ASPPA

Non-Qualified Regional Director
The Newport Group
in ANY STATE

Conversion Consultant
ASPire Financial Services LLC
in FL

Senior Business Analyst
ASPire Financial Services LLC
in FL

401(k) Sales Consultant
Farmer & Betts
in AZ, FL, IA, IL, IN, LA, MA, MN, MO, MS, NC, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT

Institutional Investment Consultant
Charles Schwab
in OH

Communications Consultant
Charles Schwab
in OH, TX

Client Services Manager
Charles Schwab
in OH, TX

Retirement Business Services - Conversion Team Manager
Charles Schwab
in TX

Plan Administrator
Regional TPA firm
in ANY STATE

In-House Legal Counsel
Evercore Trust Company, N.A.
in DC, NY

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Form 5500 for Welfare Plans: 2-part Web Seminar
June 5, 2014 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

Focus 10: Prohibited Transactions: Who, What, Why, & Why Not?
June 5, 2014 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

Auto Features in Public Sector Retirement Savings Plans
June 10, 2014 WEBCAST
(Center for State and Local Government Excellence)

ECFC 2nd Wednesday Teleconference: Individual Medical Premiums and HRAs, Cafeteria Plans and Employer Payment Plans: What Remains Following Notice 2013-54
June 11, 2014 WEBCAST
(ECFC [Employers Council on Flexible Compensation])

Qualified Health Plan (QHP) Series - Network Adequacy Scenarios Demo and General Q&A
June 17, 2014 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))

Qualified Health Plan (QHP) Series - Plan Preview Overview
June 26, 2014 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))

Advising Clients on the Affordable Care Act - Live Teleconference
June 26, 2014 WEBCAST
(Rossdale CLE)

ERISA Fiduciary Overview: Key Responsibilities and Concepts
July 1, 2014 WEBCAST
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB])

2014 Retirement Research Consortium Meeting
August 7, 2014 in DC
(Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Guidance Overview]

New IRS Program for Delinquent Form 5500 Filers of Non-ERISA Plans
"The new IRS pilot program offers relief to sponsors and administrators of plans not covered by the [DOL's Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program (DFVCP)], including certain small business plans, plans of business partnerships (so-called one-participant plans) and foreign plans... [T]he plan administrator, plan sponsor or a foreign plan is eligible for penalty relief under the Rev. Proc. if the employer maintaining the plan is a domestic or foreign employer with income derived from sources within the United States that deducts contributions to the plan on its U.S. income tax return." (McDermott Will & Emery)  

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The ESOP Sponsor / Fiduciary Boundary Dispute, Accounting Fraud Edition
"A common example of a boundary is the distinction between 'settlor,' or general business decisions, and 'fiduciary' decisions related to plan administration.... When employers sponsor an ESOP, the boundary lines often become even more blurry. A recent decision from the District Court of Indiana ... does not raise any novel issue of law, but it provides a great example of how what otherwise would seem to be general corporate decisions risk becoming ERISA fiduciary decisions." [Malcolm v. Trilithic, Inc., No. 1:13-cv-00073-SEB-DKL (S.D. Ind. Mar. 31, 2014).] (Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP)  

Improving Retirement Readiness for Public Employees (PDF)
31 pages; a shorter, 13-page version is also available. Topics include: "What Does it Mean to Be Retirement Ready? ... How Can We Measure Retirement Readiness? ... What is the Correct Income Replacement Ratio? ... How Prepared are State & Local Government Employees for Retirement? ... How is Retirement Readiness Different in the Public Sector versus the Private Sector? ... How Does Retirement Readiness Differ by Gender, Ethnicity and Generation? ... Why Should Plan Sponsors Care About Employee Retirement Readiness? ... How Can Employers Improve Retirement Readiness for Employees?" (The International Foundation for Retirement Education, for NAGDCA)  

