Regional Sales Manager
Pension Consultants, Inc
in TN

Account Executive II
The Principal Financial Group
in KS

Manager, Retirement Plans Admin Services
Ameritas Life Insurance Corp.
in OH

Client Relationship Manager
MullinTBG, A Prudential Financial Company
in CA, FL, IL, NY, TX

Client Relationship Manager
Castle Rock Innovations
in IL

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Post-DOMA Issues for Retirement Plans and Fringe Benefits: Rules for Same-Sex Spouses and Domestic Partners (Session II)
June 5, 2014 WEBCAST
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

Qualified Health Plan (QHP) Series -- Open Q&A
June 11, 2014 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))

Plan Restatement and Redesign
June 17, 2014 in OH
(ASPPA Benefits Council [ABC] of Cleveland)

Seminar with Adam Pozek and an ASPPA Update from Ron Triche
June 18, 2014 in IN
(ASPPA Benefits Council [ABC] of Northern Indiana)

Compliance Informational And Outreach Forum - How To Do It Right The First Time
June 20, 2014 in MA
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor)

Plan Restatement Issues and Design Possibilities
June 24, 2014 WEBCAST
(ASPPA [American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries])

Final Medicare Advantage/Part D Rule: Impact on Plans, PBMs and Pharma
June 26, 2014 WEBCAST
(Atlantic Information Services, Inc)

Fundamentals of 401(k) and Other Qualified Plans 2014
July 23, 2014 in MN
(SunGard Relius)

15th Annual Hawaii Seminar
November 19, 2014 in HI
(TRI Pension Services)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Guidance Overview]

DOL Again Reopens Comment Period to Consider a 'Fund Risk' Illustration for Target Date Fund Disclosures
"[T]he SEC reopened the public comment period for its TDF disclosure proposal on April 9, 2014 (and requested comments by June 9, 2014).... The DOL has indicated its intention to coordinate the final rule on TDF disclosures with the SEC's final rule, and for that reason is providing this third opportunity for commenters to submit their views, specifically on the SEC's latest proposal but also on any other matters regarding the proposed TDF disclosures." (Thomson Reuters / EBIA)  

[Advert.]

NTSA 403(b) Summit on June 22nd in Washington DC

Join the leaders of the 403(b) industry on June 22nd to learn how to keep choice alive for your clients.

[Guidance Overview]

Full Disclosure: A Practical Guide for the HR Professional When Preparing the Retirement Plan Portions of a Proxy Statement
"In 2006, the SEC adopted rules which created the Pension Benefits Table and Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Table to supplement the Summary Compensation Table. The tables mandate certain specific disclosures with respect to the Named Executive Officers (NEOs) and their retirement plans.... [This article provides] a summary of the relevant sections of the proxy statement with respect to retirement benefits, as well as some practical advice for making sure the process goes as smoothly as possible." (Thompson Coburn, in Employee Benefit Review)  

Text of Ninth Circuit Opinion Denying Surcharge Relief for Benefits Paid in Error (PDF)
"Amara did not suggest that the remedy of surcharge is available to provide any sort of '[m]ake-whole relief for breach of fiduciary duty against a trustee' regardless 'whether or not traditional trust law would have provided that relief under the "surcharge" terminology.' ... We are bound by our own precedent, which correctly identifies surcharge as including only unjust enrichment and losses to the trust estate.... [T]he beneficiary is entitled to restoration of the trust res, not to benefit at the expense of other beneficiaries. Indeed, under traditional trust law principles, a beneficiary could be obliged to repay any payments received in error from the trust." [Gabriel v. Alaska Electrical Pension Fund, No. 12-35458 (9th Cir. June 6, 2014)] (U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota)  

Properly-Delegated Fiduciary Responsibility Protects Plan Sponsors
"Proper delegation is a Board of Directors' best defense against ERISA liability. Once proper delegation is in place, it is critical that the fiduciaries receive training to make sure they properly carry out their ERISA fiduciary duties. Not only is this key in a litigation context but also in an audit situation, where the DOL will ask your plan fiduciaries when they last received fiduciary training." [Coulter v. Morgan Stanley & Co., Nos. 13-2504-cv(L), 13-2509-cv(con) (2d Cir. May 29, 2014)] (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

Sun Capital Decision Threatens Lenders with Controlled Group Liability (PDF)
"Earlier this year, Sun Capital was cited by a multiemployer plan seeking to hold a lender jointly and severally liable for the employer's withdrawal liability s a member of the employer's controlled group. Lenders need to be alert to circumstances that may give rise to such potential controlled group claims, which have been brought both by multiemployer pension plans and by the [PBGC].... Lenders should always be wary of loans to companies that sponsor defined benefit pension plans or that contribute to multiemployer plans." (McGuireWoods LLP, in The Banking Law Journal)  

[Advert.]

