WEB - Worldwide Employee Benefits Network

Plan Administrator
BlueStar Retirement Services
in FL

Retirement Plan Conversion Specialist
Wilmington Trust, an affiliate of M&T Bank
in AZ

ERISA Attorney
Corporate Synergies Group, LLC
in NJ

Retirement Plan Administrators
MVP Plan Administrators, Inc.
in NC

Employee Benefits Attorney
Keating Muething & Klekamp, PLL
in OH

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The Importance Of Internal Controls For Employee Benefit Plans -- Recorded
April 28, 2014 WEBCAST
(McGladrey LLP)

Legal Analysis and Considerations for 3(16) Administrators
April 29, 2014 WEBCAST
(Principal Financial Group)

Plan Document Maintenance: Why is it Important for Benefit Plans?
May 8, 2014 WEBCAST
(McGladrey LLP)

Best Practices for Conducting Effectual Plan Committee Meetings
May 15, 2014 WEBCAST
(Pension Consultants, Inc.)

PPA Pre-Approved Plans Workshop - Corbel and PPD Documents - Charlotte
May 20, 2014 in NC
(SunGard Relius)

2014 Webinar: Rollovers Between Retirement Plans and IRAs
May 20, 2014 WEBCAST
(Ascensus)

401(k) Plan Workshop 2014 - Charlotte
May 21, 2014 in NC
(SunGard Relius)

Tax Forms Workshop: 5500 and More - Charlotte
May 22, 2014 in NC
(SunGard Relius)

Public Exchange Enrollment-Mix and Claims Results: Implications for 2014 Performance and 2015 Planning
May 28, 2014 WEBCAST
(Atlantic Information Services, Inc)

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[Guidance Overview]

IRS Issues Rules for Changes by Safe Harbor 401(k) Plans
"An employer seeking to reduce or suspend its safe harbor contributions for 2014 should consider doing the following to take advantage of the additional flexibility provided by the final regulations: [1] determine whether it is operating at an economic loss; [2] review its safe harbor notice for 2014 to determine whether such notice includes the [required] information ... and [3] arrange for non-discrimination testing to be performed for the plan year." (Wolff & Samson)  

[Advert.]

SunGard's Relius Presents Retirement Plan Workshops April-June

Staying current on IRS and DOL changes is a constant challenge for busy pension professionals and practitioners. Relius Workshops help prepare you and your staff to meet the challenge. Multi-program and early discounts are available. Register now.

Target-Date Funds: What Retirement Savers Should Know
"The irony of this distinction is not just that 'to' funds may require you to reassess your investments in retirement itself-as they're not really intended to take you through retirement at that point-but that 'to' funds may actually leave retirees better prepared for retirement, after all. The reason is that recent research is finding the traditional 'through' fund approach -- where exposure to stocks stays higher in earlier retirement and drifts downward over time -- may actually not be the optimal 'glide path' for equities." (Michael Kitces in The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)  

Helping Employees to Visualize Retirement
"Getting employees to build an 'emotional connection' with their future selves may be the key to getting them to save more for retirement.... [R]esearchers found that when study participants were given the chance to interact with 'age-enhanced' digital renderings of themselves ... They were willing to put an average of 6.8 percent of their pay into their 401(k) plans. This compares to participants in a control group who were not shown such images -- they were willing to contribute an average of only 5.2 percent of their pay." (Human Resource Executive Online)  

Is Famed Fiduciary Advocate Ron Rhoades Ready to Concede Defeat?
"[Rhoades recently predicted that the] DOL's new Fiduciary Rule will not apply to IRAs and the SEC will offer a 'New Federal Fiduciary Standard.' This new standard would include the same suitability standard as currently practiced by non-fiduciaries but with 'casual disclosure' requirements added on.... While an industry sponsored study claims billions of dollars in retirement assets will leave brokers if the DOL's proposed Fiduciary Rule were to include IRA, Rhoades says what the industry doesn't tell you is that it's really a migration already taking place." (Fiduciary News)  

No Portfolio Is an Island (PDF)
37 pages. Excerpt: "[I]ndustry-specific human capital, region-specific housing wealth, and pensions have statistically significant exposures to different asset classes and risk factors. Through a series of portfolio optimizations [the authors] determine that the optimal allocation for an investor's financial assets varies materially for different compositions of total wealth. These findings suggest that narrowly focused portfolio optimization routines that ignore human capital and outside wealth are insufficient, and that a holistic definition of wealth is necessary to build truly efficient portfolios." (Morningstar Investment Management)  

[Advert.]

Targeted Strategies to Increase Your Defined Contribution Market Share

Hear directly from industry innovators, retirement platforms, advisors & consultants on everything from effective product positioning, to the latest news in plan design, QDIAs, and regulatory updates. Mention FMP164 for 10% discount.