Defined Contribution Plan Sponsors May Need to Reevaluate How Participants Pay Administrative Fees
"[J]ust one-out-of-five (21 percent) of plan sponsors has recently restructured the administrative fees of their plan to be assessed in a more equitable manner. Of the remaining group, only 6 percent are likely to do so this year.... Plan sponsors should understand and be able to explain why certain groups pay higher fees than others. Leverage institutional vehicles and pricing where possible.... Maintain a thorough and ongoing governance process to ensure that the plan's costs are in line with services being provided." (Aon Hewitt)  

Fair Value: Why it Matters for Participant-Directed Accounts
"Counter-intuitive as it may seem to some plan sponsors, allowing participants to invest in hard-to-value investments through brokerage windows or self-directed accounts does not eliminate their obligation to establish accounting and financial reporting processes for determining their fair value and, for large plans, obtaining enough detail to present the disclosures required by FASB ASC 820. In some cases, third party valuation services may be necessary to assist with documentation of the valuation techniques, assumptions and related inputs, and additional record keepers are required to summarize investment information in brokerage windows in enough detail to comply with the disclosure requirements of FASB ASC 820." (Belfint Lyons & Shuman, CPAs)  

[Advert.]

SunGard's Defined Contribution Fundamentals Seminars

Fundamentals is a 3-day course that combines an introduction of 401(k) plans with a comprehensive study of defined contribution plan requirements and challenges of qualified plan administration, including the new EPCRS procedure. Learn more.

Schwab Snares Its First Clients for ETF-Only 401(k)s
"You have market experts from CFDD, Brightscope and Fidelity Investments saying: 'It ain't likely to work -- making ETFs the building block of 401(k) investment portfolios.' But you also have Schwab, headed by a CEO with 401(k) DNA and a chairman with instincts, and RIAs like Miracle Mile with their noses close to the participant and plan sponsor ground, who make a compelling argument: 'This is a much better deal for the consumer.' Of course, the waters are muddied. Who is the consumer -- the participant or the plan sponsor?" (RIABiz)  

Funded Status of U.S. Corporate Pensions Falls to 90.6 Percent
"The funded status of the typical U.S. corporate pension plan fell 0.4 percentage points in May 2014 to 90.6 percent, a new 2014 low, as liabilities increased faster than assets for the third consecutive month ... Year to date, the funded status of corporate plans is down 4.6 percentage points... The increase in liabilities for corporate plans in May was due to a 14-basis-point decline in the Aa corporate discount rate to 4.28 percent[.]" (BNY Mellon)  

The Real Measure of 401(k) Plan Success (PDF)
"[W]hile the other frequently used measurements provide some indication of how various aspects of the plan may be working, they don't measure what sponsors, advisors, and participants, alike, need to know. Will the plan successfully provide each participant with an adequate benefit at retirement?" (Unified Trust Company, N.A.)  

List of America's Largest Majority Employee-Owned Companies
"To be on the list, companies must be at least 50% owned by an ESOP or other qualified plan or by one or more other kinds of plans in which at least 50% of full-time employees are eligible to participate. Employment includes all full- and part-time employees in the U.S. and worldwide. In 2014, the top 100 employee-owned companies employ nearly 710,000 people." (National Center for Employee Ownership [NCEO])  

Majority of Indexed Annuity Buyers Opt for Guaranteed Lifetime Income
"Of the $10.6 billion in indexed annuities sold in the first quarter 2014, 86 percent offered a [Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit (GLWB)] rider. Consumers elected GLWB riders (when available) for 68 percent ($6.2 billion) of annuity contracts purchased in the first quarter." (LIMRA)  

Five Likely Social Security Changes
"Expect to see these changes in the coming years: ... Raising the Social Security retirement age.... Means testing.... Incentives to continue working.... Longevity indexing.... Adjustments to the payroll tax." (Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants)  

State Public Pension Investments Shift Over Past 30 Years (PDF)
"Pension plans' assumed investment rate of return has remained relatively constant over the past two decades despite large reductions in the expected return on long-term bonds.... The median public pension plan now assumes that its long-term investment performance will exceed the 30-year Treasury rate by 4.83 percentage points, compared with the expectation 20 years ago that it would beat the Treasury rate by only 0.33 percentage points." (The Pew Charitable Trusts)  