PBI receives SSA DMF certification from NTIS for uninterrupted access

Prevent overpayments and identify deaths… even when no death record exists with PBI's PlatinumPLUS solution. The SSA is not reporting 4 out of every 10 deaths! Contact us today for a no charge trial for 30 days. Call 415-482-9611 or email inquiry@pbinfo.com.

Execs Eagerly Await Guidance from PBGC on Liability Issue
"For some plan sponsors, the complaint is that PBGC's calculated liabilities far exceed the business transactions involved. Instead of regular funding formulas for ongoing plans, the agency uses the more conservative plan termination basis, taking the percentage of plan participants who lose their jobs in the transaction, and multiplying it by the plan's level of underfunding. Although a small number of employees are affected, sponsors already funding their pension plans will have to put aside millions of dollars more." (Pensions & Investments)  

Employee Benefit Plan is Governmental Plan, Even Though Employees are Not
"While there was not much question that the Hospital was a governmental entity, the fact that Staffing, Inc.'s employees were not state employees made for a trickier question as to whether Staffing, Inc.'s plan was governed by ERISA.... [The Magistrate Court] found five of the six factors weighing in favor of deeming Staffing, Inc. an 'agency or instrumentality' of the government." (Womble Carlyle)  

Pension Funds Clang the Bull-Market Gong
"In the six years from 2006 until 2012, state and local pension funds more than doubled their allocations to alternatives, while slashing their exposure to stocks. These changes not only reaffirmed the reliability of state and local pension funds as a contrarian sign, as the funds were aggressive entering the 2008 market crash and then more conservative during the ensuring rally, but they also offer some comfort looking forward." (John Rekenthaler for Morningstar)  

Shared Risk in Public Retirement Plans
"The use of shared-financing and shared-risk have grown in recent years as states have modified required employer and employee contributions, restructured benefits, or both and some states also established so-called 'hybrid' plans that combine elements of traditional pensions and individual account plans. This brief identifies general types of risk present in public sector retirement plans and analyzes longstanding and emergent uses of risk-sharing features enacted by states and designed to meet their specific financing and human resource goals." (National Association of State Retirement Administrators [NASRA])  

Rep. George Miller Asks DOL to Take a Closer Look at Pension Advisers
"A senior Democratic congressman is urging [the DOL] to examine possible conflicts in the growing number of U.S. pension-plan consultants that also manage investments ... Consulting firms are hired by cities, states, corporations and others to provide impartial guidance to retirement plans. But an increasing number of those firms also offer to help manage those pension assets or select a fund's investment managers." (The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)  

Sponsors Focus on Simplifying Investment Lineups for Participants (PDF)
"A vast majority of defined contribution participants must choose from an investment menu with anywhere from 16 to over 36 funds being offered. In the next 18 months, plan sponsors are likely to make changes that could include consolidating the number of funds in the core lineup, adding exposure to non-traditional asset classes and changing to custom multi-manager funds. Plan sponsors are considering delegating investment management selection and oversight to a discretionary 3(38) provider when making these changes." (SEI)  

RIAs Set Sights on $4 Trillion 401(k) Business
"A growing variety of platforms ... help independent wealth managers capitalize on their advantages in serving smaller plan sponsors.... [S]mall and midsize [401(k)] plans are often expense-heavy and service-light. Many RIAs already work with families who own companies that act as plan sponsors, and they can choose from a growing variety of products that make them more competitive with banks and other major retirement services firms." (Institutional Investor)  

15 Misconceptions About the Three Principal Fiduciary Roles in a Retirement Plan (PDF)
"In the law, the definitions of 'trustee,' 'administrator,' and 'named fiduciary' are clear; but the practical application of which duties belong to which person varies enormously based on individual plan document language. This article attempts to clear up some of the haze." (Pentegra Retirement Services)  

