EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com logo BenefitsLink.com logo

BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter

January 31, 2014          Get Health & Welfare News  |  Advertise
         Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Human Resources Benefits Analyst
MTA New York City Transit
in NY

Participant Education Specialist
Brokerage Firm
in MD

401k Internal Sales Consultant
ASPire Financial Services LLC
in FL

Sales Support Administrator SR
AUL / OneAmerica Financial Partner
in PA

Trading Analyst
The Newport Group
in FL

Defined Benefit/Defined Contribution Specialist
United Retirement Plan Consultants
in CA

Post Your Job

View All Jobs

RSS feed for jobs RSS Feed: All Jobs


Webcasts and Conferences

COBRA Notices for Rookies: Informing Participants and Protecting the Plan
January 30, 2014 WEBCAST
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

Arming the Consumer: Increasing Value Through Technology and Transparency
February 4, 2014 WEBCAST
(National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation)

The Ongoing Evolution of the 403(b) Plan Marketplace
February 5, 2014 WEBCAST
(Multnomah Group)

Understanding Benefits Subject to Health Care Reform: Staying Within the Exceptions for Health FSAs, HRAs, Dental/Vision, EAPs, and More
February 20, 2014 WEBCAST
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

Why Is This Guy Still on My Health Plan?
March 27, 2014 WEBCAST
(Lorman Education Services)

View All Webcasts and Conferences


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

Text of GASB Implementation Guide for Statement 68: Accounting and Financial Reporting for Governmental Pensions
210 pages. Excerpt: "This Implementation Guide is intended to serve as a reference and an instructional tool. It is designed to help readers in applying the provisions of Statement No. 68, Accounting and Financial Reporting for Pensions, which was approved in June 2012.... The questions and answers are based on constituent responses to the Preliminary Views and the Exposure Draft that led to the Statement, Board deliberations, technical inquiries arising since the issuance of the Statement, and insight by both the GASB staff and the guide's advisory committee." (Governmental Accounting Standards Board)  


[Advert.]

Learn how to diversify and add return to your portfolio - February 11, NYC

Sponsored by Pensions & Investments

Experts and plan sponsors will present an up-close look at DC plans which have had success with alternative investments, and show how these investments may help add return to your portfolio. Learn about the various attributes alternatives can add.



[Guidance Overview]

GASB 67 Implementation Deadline Nears for Governmental Pension Plans, One Year Earlier than GASB 68 (PDF)
"Pension plans with fiscal years ending June 30 that produce stand-alone Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) will have to comply with GASB 67 beginning June 30, 2014.... The primary financial statements have not changed significantly for pension plans, but the note disclosures and required supplementary information (RSI) have. Many of the changes will be additional information supplied by your actuary, but other disclosures will need information from other professionals. [This article identifies] the changes ... that may not be provided by your actuary or that may require decisions by the Board or staff." (Cheiron)  

GASB Issues Guidance for Implementing Statement 68
"[The Implementation Guide for Statement 68] is an authoritative resource designed to assist preparers and auditors of state and local government financial statements as they implement the Statement, which is effective for periods beginning after June 15, 2014.... Topics addressed in the Guide include: [1] The scope and applicability of GASB Statement No. 68; [2] Accounting and Financial Reporting for Pensions; [3] Considerations regarding the identification of special funding situations; [4] Measurement of defined benefit pension liabilities of employers and nonemployer contributing entities; [5] Pension expense and deferred inflows and outflows of resources related to pensions; [6] Note disclosures and required supplementary information; [7] Unique issues related to cost-sharing employers and certain nonemployer contributing entities; [and] [8] Transition to the new standards." (Governmental Accounting Standards Board)  

2014 Planning for ERISA Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plan Operations (PDF)
"The calendar provided in this [article] will help you set up your own schedule of activities to address as the year progresses so that you do not miss important deadlines.... Is plan administration in order? ... Are your documents in good shape ... Are you ready for actuarial and financial disclosure ... Have you communicated with your actuary? ... Are you using alternative investments?" (Buck Consultants)  

Retirement Plan Compliance Considerations and Questions for 2014 (PDF)
"Does your plan need to be submitted to the [IRS] for a determination letter during Cycle D? ... What processes do you have in place to ensure fulfillment of your fiduciary duties, and how are those processes documented? ... Did you obtain 408(b)(2) disclosures from all service providers who were required to provide them? Were the disclosures understandable? How did you assess (and document) reasonableness? Are the 404a-5 notices you are sending to your participants compliant? What actions are being taken to document compliance with 404a-5?" (ERISA Law Group)  

