Pensions & Investments

401(k) Administrative Assistant
Daily NYC Third Party Administrator
in NY

Client Relationship Associate
retirement advisory services corp
in PA

409A Benefits Coordinator
JPMorgan Chase
in KS

ERISA and Employee Benefits Attorney
Choate Hall & Stewart
in MA

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Understanding Fiduciary Services, and Investment Policy Statements
March 26, 2014 in CT
(National Institute of Pension Administrators-CT Chapter)

401(k) Plan Workshop 2014, April-June, 22 Cities
April 22, 2014 in WI
(SunGard Relius)

PPA Document In-depth Review
April 23, 2014 WEBCAST
(ASCi)

Tax Forms Workshop: 5500 and More, April-June, 22 Cities,
April 23, 2014 in MO
(SunGard Relius)

DGEM Document System Review
May 7, 2014 WEBCAST
(ASCi)

PPA Pre-Approved Plans Workshop - Corbel and PPD Documents, May-June, 12 Cities
May 7, 2014 in MN
(SunGard Relius)

2014 IRA Institute
October 6, 2014 in AZ
(Ascensus)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

2014NAFE (2014 NIPA Annual Forum & Expo)

[Official Guidance]

Text of PBGC Premium Payment Instructions for 2014 (PDF)
57 pages; includes illustrative forms. Excerpt: "This document provides information for plans paying premiums for plan years beginning in 2014, including instructions for each data element that must be reported. If you are filing for a previous year, you must follow the instructions for that year ... If you are amending a filing for a plan year that did not begin in 2014, the rules in this document do not apply. You must follow the instructions and regulations applicable for that plan year." [Editor's note: These are draft instructions submitted to OMB in March 2014. PBGC notes in its announcement: "PBGC will make My PAA available for 2014 filings after OMB approves the instructions. PBGC expects My PAA will be available for 2014 filings well before the first filing deadline for 2014 (October 15, 2014). Until then, PBGC is not accepting 2014 filings."] (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])  

[Advert.]

SunGard's Relius Presents Retirement Plan Workshops April-June

Relius PPA Workshops help prepare staff for plan restatements
401(k) Workshops offer solutions to help with thorny 401(k) plan issues
Tax Forms: 5500 and More addresses many tax forms that daily confront retirement plan practitioners.

[Guidance Overview]

PBGC Final Rule Makes Significant Changes to Premium Due Dates, Rates and Payments
"Premium due dates currently depend on plan size, with large, mid-size and small plans all paying flat-rate and variable-rate premiums according to different schedules. The final rule eliminates the current system of three premium due dates and returns to one uniform due date for both flat-rate and variable-rate premiums of plans of all sizes." (Practical Law Company)  

[Guidance Overview]

DOL Proposes 408(b)(2) Disclosure Guide
"The proposed guide would not be a summary of the disclosures. Instead, it would be a roadmap to the location of all the required information in the disclosure documents.... For each of these disclosure elements, the guide would provide a document and page reference, or other 'sufficiently specific locator' such as a section number or a hyperlink ... that would enable the responsible plan fiduciary to 'quickly and easily' find the required disclosure.... DOL specifically requested commentary on numerous aspects of the proposal, signaling a possibility that any final rule could diverge materially from the proposal." (Sutherland)  

[Guidance Overview]

New Guide to Service Provider Fee Disclosures Required Under DOL Proposed Rule
"This new requirement applies only to covered service providers whose initial disclosures are either: Not contained in a single document [or] Contained in a single document that exceeds a specified number of pages. The DOL is specifically requesting comments on the number of pages or length of document that will trigger the guide requirement if the initial disclosures are furnished in a single, lengthy document." (Practical Law Company)  

On 401(k)s, Plan Fees Really Do Matter, and the Government Wants to Get You a Better Deal
"Like a GPS device calling out turn-by-turn directions, the guide would direct employers to a specific page or section to easily find fee information. Why does this matter to you? Because your employer has a fiduciary responsibility to act in your best interest regarding your workplace plan. To this end, your employer also has an obligation to watch the fees and expenses and to make sure they are reasonable. Folks, this guide directly affects you." (The Washington Post; subscription may be required)  

[Advert.]

National Conference on ESOPs and Stock Plans: April 2014

If you work with employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) or equity compensation plans, the Employee Ownership Conference in Atlanta will keep you up to date. Early rate expires on March 17, overflow rooms now available!