Litigating for the Future of Public Pensions in the United States
"Although ERISA is far from perfect in regulating private-sector pension plans in the United States, it nevertheless has provided uniform standards for management and administration of occupational retirement plans. In order to replicate that same consistency, this article proposes a hybrid approach which seeks to avoid some of the federalism pitfalls of previous public pension reform proposals. By applying ERISA only to federal pension plans, and by permitting the states to adopt uniform, state-wide pension legislation, public pension plans can take advantage of a reliable and stringent pension framework which will make future underfunding and fiduciary lapses less likely." (Paul M. Secunda, Marquette University Law School, via SSRN)  

Go It Alone in Investing for Your Retirement? Get Slammed Twice
"One-third of retirees without an advisor said health care costs keep them from living the retirement they expected. This is compared with only 13 percent of retirees who use an advisor and said costs keep them from a retirement to which they'd aspired ... 33 percent of retirees who don't work with an advisor said their Social Security deposit was less or much less than they expected. By comparison, only 12 percent of retirees who work with an advisor said their Social Security deposit was less or much less than they expected." (InsuranceNewsNet.com)  

The Ten Attributes of Highly Effective Retirement Industry Professionals (PDF)
"Most professionals in our industry serve in both capacities -- as a leader and a critical decision-maker. In the eyes of your clients, you serve in an important leadership role, and your clients are highly dependent upon your decision-making expertise.... When an attribute is missing from the continuum, the process breaks down. When the model, in both steps and behaviors, is followed, sound judgment and practice is upheld." (National Association of Plan Advisors [NAPA])  

New Jersey Unions File Lawsuit Over Reduced Pension Contributions
"The lawsuit claims that Mr. Christie's announcement of reductions in pension contributions to the $76.8 billion New Jersey Pension Fund, Trenton, violates a statute signed by the governor in May 2010 that includes a statement that 'failure of the State of any other public employer to make (the) annually required contribution shall be deemed to be an impairment of the contractual right of each such public employee,' according to the complaint." (Pensions & Investments)  

Protesters Assail Singapore Pension System
"The pension system was established in 1955 and was gradually liberalized to allow fund members to use some savings to buy homes and make financial investments. Slowing wage growth and rising living costs in the past decade also have hurt people's ability to save for retirement .... [A] 2013 survey ... found that nearly 70% of Singaporeans expected to work beyond the retirement age of 62 because of expected shortfalls in their retirement savings." (The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)  

[Opinion]

America's Looming Pension Disaster
"The discussion on pensions in the United States is mute. It's as if there is no crisis going on.... [W]hen the next crisis hits, you will see many U.S. public and private pensions get decimated. It's not a matter of if but a matter of when and the longer they put off real reforms, including reforming their terrible governance, the worse it will get." (Pension Pulse)  

[Opinion]

SEC Commissioner's Not-So-Tough Talk on Pensions
"[Perhaps] it was bracing for some people to hear an SEC commissioner actually use the words 'fraud' and 'pension obligations' in the same speech. But in fact, what Gallagher was advocating was higher voluntary standards from public pension." (Steve Malanga for Public Sector Inc.)  

2014 Say on Pay Voting Results
"As of June 5, 2014, 2,326 companies held Say on Pay votes in 2014; 42 companies have failed with an average 60% 'Against' vote; 73% of companies have received a greater than 90% 'For' vote." (Steven Hall & Partners)  

[Guidance Overview]

Before It's Too Late: A Retirement Security Newsletter from Phyllis Borzi, June 9, 2014
"Most workers will find that Marketplace coverage is significantly less expensive than COBRA. However, some employees may consider using COBRA as a bridge to prevent a gap in coverage until Marketplace coverage becomes effective ... [If] you or someone you know is on COBRA insurance right now, they have the option of switching to a Marketplace plan. However, this one-time change to move into a Marketplace plan is only available until July 1, 2014.... [It's] important to spread the word that the Marketplace is also open throughout the year for those whose circumstances change." (Employee Benefits Security Administration)  

McGraw Wentworth Survey Shows Health Benefit Costs Growing At 7%
McGraw Wentworth

Fisher & Phillips LLP Adds Experienced Employee Benefits Attorney to Atlanta Office
Fisher & Phillips LLP

Sapiens Announces the Launch of ALIS Retirement Services Platform
Sapiens International Corporation

Companies Worldwide Spending More on Technology, Towers Watson Survey Finds
Towers Watson

The Standard Appoints Two New Retirement Plan Consultants
The Standard

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