PBGC Uses 'Partition' Authority to Protect Pensions of Hostess Bakery Former Employees
"Using its partition authority for only the third time ever, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation will pay retirement benefits for nearly 350 former Hostess Brands employees who were members of the Bakery and Sales Drivers Local 33 Industry Pension Fund, a distressed multiemployer plan in Baltimore. The Bakery and Sales Drivers couldn't afford retirement benefits for former Hostess employees and asked PBGC to pay for them. Separating Hostess participants from the rest of the plan will enable the plan to avoid insolvency and preserve pension benefits for most of the plan's 700 participants." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])  

Treasury's MyRA Program Could Supplement Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans
"[T]he MyRA program may prove to be a good supplemental program for employers that offer a retirement plan that does not cover all of their employees. For example, the MyRA program may be offered to temporary, seasonal, part-time, or student workers who do not otherwise meet participation requirements in an employer's traditional retirement plan. Importantly, because employers will not administer or contribute to the MyRA program, fiduciary requirements are unlikely to be implicated." (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

Obama Looks to TSP to Create New Retirement Savings Plan for Private Sector
"The plan will give private-sector workers the 'same security investment return available to federal employees,' according to the White House, by earning the same variable interest rate as the TSP's G Fund. 'It's the same structure as the G Fund in the Thrift Savings Plan, so it's the average of yields that are above four years,' said Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Wednesday. 'And it's something that we're very familiar with because most federal employees have a [TSP] and it's really the same mechanism.'" (Government Executive)  

Kentucky Requires Employers to Report Certain Retirement Plan Distributions
"Kentucky employers with 20 or more employees need to notify the child support office if any of its employees who is currently under a wage withholding order for child support terminates employment and is due to receive a retirement plan distribution of at least $150. The notification requirement only applies if the employee elects to receive the distribution in cash. If the employee chooses to roll his distribution to an IRA or another plan, then there is no requirement to notify the child support office." (Retirement Management Services LLC)  

North Carolina Treasurer May Cede Control of Pension Investments
"North Carolina's [state treasurer] Janet Cowell ... [is] poised to voluntarily surrender her status as one of four officials nationwide with sole control over state pension investments. The 45-year-old Democrat, a former equities analyst, this month appointed a commission to evaluate how investments are made for North Carolina's $83 billion public pension ... The board may recommend in April removing Cowell as sole trustee, replacing her with a panel or another model[.]" (Bloomberg)  

Pension Plan De-Risking Likely to Continue, Even With Higher Funding
"The very volatility of which the upturn is a part could convince plan sponsors to make moves, such as purchasing group annuity contracts to transfer pension liabilities or offering lump-sum benefit distributions ... Pension regulations on plan terminations could also mean that improved funding levels are a catalyst for such steps, while increases in pension insurance premiums might help push the de-risking tide as well[.]" (Bloomberg BNA)  

NYC Comptroller Will Widen Ban on Pension Investment Placement Agents
"New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who oversees $150 billion in pension assets, called for expanding a ban on agents who solicit investments for the city's five pension funds.... Stringer is widening a ban on pension placements to cover assets classes other than private equity as New York state's top financial regulator is probing companies advising city and state pension funds with more than $350 billion in assets. Stringer said his plan wasn't a response to any abuses in the comptroller's office." (Bloomberg)  

Draft of Detroit Bankruptcy Settlement Said to Favor Pension Funds
"The plan's balance-sheet projections show the base scenario designed by the city calls for $4.2 billion to be divvied up among the city's unsecured creditors, including some bondholders and the city's pension funds. The pot of money would be divided to allow Detroit's two municipal pension funds to recover more than 40% of the money the city says they are owed. In contrast, less than 20% of the money owed to unsecured bondholders would be paid." (The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)  

Retirement Plans: A Big Benefit for Small Business Employees
"[M]ore attention is being paid to the high costs small businesses incur to offer retirement plans. Now, more than ever, there are turn-key solutions, which can provide low-cost, high-quality retirement plan services and aim to address the frustrations small business owners face. As the challenges of cost and administrative burden lessen, small businesses are better positioned to help their employees get ready for retirement." (Vanguard)  

Trouble Ahead for the Non-ERISA 403(b) Plan
"The ability to maintain the non-ERISA status of a ... 403(b) plan seems to have dimmed considerably late last year when the DOL took an interesting position in a lawsuit it filed last year against a 403(b) plan administrator. The administrator regularly delayed depositing elective deferrals into a non-ERISA 403(b) plan for 3 or 4 months -- a time period for which we would all agree is pretty egregious. What makes the case so striking (besides the fact that it is an enforcement effort by the DOL against a 403(b) plan, of which we have seen few) is that the DOL appears to condition the plan's ERISA status on the 'discretion' exercised by the plan administrator in failing to make timely deposits." (Business of Benefits)  