GAO Report to Senate Finance Committee: 'Private Pensions: Pension Tax Incentives Update'
"[F]rom 2009 through 2011, private-sector employers sponsored about 81,000 new pension plans, including 75,000 [DC] plans and 6,000 [DB] plans. DC plans with fewer than 100 participants accounted for about 90 percent of all new plan growth over this period.... The percentage of DC participants affected by the 2010 statutory limits and their income characteristics were similar to those reported previously for participants affected by the 2007 limits.... [A]bout 6 percent of all DC participants who contributed to their plans in 2010 were affected by the statutory limits ... Of this group: About 3 percent were under age 50 and contributed at least $16,500 (the elective deferral limit). About 3 percent were aged 50 or older and contributed at least $22,000 (the combined elective deferral and catch-up contribution limits). Another one-tenth of 1 percent of all ages contributed at or above the combined employer-participant contribution limit of $49,000." (U.S. Government Accountability Office)  

Managing Risk and Opportunity: Trends and Challenges in Defined Benefit Plans (PDF)
19 pages. Excerpt: "[R]isk management strategies appear to encompass three distinct categories: plan design, funding and investment, and settlement activities. Almost 50 percent of companies with plan assets in excess of $5 billion plan to manage risk only through investment practices, and none expect to transfer all of their obligations to a third party. In contrast, most plans with fewer than $5 billion in assets are not planning to rely only on investment practices. They also plan to manage risk through settlement activities." (Millennium Trust Company)  

[Opinion]

Why Are Many Members of Congress Among the Few Americans That Can Retire?
"The lack of mandates for an adequate retirement plan is ironic given that most long-serving members of Congress look forward to more generous pensions than the vast majority of their constituents. A member of Congress retiring with 20 years of service under Federal Employees' Retirement System and a high three-year average salary of $174,000 will get an initial annual FERS pension of more than $59,000 -- on top of Social Security. Compare that pension paycheck to the typical American worker. According to the Federal Reserve Board, the median amount saved in 401(k) accounts and other savings for those age 55 to 64 was $100,000 in 2010. Observing the 4 percent withdrawal rule, a nest egg of $100,000 turns into a measly annual income of $4,000, or about $77 a week." (Jane White in The Huffington Post)  

District Court for New Jersey Rejects Equitable Tolling Argument, Imposes Contractual Limitations Period
"The Court noted that '[a]n administrator need only "substantially comply" with' ERISA's claims regulations procedures -- thus the denial letter 'was sufficient to discharge its obligations under the ERISA regulations.' The Court charged the provider with knowledge imputed to his patient. This issue merges to some extent with the duty on the plaintiff regarding diligence in asserting equitable tolling, but overall, the Court's position seems rather harsh." [Torpey v. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53342 (D.N.J. Apr. 16, 2014)] (Health Plan Law)  

Fifth Circuit Widens Split on Firestone, Reviews Fiduciary Breach Claim De Novo
"Despite finding no fiduciary breach in a plan trustee's decision to pay legal fees with plan assets, the court rejected the trustee's argument that his actions were entitled to deferential judicial review under [Firestone] ... In a footnote, the court explained that Firestone applied only to benefit denials and didn't govern suits for fiduciary breach. This issue -- the extent to which Firestone deference applies outside of the context of benefit denials -- has split the circuits and may be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court." [Futral v. Chastant, No. 13-30856 (5th Cir. Apr. 18, 2014)] (Bloomberg BNA)  

Sixth Circuit Provides Guidance for ERISA Penalty Claims
"The [Sixth Circuit] adopts the 'clear notice' standard: '[T]he key question under the clear notice standard is whether the plan administrator knew or should have known which documents were being requested.' Plaintiff's counsel's 'broadly phrased' request should have alerted the plan administrator that this request included the accidental death policy because that was the key document supporting its decision to deny the claim. The court did not abuse its discretion in awarding $55 per day penalty rather than the maximum $110 per day because there was a 'lack of prejudice' caused by the delay." [Cultrona v. Nationwide Life Insurance Company, Nos. 13-3558/3585 (6th Cir. Apr. 9, 2014)] (Lane Powell PC)  

Employee Financial Wellness Survey 2014 (PDF)
24 pages. Excerpt: "Healthcare continues to be a hot issue in the U.S. with most employees believing that healthcare costs will rise, and less than half of all Baby Boomers confident they'll be able to cover their medical expenses in retirement.... Nearly half say that they would be willing to sacrifice a portion of their future pay increases for guaranteed retirement income, with a majority of employees saying they prefer a retirement plan with guaranteed fixed monthly payments for life over a plan where they can take a lump sum at retirement and invest the funds themselves." (PricewaterhouseCoopers)  

Rise in Executive Comp Was Offset by Pension Value Changes in 2013
"Total compensation disclosed in company proxy statements for [CEOs] at the nation's largest corporations remained relatively unchanged in 2013, primarily the result of sharply lower pension values ... [T]otal pay for S&P 1500 CEOs increased less than 1% (0.5%) in 2013, down from the 5.7% median increase CEOs received in 2012.... [R]ealizable pay, which takes into consideration the current value of a CEO's outstanding stock-based awards, increased nearly 15% last year, reflecting strong stock market performance.... Nearly eight in 10 (78%) companies awarded performance-based long-term incentive awards in 2013, compared with 67% in 2011. Meanwhile, 58% of companies awarded stock options in 2013, down from 64% in 2011." (Towers Watson)  

Court Invalidates New York State's Restrictions on Executive Comp Paid by State-Funded Private Organizations
"On April 8, a trial court in Nassau County concluded that the rules capping executive compensation and another unrelated rule prohibiting certain conflicts of interest were both invalid ... because [the New York State Department of Health (DOH)] built a regulatory scheme based on its own conclusions about the appropriate balance of trade-offs between health and cost and was acting solely on its own ideas of sound public policy, thus operating outside of its proper sphere of authority[.]" (Towers Watson)  

InHub Launches eRFP Technology to Modernize the Request for Proposal Process for Institutional Investors
InHub LLC

Wealth Management Services, Inc. is Certified for Fiduciary Excellence
Centre for Fiduciary Excellence (CEFEX)

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