DOL Wants to Mandate Guide to 401(k) Fee Disclosures
"In recent years, the department has been trying to call attention to fees and other practices that could slowly eat away at workers' retirement savings.... [EBSA's Phyllis Borzi] said the guide could ultimately appear in a different format, such as a summary, but she acknowledged it would be difficult to shorten or streamline the disclosures themselves." (Reuters)  

Phyllis Borzi Tightens Noose on 401(k) Providers That Flout DOL Disclosure, But Is the Solution Worse Than the Cure?
"Phyllis Borzi had this message for 401(k) providers ... in so many words: Cut the crap. Allowing that she is troubled by 401(k) providers that are circumventing her demands for clear fee disclosures in 401(k) plan documents, [Borzi,] speaking at a media telephone press conference ... said her hand was being forced about creating rules about how to abide by existing rules.... In conjunction with the call, the [DOL] released a proposed rule that will require advisors and other 401(k) plan vendors to craft a table of contents with their disclosures that leaves no ambiguity about bottom-line costs." (RIABiz)  

DOL Hopes to Release Financial Advisers Rule by August
"The U.S. Department of Labor is eyeing August as a target to release a controversial proposal that would require retirement plan financial advisers to put their clients' interests ahead of their own, a department official confirmed Wednesday. 'We are not quite finished. We haven't made all of our decisions,' Phyllis Borzi, the assistant secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, said ... 'August is our goal.'" (Reuters)  

Novant Health Sued by Employees Over Retirement Plan Fees
"Novant Health Inc. was sued by a retired doctor and six other current and former employees alleging the nonprofit hospital operator's retirement plan charged millions of dollars in excessive fees.... 'Given the massive bargaining power of a plan at or near $1 billion in total plan assets, a 'large' plan in industry terms, prudent fiduciaries consider far lower cost investments that are accessible to institutional investors,' lawyers for the employees said in the complaint." (Bloomberg)  

Segmenting Retirement Planning for the Wealthy, the Middle, and the Poor
"In a new paper, behavioral finance researcher Meir Statman makes the case that the primary reason many proposals have fallen flat is that they do not properly segment prospective retirees, as the needs and issues -- and potential solutions -- are substantively different depending on whether the target is the wealthy, the poor, or the middle. And even amongst the middle, the needs of the steady earners and savers is far different than those who may have the income by are struggling to save due to spending." (Rachel Zeller in Nerd's Eye View)  

401(k) Index Observations: February 2014
"[P]lan participants favored fixed income in February -- a reversal of trends from the past four month -- as 10 of the 19 trading days saw fixed income receive transfer inflows. Overall, net transfer activity for February moved slightly away from diversified equities (equity assets excluding company stock) by $21 million (0.01%). Total transfer activity across the Index was low, at $264 million (0.17%). On the other hand, employee discretionary contributions to equities, another measure of participant sentiment, increased to 66.5% in February, up from 65.6% in January." (Aon Hewitt)  

Self-Directed Investors Show Remarkable Confidence in Reaching Retirement Goals
"81 percent of the total population believes they will retire between the age of 55 and 74 -- only 5 percent believe they will never retire. 63 percent age 55-64 believe they won't need to work at all in retirement.... 55 percent of the total population recommends online tools that help determine monthly contributions, followed by talking with a professional (43 percent), attending in-person seminars (25 percent) and watching online tutorials (23 percent). 63 percent of the total population believes automated contributions are better than periodically deciding how much you want to invest (37 percent)." (eTrade via BusinessWire)  

Getting the Target Date Right: What Plan Sponsors Need to Know (PDF)
8 pages. Excerpt: "[P]lan sponsors tend to focus on metrics such as performance and expenses while placing less emphasis on an investigation of the workings of the glide path, or dynamic asset allocation, that the funds employ to achieve their objectives.... [P]lan sponsors generally desire to reduce risk to participants' retirement income, but they have not adopted a disciplined approach for implementing relevant safeguards." (Putnam Investments)  

The Case of the Missing Retirement Income
"[If] once or twice a year you take some money from your retirement account, put it into a transaction checking or savings account, and then spend it, either immediately or gradually, this spending is not considered retirement income by the Census Bureau. If it's not a regular payment, it's not retirement income.... The old notion of income, as a monthly payment, is giving way to other forms of income, including ad hoc or aperiodic withdrawals from retirement accounts. We all need to adjust our thinking. And on a practical level, for plans seeking to retain participants in the post-retirement phase, modifying plan rules to allow ad hoc withdrawals (and not just systematic payments) by participants is a first and obvious step." (Vanguard)  

Group Pension Buy-Outs Experience Strong Sales in 2013
"Sales of pension risk buy-out products topped $3.8 billion in 2013 ... This represents the best sales year for these products since 1999 with the exception of 2012 when General Motors and Verizon transferred their group pension obligations to Prudential ... An improved interest rate environment in 2013 enabled more companies to make gains on full funding of their pension plans, a prerequisite to consider a pension risk transfer." (LIMRA)  

401(k) Employee Education Tip: Overcoming Worry
"Recent studies have shown that the more frequently investors review their portfolios, the more conservatively they invest. This is not a positive outcome.... Investors who reviewed their portfolios on a monthly basis had allocations of roughly 60% bonds and 40% stocks. Conversely, those that reviewed their portfolios annually had allocations of 70% stocks 30% bonds -- a huge difference." (Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants)  