Get Your Ducks in a Row: 58 Questions from the Department of Labor (PDF)
"Frequently, plan sponsors want a satisfactory answer to the question, 'why me?' However, the 'why' is less important than ensuring the sponsor's responses to the Department 's inquiries are addressed completely and accurately. And while each audit may generate questions specific to the audit being conducted, there are a number of questions that come up on a recurring basis providing a good opportunity for plans to 'self-audit' their compliance and record retention practices." (Multnomah Group)  

Changing the Policy Conversation: Improving the Retirement System by Driving Change in Washington (PDF)
"The defined contribution system is in transition.... Public policy needs to evolve as well. Rules that made sense for early iterations of the DC system may hamper its ability to function most effectively in its current role. Today's policymakers have an opportunity to craft rules and guidelines that build on new insights, particularly in the areas of participant behavior and plan design." (State Street Global Advisors)  

Implications of Growing Differences in Life Expectancy Across Socioeconomic Groups for CBO's Analyses of Social Security Policy Options (PDF)
25 presentation slides. Topics: "How might growing differences in life expectancy across socioeconomic groups influence our analysis of various Social Security policy options? In particular, what happens to our assessment of raising the eligibility age or ages? What tools does CBO use to look at implications of growing differences in life expectancy in the future?" (Congressional Budget Office)  

[Opinion]

Employer Mandate Key to Harkin Retirement Plan Proposal
"Harkin disputed that 401(k)s were really retirement plans in the first place, calling them 'savings plans' and saying that they were never intended to replace pensions. He said he does not mean to replace pensions and 401(k)s, but rather to provide something for those who lack access to them.... Just offering any 401(k) will not be enough to relieve an employer of the requirement to provide access to a USA Retirement Fund account, a fact Harkin did not discuss at the press conference. An employer-provided 401(k) must include automatic enrollment and a lifetime income option, and if it does not, an employer must change its plan so it does so. If they do not, they would have to participate in the USA Retirement Fund." (National Association of Plan Advisors)  

[Opinion]

Why Is the White House in Denial About Our Pension Poverty?
"About 15 percent of Americans don't have healthcare coverage, so President Obama brought about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to remedy the problem. At the same time, 90 percent of Americans working in the private sector can't afford to retire. The remedy? Let some of them save their own money with a workplace IRA." (The Huffington Post)  

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Second Quarter Update to the 2013-2014 Priority Guidance Plan (PDF)
"The 2013-2014 Priority Guidance Plan contains 324 projects that are priorities for allocation of the resources of our offices during the twelve-month period from July 2013 through June 2014 (the plan year). The plan represents projects we intend to work on actively during the plan year and does not place any deadline on completion of projects." [Employee benefits items start on page 5.] (Internal Revenue Service)  

Employment Cost Index, December 2013 (PDF)
"Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.5 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the 3-month period ending December 2013 ... Wages and salaries (which make up about 70 percent of compensation costs) increased 0.6 percent, and benefits (which make up the remaining 30 percent of compensation) increased 0.6 percent." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)  

NASDAQ and NYSE Issue Compensation Committee Certification Forms (PDF)
"The NYSE form, entitled 'Domestic Company Section 303A Annual Written Affirmation' and NASDAQ form, entitled 'Compensation Committee Certification', may be submitted electronically. The NYSE form must be executed by a company officer and the NASDAQ form must be executed by a company authorized representative." (Meridian Compensation Partners, LLC)  

IRS Issues Final Rules on Medicare Tax for High-Income Taxpayers
"The new Medicare tax affects individuals whose FICA wages exceed $250,000 for marrieds filing jointly, $125,000 for marrieds filing separately, and $200,000 for singles and heads of household. The final IRS regulations provide rules to guide employers in computing, withholding, reporting and paying the new Medicare tax on wages. If an error is not caught in the same year wages are paid, the employer must issue a corrected W-2c to the employee, who must then file an amended return on Form 1040X." (Towers Watson)  

Press Releases

Connect   LinkedIn   Twitter   Facebook
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park, Florida 32789
Phone (407) 644-4146
Fax (407) 644-2151

Lois Baker, J.D., President
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager

Copyright © 2014 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. -- but feel free to forward this newsletter without further permission from us, if you do not modify the newsletter in any way (including this lower portion).

All materials contained in this newsletter are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., or in the case of third party materials, the owner of that content. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.

Links to Web sites other than those owned by BenefitsLink.com, Inc. are offered as a service to readers. The editorial staff of BenefitsLink.com, Inc. was not involved in their production and is not responsible for their content.

Useful links: