Actuarial Specialist
Kravitz, Inc.
in CA

Defined Contribution Plan Administrator
Tyler, Simms & St. Sauveur, CPAs P.C.
in NH

Defined Benefit/Cash Balance Plan Administrator
Bates & Company, Inc.
in FL

Post Your Job

View All Jobs

RSS Feed: All Jobs

Hardship, In-service and Elective Deferral Distributions
March 20, 2014 WEBCAST
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

Controlled Groups
March 25, 2014 WEBCAST
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

Bitcoins: Retirement Plan and IRA Investment in Digital Currencies
March 27, 2014 WEBCAST
(Seyfarth Shaw LLP)

401(k) Investment Lineup Summit - San Francisco
April 1, 2014 in CA
(Pensions & Investments)

Cafeteria Plans
May 20, 2014 in MN
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

HSAs, HRAs, and Consumer-Driven Health Care
May 21, 2014 in MN
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Guidance Overview]

Governmental Employer Participation in Cost-Sharing Multiple-Employer Plans: Issues Related to Information for Employer Reporting (PDF)
"[A] cost-sharing plan is one in which ... plan assets can be used to pay retirees of any participating employer in the plan... Prior to implementing GASB Statement No. 68, employers participating in a cost-sharing plan recognize annual pension expense equal to their contractually required contribution to the plan.... Once GASB Statement No. 68 is implemented, employers will be required to recognize a liability as employees earn their pension benefits ... For the first time, employers participating in cost-sharing plans will recognize their proportionate share of the collective pension amounts for all benefits provided through the plan.... [I]ndividual proportions will have to be determined by measuring each employer against the total of all of the employers participating in the plan." (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants [AICPA])  

[Advert.]

Knowledge for Every Retirement Plan Professional

The Retirement Plan Fundamentals (RPF) program is designed to convey the broad base of knowledge necessary for every retirement plan professional to master. Register to take the exam with ASPPA and show employers you are serious about mastering your profession!

[Guidance Overview]

Enrolled Actuary Program Examination Booklet for May 2014 Exams (PDF)
Updated February 2014; 32 pages. Excerpt: "The actuarial knowledge requirement for enrollment is augmented by a requirement that a candidate have certain responsible pension actuarial experience. Through a combined knowledge and experience requirement, the Joint Board seeks to determine which applicants for the designation of Enrolled Actuary have the skills necessary to protect the interests of pension plan participant... Not all topics listed in the syllabus of this examination program are necessarily covered on any particular year's examination, nor are the examination questions necessarily confined solely to the listed topics or suggested readings." (Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries [JBEA], American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries [ASPPA] and Society of Actuaries)  

[Guidance Overview]

2013 Continuing Ed Material for IRS EP Personnel: Plan Qualification, Rev. Proc. 2007-44 (PDF)
67 pages, dated 2013. Excerpt: "At the end of this chapter, you will be able to: [1] Describe the remedial amendment concepts, [2] Describe the remedial amendment period (RAP), [3] Identify the remedial amendment cycles (RAC) for both individually designed and pre-approved plans, [4] Identify when an interim amendment is required, and [5] Describe on cycle and off cycle determination letter filings." (Internal Revenue Service)  

[Guidance Overview]

2013 Continuing Ed Material for IRS EP Personnel: Plan Qualification, Recent Updates to the Cumulative List (2010-2011) (PDF)
18 pages, dated 2013. Excerpt: "This breakout topic is intended to introduce the new items that first appear on the 2010 and 2011 [Cumulative Lists (CLs)]. For each item, we will list: [1] Its Code section in the order it appears on the CLs, [2] Whether the item is an interim (required) or discretionary (optional) amendment, [3] Whether or not the plan must adopt an interim amendment, [4] The amendment's effective and due dates, and [5] A description of its related law change or guidance." (Internal Revenue Service)  

[Guidance Overview]

2013 Continuing Ed Material for IRS EP Personnel: Plan Qualification Changes, 2009 Cumulative List (PDF)
47 pages, dated 2013. Excerpt: "This chapter summarizes certain requirements on the 2009 Cumulative List. Some topics were chosen because they were not covered in prior CPEs, even though these topics were listed on older Cumulative Lists. Other topics were chosen if they were recent changes, such as being listed on the 2008 or 2009 Cumulative List." (Internal Revenue Service)  

Best Practices for Retirement Plan Committees for 401(k) and 403(b) Plans
"A retirement committee of members who have a thorough knowledge of the plan and its provisions enables the plan sponsor to demonstrate compliance with fiduciary requirements ... Each committee member should have a defined role such as reviewing procedures or reviewing plan investment choices.... Decide on a meeting schedule (monthly or quarterly) and have dates, times, and meeting sites set so members can plan ahead.... [Included are] suggestions for items of discussion by committee members[.]" (Retirement Management Services LLC)  

