ASPPA & Western Benefits Conference

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Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in WI

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Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in IL

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UNITE HERE HEALTH
in MA

Actuary - Enrolled
National Associates Inc. subsidiary of Farmers National Banc Corp.
in OH

Part-time Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in MI

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Principles of Defined Contribution Plans Series
July 17, 2014 WEBCAST
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

403(b) Plans Update and Latest Developments Phone Forum
July 28, 2014 WEBCAST
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

Evaluating the Benefits and Risks of Real Asset Funds
July 30, 2014 WEBCAST
(Multnomah Group)

ERISA: The Evolving World 2014
August 4, 2014 in NY
(Practising Law Institute)

ERISA: The Evolving World 2014
August 4, 2014 WEBCAST
(Practising Law Institute)

Value of a Well Executed Pension Risk Transfer: Priceless
August 7, 2014 WEBCAST
(Dietrich & Associates, Inc.)

Retirement Plan Insights Seminar
September 9, 2014 in OH
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

Health Care Reform for Employers: Now What?
September 17, 2014 in MO
(Lorman Education Services)

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[Official Guidance]

Text of PBGC Monthly Interest Rate Update for August, 2014
"The August 2014 interest assumptions under the benefit payments regulation will be 1.25 percent for the period during which a benefit is in pay status and 4.00 percent during any years preceding the benefit's placement in pay status. In comparison with the interest assumptions in effect for July 2014, these interest assumptions are unchanged." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])  

[Advert.]

Discover the ASC Advantage in Vegas

Why do ASC clients love ASC? Meet the ASC team and see for yourself. We provide a comprehensive and easy to use retirement software solution with top-notch technical support. Find us at the Western Benefits Conference July 27-30! Click here for more info.

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Issues Final Regs on Longevity Annuities in Individual Account Plans (PDF)
"Employers concerned about employees outliving their retirement savings, but reluctant to undertake the responsibility of selecting annuity products to offer through the plan, may want to consider adding a post-termination partial withdrawal feature to their plans. This will encourage participants to keep money in the plan while at the same time providing access to funds in retirement and accommodating the purchase of a QLAC outside the plan through an IRA." (Buck Consultants)  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Finalizes Regulations for Longevity Annuity Contracts
"The final regulations clarify that the percentage limitation is applied to the account balance -- including the QLAC's value -- as of the last valuation date before each premium payment, adjusted for any contributions or distributions made after the valuation but before the purchase. The final regulations also modify the rule for premiums that exceed the limitations, allowing the contract to continue being a QLAC if excess premiums are returned to the 'non-QLAC' portion of the participant's account (either in cash or in an annuity contract that is not a QLAC) by the end of the following calendar year." (Thomson Reuters / EBIA)  

Target Date Funds Try Timing the Market
"Mutual fund companies are trying to juice returns of target date funds by giving their managers more leeway to make tactical bets on stock and bond markets, even though this could increase the volatility and risk of the widely held retirement funds.... Fund sponsors say they aren't putting core strategies in danger -- many only allow a shift in the asset allocation of 5 percent in one direction or another -- and say they actually can reduce risk by freeing managers to make obvious calls." (Reuters)  

Understanding Re-enrollment: Benefits for Participants and Plan Sponsors (PDF)
"A plan re-enrollment is a process by which participants are notified that their existing assets and future contributions will be invested in the plan's qualified default investment alternative (QDIA), which usually is a target date fund (TDF), based on their date of birth. All plan participants are automatically moved into the QDIA on a certain date unless they make a new investment election during a specified time period.... [P]lan sponsors that conduct a re-enrollment typically see a 55% to 85% adoption rate of TDFs. By contrast, plans that just add TDFs as a new option in their lineups see an adoption rate of less than 5%, even a few years later." (J.P. Morgan Asset Management)  

What NOT to Do When a Trust is the IRA Beneficiary
"While there are many good reasons to name a trust as the beneficiary of an IRA, the main reason is for control. If the IRA owner wants to control how the funds are paid out after he dies, a trust can do that.... Trusts by themselves are complicated. The IRA required minimum distributions rules are complicated too. When you mix the two by naming a trust as the IRA beneficiary, problems often occur. Below are some common mistakes that are made after an IRA owner dies with a trust as the beneficiary." (The Slott Report)  

Plan Sponsors: How to Understand and Review Form 5500
"[H]ere are the important items [an employer needs] to review on Form 5500-SF (short form) or Form 5500 (long form): [1] Is the plan a 'small plan' or a 'large plan?' ... [2] Are your investments reflected accurately in the financial information, both in amount and type? ... [3] Are you operating the plan in such a way so that answers to the compliance questions are not raising red flags to the DOL or IRS?" (Retirement Management Services)  

PBGC Director Joshua Gotbaum to Resign in August
"Mr. Gotbaum, who after four years is the agency's longest-serving director, said he had 'mixed emotions' about leaving. He praised agency staff for working 'on one of the major social challenges of our time' and cited accomplishments such as preserving defined benefit plans at American Airlines, undoing one abuse of the church plan exemption and helping preserve a troubled multiemployer plan through partitioning." (Pensions & Investments)  