Proposal Would Change TSP Default Settings
"The Smart Savings Act ... would change the default enrollment fund in the Thrift Savings Plan for new hires from the G Fund to the lifecycle (L) funds ... The G fund is the most stable investment of the TSP's options, while the L funds ... are crafted to help yield higher returns through diversity.... [W]hile automatic enrollment has increased TSP participation, new government hires under the age of 29 have too much money invested in the G Fund -- likely a result of auto-enrollment's G Fund default option." (Government Executive)  

Funding Status Does Not Preclude Withdrawal from Multiemployer Plan
"Under [PPA '06], if a pension fund is in critical status, the trustees have to adopt a rehabilitation plan. The rehabilitation plan usually increases contributions and adjusts benefits so that the plan will eventually reduce its underfunding. To some extent, the rehabilitation plan assumes that the number of contributing employers will remain constant. So a withdrawing employer can cause some frustration but being in critical status with a rehabilitation plan does not lock an employer into the plan." (Fox Rothschild LLP)  

Mastering the 'File and Suspend' Social Security Benefit Claim Strategy
"File and suspend is a strategy that can raise benefits for qualifying couples through the use of a combination of spousal benefits and what Social Security calls delayed retirement credits. At least one member of the couple must have reached full retirement age, currently 66 for people born between 1943 and 1954." (AARP)  

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, December 2013 (PDF)
"Private industry employers spent an average of $29.63 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December 2013 ... Wages and salaries averaged $20.76 per hour worked and accounted for 70.1 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $8.87 and accounted for the remaining 29.9 percent.... Private industry employer costs averaged $2.45 per hour worked for insurance benefits (life, health, and disability insurance), or 8.3 percent of total compensation. In addition to insurance, ... retirement and savings ... averaged $1.10 per hour (3.7 percent)." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)  

Financial Planning Considerations for Same-Sex Couples After Windsor
12 pages. Excerpt: "As a result of the new ruling, employee benefits and financial planning strategies once available only to opposite-sex married couples may now be available to same-sex married couples. This paper highlights several of the changes that have taken place, and details how same-sex couples may wish to incorporate them into their financial planning." [Includes a checklist; updated March 2014.] (Prudential Retirement)  

2013 SEC Comment Letter Trends: Pensions and Other Postretirement Benefits (PDF)
14 pages. Excerpt: "[The authors] have prepared this publication to assist management teams in identifying and understanding the SEC staff's current focus related to pensions and OPEB. The information summarized within this publication is based on comment letters published by the SEC staff between January 1, 2013 and September 15, 2013 related to pensions and OPEB. [They] have highlighted the more prevalent issues commented on by the SEC staff and provided relevant examples of recent comments to aid preparers in ensuring their disclosures are robust and consistent with the accounting, valuation, and reporting guidance for pensions and OPEB." (PricewaterhouseCoopers)  

'Substantial Risk of Forfeiture' Clarification Impacts Restricted Property (Stock) Grants
"The final regulations will have the most direct impact on employers who have granted awards of restricted stock or other restricted property on or after January 1, 2013. That is because the regulations stress the need for these agreements to contain a service or performance-based vesting condition that is not substantially certain to be satisfied.... [T]he final regulations generally offer 'clarifications' of the former regulations rather than new guidance. Still, it is important that affected employers review their restricted stock arrangements and determine whether they should take additional action." (Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP)  

Tax Reform Proposal Takes Aim at Executive Compensation
"Congressman Camp's proposal includes the elimination of tax deductions for commission payments and qualified performance-based compensation under Section 162(m) ... the narrowing of the 'substantial risk of forfeiture' concept as applied to nonqualified deferred compensation under Code Section 409A; the imposition of a penalty excise tax on the payment of 'excess' compensation and certain golden parachute payments to service providers of tax-exempt organizations; and the denial of corporate tax deductions for stock transferred pursuant to incentive stock option plans." (Proskauer's ERISA Practice Center)  

Five-Year Trends Point to the Link Between Benefits Education and Business Success
"Employees' ratings of their benefits packages have remained consistent since 2008. About half rate their benefits as excellent or very good. But about 20% rate them poor or fair.... When it comes time to enroll in benefits, the most frequently used method is online with no assistance (48%), followed by a paper form (33%). People generally also said they preferred these methods. However, 45% of employees said they would like assistance from their benefits staff or another benefits expert. Unfortunately, only 20% reported that help was available." (Unum)  

Financial Professionals Rank The Principal No. 1 for Plan Sponsor Support
Principal Financial Group

ING U.S. Becomes Service Provider for the Angell Pension Group Retirement Savings Program
ING U.S.

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