PBGC Determines Puerto Rico Pension Plan Not Covered
"In an individual coverage determination, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has ruled that a plan is not covered under its pension insurance program because the plan's trust is located in Puerto Rico. This might be another step toward denying PBGC coverage to plans qualified only in Puerto Rico that don't meet all the requirements for coverage." (Towers Watson)  

Simple IRAs vs. Safe Harbor 401(k) Plans: What Are the Differences?
3 page chart. Excerpt: "SIMPLE IRAs carry a lower administrative burden than 401(k) Safe Harbor Plans, due to simplified plan documents, and no annual compliance testing or 5500 government reporting requirements.... The purpose of this outline is to compare a SIMPLE IRA with a safe harbor 401(k) plan -- especially for employers who must cover participants other than just the owners." (Retirement Management Services, LLC)  

Disposition of Forfeitures in 401(k) and Other Defined Contribution Plans
"In the event the Plan document allows forfeitures to be utilized by Plan Sponsors to pay plan expenses or fund employer contributions, forfeitures are often 'found money' that helps the Company's cash flow. Instead of wiring funds from the general assets of the Company, the Plan sponsor instructs the recordkeeper/custodian to use the money that is sitting in the Plan's forfeiture account." (EisnerAmper)  

Behavioral Effects and Indexing in DC Participant Accounts 2004-2012
"Participant investment allocations in DC plans are influenced by a complex set of behavioral mechanisms, including default, simplified choice, menu, and inertia effects ... In an effort to reduce plan costs or active risk exposure, plan sponsors ... may exploit these effects in several ways: adding index target-date funds to the plan investment menu, designating index target-date options as the plan's default investment, or reenrolling participants into index target-date strategies.... [T]he choice of a type of target-date series is likely to strongly influence the cost and active risk exposure of an entire DC plan over time." (Vanguard)  

[Opinion]

A Case for Changing Public Retirement Benefits in Georgia (and Possibly Elsewhere) (PDF)
"Georgia's pension plans are relatively rich and they have been well funded. However, Georgia's Other Post-Employment Benefits plans (OPEB) have been poorly funded.... On a per-employee basis, the state's taxpayer-funded annual contributions to Georgia's pension plans are greater than what private sector employers typically contribute to retirement plans, including Social Security. State contributions have been growing substantially, and this trend will continue.... Georgia can place itself on stable financial footing and tax Georgia's citizens fairly for work that is currently performed by Georgia employees by following other states' lead and converting Georgia's retirement systems to defined contribution-type systems." (Georgia Public Policy Foundation)  

[Opinion]

All Is Not 'Fine' with Retirement Plan Coverage
"One component of the 'all-fine' effort is the contention that coverage is not a serious problem, since about 80% of workers have access to some form of pension. (The actual figure is 78%, but they use 80%, so I will also.) That number is very different from the figure I usually use -- namely, that only 42% of private-sector workers aged 25-64 participate in an employer-sponsored plan.... [L]ess than half of private sector workers are participating in a plan. That does not sound all fine to me." (Alicia Munnell, Director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, in MarketWatch.com)  

Dramatic Changes to Code Sections 409A and 162(m) Proposed by Republican Ways and Means Chairman (PDF)
"The bill provides that nonqualified deferred compensation attributable to services after 2014 will be subject to taxation when there is no longer a 'substantial risk of forfeiture,' i.e., when amounts vest. This would largely eliminate the opportunity for executives to defer income taxation on compensation earned.... [and] would appear to make it very difficult to provide employees with excess retirement benefits." (Groom Law Group)  

Compensation Best Practices as Proxy Season Nears
"Continuous modeling of a company's financial data is the most reliable way to arrive at metrics for pay for performance ... [T]otal shareholder return continues to be the primary measure of a company's financial performance. But there's an ongoing debate about whether to include metrics that more accurately reflect senior executives' actual contribution to the company's value as opposed to rewarding them for merely 'riding the wave of a commodity price' boom[.]" (Corporate Secretary)  

Mercer Consultants James Bernstein, Robert Ditty, And Jan Wigen Recognized As 2014 Power Broker Winners By Risk & Insurance Magazine
Mercer

Life Insurance Industry Reacts To Chairman Camp’s Draft Tax Reform Proposal
American Council of Life Insurers

Target Retirement Funds Bring Home The Gold Again
Vanguard

American Academy of Actuaries Announces Health Care Cost Initiative
American Academy of Actuaries

On the Heels of Significant Growth, Ascensus Rebrands with Eye Toward Future
Ascensus

View All Press Releases