Ex-CalPERS CEO Admits Receiving $200,000 in Bribes in Paper Bag, Shoebox
"In a stunning admission covering years of corruption, the former chief executive of CalPERS said Friday he accepted $200,000 in cash, along with a series of other bribes, from a Lake Tahoe businessman who was attempting to influence billions of dollars in pension fund investment decisions. Fred Buenrostro, who ran the nation's largest public pension fund from 2002 to 2008, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud. He has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors as they pursue charges against his longtime friend, Nevada businessman Alfred Villalobos, a former CalPERS board member." (The Sacramento Bee)  

Top IRS Trouble Spots for Multiemployer Retirement Plan Qualification, and What Trustees Can Do About Them
"[1] Erroneous Benefit Calculations ... [2] Conflicting Plan Documentation ... [3] Missing or Inadequate Participation Agreements ... [4] Benefits Not Adjusted for Late Payment ... [5] Inadequate Suspension Procedures ... [6] Late Required Distributions." (Segal Consulting)  

Ins and Outs of Taking Required Minimum Distributions from Multiple IRAs and Retirement Plans
"Generally speaking each retirement plan or account must distribute its own RMD, and you cannot take a distribution from one plan that counts toward your RMD from another plan.... With IRAs, there is more flexibility: Generally you can take your IRA distributions from whichever IRA you want ... But that flexibility does not extend to inherited IRAs. If you are holding an IRA as beneficiary, you must take RMDs attributable to that inherited IRA from that account." (Natalie Choate for Morningstar Advisor)  

Private Education 403(b) Plans: Make Yourself Class Valedictorian by Understanding Fees
"Service providers use several approaches for calculating fees. It is important to understand each and how the approach impacts fees at the inception of the relationship and in future years. Knowing these costs is absolutely crucial to providing employees with retirement security. These fees reduce investment return and thus net asset growth and are, therefore, are a hugely important consideration for plan sponsors." (Fiduciary Plan Governance, LLC)  

Investment Industry's Responses Vary on SEC Target Date Fund Disclosure Proposals
"[C]ommenters have generally favored 'appropriately tailored enhanced disclosure requirements for target-date fund marketing materials.' However, a number of commenters expressed concerns that standardized risk measures called for in the proposal are likely to confuse or mislead investors -- while still others supported the proposal in full, citing the potential usefulness of a standardized risk measure for use target-date fund (TDF) benchmarking." (planadviser)  

Peeling Back the Fiduciary Layers and Unscrambling the Fiduciary Confusion
"Very often confused, misapplied, misrepresented and misunderstood are the roles and responsibilities of plan fiduciaries, the actual identity of the individuals or entities who are fiduciaries, and the rules that apply to fiduciaries under [ERISA]. Because of these misapprehensions, it is often necessary for plan officials to rely upon the expertise of others to assist them. Nevertheless, plan fiduciaries, whether individuals or entities, must be identified and their roles and responsibilities need to be well understood and adhered to." (Retirement Readiness Institute)  

[Opinion]

PBGC's Own Report Finds That Job-Killing Premium Hikes Aren't Needed
"This report validates the position of the business community that the PBGC's 'deficit' has been exacerbated by extremely low interest rates and the constant call for increasing PBGC premium rates is completely unnecessary.... The PBGC's proposed new authority to raise premiums, piled on top of the two recent increases, would translate into a cumulative $51.4 billion hit to the U.S. economy over 11 years. PBGC premiums would cost an average of 42,000 jobs per year, peaking at a loss of more than 67,000 jobs in 2017." (U.S. Chamber of Commerce)  

[Guidance Overview]

2014 Q&As: IRS Meeting with ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, May 9, 2014 (PDF)
22 pages. Includes questions on plan loans, hardship withdrawals, Roth contributions and rollovers, 403(b) and 409A plans, correction of errors for 457 plans, and several questions about hours of service and measurement periods for employer shared responsibility provisions (Section 4980H). (Joint Committee on Employee Benefits [JCEB], American Bar Association)  

Incentive Compensation: Impact of New Revenue Accounting Rules (PDF)
"The US and international accounting rule-makers, FASB and IASB, recently released new standards on revenue recognition. Under the new rules, which apply to all companies in all industries around the globe, the period or pattern in which revenue is recognized could be vastly different from today's regime. As employee compensation arrangements tied to revenue generation, especially for salespeople, have become increasingly common and complex, it is likely that the changes in revenue recognition will impact many of these arrangements. This Insight focuses on the potential impact on performance -- based compensation programs, and what companies can begin doing to prepare." (PricewaterhouseCoopers)  

Employee Stock Plans: Mid-Year 2014 International Reporting Requirements
"This Commentary highlights some of the principal mid-year reporting requirements for employee stock plans that U.S. companies most commonly encounter when offering these programs to their employees in selected jurisdictions worldwide. A chart summarizing these items appears at the end of the Commentary.... [T]his Commentary does not address routine, year-end tax reporting obligations, nor does it cover equity-specific reporting requirements with deadlines that fall between January and May." (Jones Day)  

Howard Slater, CLU®, ChFC®, MSFS®, MBA, is One of Three Top Advisors to Present at Securities America’s Annual Meeting
Cedar Brook Financial Partners

PBGC Statement on resignation of Director Josh Gotbaum
PBGC [Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation]

ICI Names David W. Blass General Counsel
Investment Company Institute

Mercer Launches “Mercer Benefits U” Total Wellness Campaign
Mercer

Prominent Employee Benefits Lawyer Samuel Choy Joins King & Spalding
King & Spalding LLP

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