Changes to Give Laborers More Say Over When They Retire
"France's government is mulling a points-based retirement credit system rather than a years-of-work tally for people in tough physical jobs, to give them more say over when they retire, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said ... Any special credits for labourers are likely to be financed by rises in social welfare contributions, details yet to be worked out by a Socialist government which plans to reform the retirement system to help fix a ballooning pension deficit." (Reuters)  


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Record Numbers in U.K. Plan to Fund Retirement by Selling Property
"Record numbers of people are planning to sell their main home to fund their retirement ... amid claims that pensioners will have to live to 90 to make annuities 'good value'. [Recent] research ... found that 13% of people (nearly 5 million) say they are planning to rent or sell property to fund their retirement, up from 11% last year.... Many people have turned to buy-to-let as an alternative to traditional pension plans... and have enjoyed much better returns than equities or bonds." (The Guardian)  

[Opinion]

Should 401(k) Plan Sponsors Ban Risk Tolerance Questionnaires?
"While a broker can justify using a risk tolerance questionnaire to gauge the 'suitability' of a particular investment, a 401k plan sponsor could be held liable for allowing a plan participant to rely on that same questionnaire as it might inappropriately lead the investor to an investment that is not in that investor's best interests ... This is why, if plan sponsors endorse the use of risk tolerance questionnaires -- either by administering them directly or through third party vendors -- they need to make sure a fiduciary adviser is also available for the participants." (Fiduciary News)  

[Opinion]

SPARK Institute Requests IRS Guidance on 403(b) Prototype Plan and Use of the Error Correction Program (PDF)
"Larry Goldbrum, General Counsel of The SPARK Institute [said, ] 'Our request seeks clarification regarding a number of issues and makes recommendations that are intended to make these programs as available as possible to the broadest segment of the 403(b) community ... [The] letter covers matters relating to vesting, mandatory pre-tax employee contributions, required minimum distributions, the relationship between plan terms and conflicting investment arrangement provisions, and others." [Full text of the letter.] (The SPARK Institute)  

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

Who Is a Spouse? Different Federal Agencies Take Differing Approaches After Windsor
"Weeks after the Windsor decision, the few federal agencies that have issued guidance have taken wildly disparate approaches.... There is a clear need for prompt guidance, coordinated among the various agencies. Moreover, unless the guidance takes the OPM approach (treating a marriage as valid if it was recognized by the state performed, regardless of the laws of the state of residence), employers can expect to have to undertake determinations of marital status far more complex than just determining whether the employee's current state of residence permits same-sex marriage." (Calhoun Law Group)  

Press Releases

Santa Rosa, Calif., Investment Firm, Officers Ordered to Restore Nearly $602,018 to 13 Employee Benefit Plans
Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), U.S. Department of Labor

Legal Services Plan Customer Service Matters
Hyatt Legal Plans, a MetLife company

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David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
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