What Happens to Company Owners Who Get Overaggressive When Selling Out to an ESOP?
"[T]he decision itself is instructive on two major points of ERISA litigation. The first is the proper interpretation and application of ERISA's fiduciary duty statute of limitations to ESOP disputes and the second is as an excellent overview of the rules governing fiduciaries with regard to private company ESOPs." [Fish v. GreatBanc Trust Company, No. 12-3330 (7th Cir. May 14, 2014)] (Stephen Rosenberg of The McCormack Firm, LLC)  

Five Key Findings That Impact Target Date Fund Glide Path Design (PDF)
"[1] New data provides a clearer understanding of contribution and earnings behavior of plan participants. [2] Findings on retiree spending patterns and Social Security benefits have offsetting effects on the retirement income goal. [3] Unexpected retirement expense shocks should be taken into account. [4] There are several consequences to market interest rates having declined over the past several years. [5] There are potential benefits to modestly changing the allocation to growth assets within the glide path." (Russell Investments)  

EBRI Databook on Employee Benefits, June 2014 Update
"The EBRI Databook on Employee Benefits includes data from dozens of sources to provide a comprehensive analysis of how the employee benefits system works, who and what its various functions affect, and its relationship with the U.S. economy. The EBRI Databook includes over 400 tables and charts presenting vital statistics on the employee benefit system." [Two chapters have been updated: Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, and Social Security: Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Program Finance.] (Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI])  

$640 Billion in 401(k) Assets Ripe for a Rollover
"Nearly one-fifth (22%) of the $2.9 trillion in total assets held in large 401(k) plans is held by retirees or pre-retirees who have yet to roll it into other plans ... [This study] analyzed the number of retirees still receiving benefits from or entitled to receive benefits from 14,508 401(k) plans with at least 100 participants. The 7.4 million people in that group, out of a total of 62 million participants covered in the study, held an estimated $640 billion in assets in their 401(k) plans." (ThinkAdvisor)  

[Opinion]

Throwing Participants and Sponsors Under the Bus: ERISA Section 404(c)'s False Promise of Sufficient Information
"[T]he DOL says plans can educate plan participants on the importance and benefits of correlation of returns information, but they do not allow plans to provide plan participants with the correlation of returns data for the plan's actual investment options, thereby denying participants the opportunity to effectively diversify their retirement accounts and minimize the risk of large losses. This would seem to be totally inconsistent with ERISA's stated purpose, to help protect pension plan participants and their beneficiaries." (The Prudent Investment Adviser Rules)  

Final Regs Address Payments by Retirement Plans for Accident or Health Insurance, Provide New Rules for Purchasing Disability Insurance
"Although the final regulations provide guidance on the types of plan contributions that an insurance policy can make up for in the event of a participant's disability, they leave a number of unanswered questions, including what definition of 'disability' is used for this purpose. The final regulations also do not provide any guidance as to how to determine the amount of any pre-tax contributions that the employee would have otherwise elected to make had he or she not become disabled." (Troutman Sanders)  

DOL Reaches $5.25M Settlement with GreatBanc Trust
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

EdisonHealth Announces Ochsner Medical Center as a “Medical Destination of Excellence”
EdisonHealth Network LLC

HHS Announces the Availability of $300 Million in Affordable Care Act Funds to Expand Services at the Nation’s Community Health Centers
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Nixon Peabody Welcomes Former IRS Office of Chief Counsel Attorney & Assistant Branch Chief Carla A. Young
Nixon Peabody LLP

FSMA Releases Guidelines for New Chapters
Fiduciary Supply Management Association [FSMA]

Employee Fiduciary Announces Free 401(k) Fee Comparison Service
Employee Fiduciary, LLC

MassMutual Maintains Record High Marks from Retirement Plan Sponsors
MassMutual Retirement Services

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