Pensions & Investments

Senior Defined Benefit Calculation Analyst
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in MA

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Target Date Funds: The Other 401(k) Scandal
January 22, 2014 WEBCAST
(Financial Planning Association)

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Does Your 2011 Form 5500 Make the Grade? DOL Is Checking
"The Department of Labor (DOL) has launched an audit quality control initiative ... because of apparent substandard audit reports submitted with some Form 5500 filings. They've assembled a team of analysts who will be reviewing about 400 plan audits for large pension plans and funded welfare benefit plans. The initiative's focus will be on the accounting firms that audit employee benefit plans." (Buck Consultants)  

[Advert.]

ASPPA On Tour -- Coming to a City Near You!

ASPPA on Tour is the ultimate conference experience for retirement plan professionals. With the perfect balance of national and regional content, each of our five stops will stimulate, motivate and challenge you. Registration for Philly is open!

Actuaries Suggest Independent Retirement Plans Would Benefit Employers, Employees
"Moving to third-party-administered plans would improve efficiency through economies of scale and promote portability for participants, while enabling employers to focus on their businesses. Redefining the employer's role away from the traditional model as sponsor of retirement plans and relieving them of the administrative and financial complexity would open new ways to establish and sponsor plans under other entities, although a new set of regulations would be needed to enable such a program." (Pensions & Investments)  

Navigating Investment Responsibilities: Five Questions for Plan Sponsors
"Do conflicts of interest exist? ... How confident are you with your investment knowledge? ... How involved do you want to be in the investment process? ... What level of risk are you comfortable assuming? ... How much are you willing to pay for these services?" (CapTrust Financial Advisors)  

Knowing Your Future You: Applying Behavioral Science to Improve Retirement Savings Patterns (PDF)
"Despite abundant information about the need to save for retirement, most Americans' 401(k) plans fall short of where they would like them to be. Researchers have been investigating ways to strengthen employees 'emotional connection' with the future self in order to improve savings behavior.... [This article] explores new techniques for improving employee participation in saving for retirement." (Mercer)  

Four Questions to Help You Meet Your Retirement Savings Goals in 2014
"What kind of lifestyle do you picture for yourself in retirement? ... Where do you plan to live? ... How many years do you expect to live in retirement? ... Do you currently own, or plan to purchase, long-term care insurance or an annuity designed to help pay for long-term care?" (Smart401k)  

Funded Status of Corporate Pensions Improved Significantly During 2013
"On an aggregate basis ... pension funded status rose to an estimated 93%, an increase of 16 percentage points from year-end 2012 and the highest funded ratio in many years. While aggregate plan funding increased by $285 billion in 2013, these plan sponsors still have a $99 billion deficit to fill. Calculated as a simple average of each plan's funded ratio, funded status increased from 74% to 92% over 2013." (Towers Watson)  

2013 401(k) Index Comments
"Participants strongly favored equities during 2013, transferring heavily out of fixed income investments ... During the year, a total of 47 days had above-normal daily transfer activity -- more than twice the number of occurrences in 2012. In 2013, 0.029% of total balances were transferred daily, on average, which exceeded the 2012 daily average (0.024%) but remained below the 2011 and 2010 daily averages (0.035% and 0.036%, respectively)." (Aon Hewitt)  

Lessons to Be Learned for Feds in the Condition of Other Government Plans (PDF)
"First, underfunded pension plans are all competing for the same scarce taxpayer dollars. Second ... one sometimes hears calls to expand Social Security coverage to all remaining state and local workers (not all of whom are covered by Social Security) as a way of dealing with fiscal issues at the federal level. But this fails to account for the fact that those state and local plans are severely underfunded, which might require the federal government to help bail them out. Third, like it or not, the growing concerns about the fiscal impact of these public plans put all public-sector employers in the cross-hairs of those who would like to see government shrink." (Center for State & Local Government Excellence)  

[Guidance Overview]

Benefit Plans and Plan Distributions Exempt from New 'Net Investment Income' Tax (PDF)
"Highlights of the final rules are summarized [in this article], in question-and-answer format, as they apply to compensat[ion]-related and retirement income items (and earnings thereon). The final rules carry forward the general exemption of all benefit plan related income, and clarify several issues affecting ESOP distributions.... [T]he recently released draft instructions to new Form 8960 (which is used to calculate the new tax) could do a better job of making this clear -- the exemption for retirement plan amounts is noted only briefly in 19 pages of very dense instructions to the 1-page form." (Groom Law Group)  

Federal Courts and U.S. Attorney General Address Same-Sex Marriage in Utah and Oklahoma
"Some interesting eligibility issues arise for health and other non-retirement plans that define spouse with reference to whether an individual is married under the laws of a state or foreign country. The proper interpretation of such a definition is not entirely clear where, as here, the state in question does not recognize the marriage." (Thomson Reuters / EBIA)  

Incentive Stock Options and Employee Stock Purchase Plans: IRS Information Statements and Information Returns Under Section 6039
"[E]very corporation that in 2013 records ... the first transfer by an employee or former employee of stock acquired by such employee under an employee stock purchase plan (meaning a plan that is established under Section 423 of the Code, if the purchase price is either less than one hundred percent of the value of the stock on the grant date or is not fixed or determinable on the grant date) must, on or before January 31, 2014, furnish to the employee (or former employee) transferring the stock a written statement containing the information contained on Form 3922." (Cooley LLP)  

Annual Survey Underway to Benchmark Michigan Benefits Trends, Employers’ Response to Health Care Reform
McGraw Wentworth

Nation’s First Private Health Care Exchange for Pre- and Post-65 Retirees Enhanced to Offer More Choice, Stronger Consumer Support
HR Policy Association

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