ASPPA

Transition / Conversion Manager
AUL / OneAmerica Financial
in IN

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Travel Pay: Handling it Correctly!
July 31, 2014 WEBCAST
(Thompson Interactive)

Navigating the Health Insurance Landscape: What’s Next for Navigators, In-person Assisters and Brokers?
August 5, 2014 in DC
(Alliance for Health Reform)

Bobrow Update: IRA Amendment Timing & Related Considerations
August 7, 2014 WEBCAST
(Convergent Retirement Plan Solutions, LLC)

Navigating Medicare Eligibility and Enrollment and Maximizing Social Security Benefits
August 19, 2014 in CA
(ISCEBS - North California Chapter)

ERISA Assembly
September 30, 2014 in VA
(Momentum Events Group)

Women Adviser Summit
October 7, 2014 in NY
(InvestmentNews)

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Senate Passes Highway Bill But Deletes Pension 'Smoothing' Provision
"The Senate voted Tuesday to keep federal highway money flowing to the states into December but only after rejecting the House's reliance on what lawmakers called a funding 'gimmick'... More than half the $10.8 billion in the House bill was raised by letting companies defer required contributions to their pension plans -- thus increasing the taxes those companies pay ... Lawmakers said such 'pension smoothing' will cost the government money in the long run and undermine the financial stability of pension funds." (ABC News)  

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Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits: Fiduciary Considerations for Plan Sponsors (PDF)
"[A]s a practical matter, the fiduciary standards applicable to the offering of guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (GLWB) products are not materially different than the standards applied to fiduciaries in connection with the selection of any other investment or guaranteed lifetime income option for an individual account plan.... This article is ... a roadmap of much of the available guidance, which fiduciaries can use to answer most of the questions that would reasonably be expected to arise if GLWBs were added to a plan's menu of investment options." (O'Melveny & Myers, via Benefits Law Journal)  

DOL Delays Revision of 'Fiduciary' Definition
"[EBSA's] re-proposal of the controversial rule has been delayed again, this time until January 2015 ... Assuming a six-month comment period and six months of hearings to develop final regulations, the final rule could be up for a vote in early 2016.... While it is true that the way Americans save for retirement looks different today than it did in 1974, the challenge for the DOL is to ensure the cure is no worse than the ailment. The EBSA's challenge is to draft regulations that protect plan participants and IRA investors from true conflicts of interest resulting in unsuitable investment advice, but that do not have a significant unintended chilling effect on the provision of suitable investment advice." (Benefits Bryan Cave)  

Measuring the Economic Impact of DB Pension Expenditures by Governments
"[E]xpenditures made from public, private, and federal government pension benefits in 2012: [1] Had a total economic impact of more than $943 billion. [2] Supported 6.2 million American jobs that paid nearly $307 billion in labor income to American workers. [3] Supported more than $135 billion in federal, state, local tax revenue. [4] Had large multiplier effects. For every dollar paid out in pension benefits, $1.98 in total economic output was supported. For every taxpayer dollar contributed to state and local pensions $8.06 in total output was supported." (National Institute on Retirement Security [NIRS])  

Less Than Half of Retirement Plan Participants Over 50 Have Considered an Asset Withdrawal Strategy
"Forty-three percent of retirement plan participants age 50 or older say they have considered a withdrawal strategy for their retirement assets ... Survey respondents over 50 are more likely to have considered how to pay for healthcare after they retire (64 percent)." (OneAmerica)  

Will 401(k) Participants and IRA Owners Choose Longevity Contracts?
"These policies require investors to be exceptionally far-sighted. Think of today (2014), then go back 20 years (1994). What decision did you make in 1994 to realize some benefit that might occur in 2014? Could you imagine selecting an insurance company in 1994, and think then about waiting 20 years until 2014 for a future contingent benefit -- an income benefit only if you're alive? It's hard to imagine a world of such patient decision-makers." (Vanguard)  

Chicago Telephone Tax to Rise by 56 Percent to Shore Up Pensions
"A family of four with four cell phones and a land-line would end up paying $84 in additional taxes each year. That's $34-per-year more than the $50 price of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's original plan to raise property taxes by $250 million over a five-year period to shore up two of Chicago's four city employee pension funds." (Chicago Sun-Times)  

Which Fiduciary Should a Plan Sponsor Hire: ERISA 3(16), 3(21) or 3(38)?
"Plan sponsors should keep in mind that choosing a 3(16) fiduciary to be responsible for some or all of their plan administration duties does not relieve them of all fiduciary responsibility.... Most 401(k) retirement plan sponsors who have retained an investment advisor who is a fiduciary, work with a 3(21) advisor.... Section 3(38) financial advisors often are a best fit for non-employee directed retirement plans, like defined benefit plans." (Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants)  

Text of GAO Report on 401(k) Plans: 'Improvements Can Be Made to Better Protect Participants in Managed Accounts'
"GAO examined [1] how providers structure managed accounts, [2] their advantages and disadvantages for participants, and [3] challenges sponsors face in selecting and overseeing providers.... GAO recommends that DOL consider provider fiduciary roles, require disclosure of performance and benchmarking information to plan sponsors and participants, and provide guidance to help sponsors better select and oversee managed account providers." (U.S. Government Accountability Office [GAO])  

Top Ten Retirement Plan Issues in Mergers and Acquisitions
"[1] Controlled group liability ... [2] Multiemployer plan withdrawal liability ... [3] Single-employer defined benefit plan liabilities ... [4] Partial terminations ... [5] ERISA reportable events ... [6] Plan qualification defects ... [7] ERISA fiduciary issues ... [8] Plan loans ... [9] Designing post-acquisition plans ... [10] Providing required notifications and notices to employees and government agencies." (Practical Law, via Association of Corporate Counsel [ACC])  

QDROs Demand the Attention of CPAs
"A lawyer who practices family law usually takes the lead in drafting the QDRO, but he or she usually enlists one or more CPAs to apply their financial expertise to the QDRO provisions to ensure an equitable division of retirement assets between the divorcing spouses without triggering negative tax consequences. While some CPA firms already have added divorce planning as a separate line of service, the market is not saturated." (Journal of Accountancy)  

Text of New Jersey's Appeal of Decision that Public Employees Have Protected Contractual Rights to Pension COLAs (PDF)
140 pages. "Applying the wrong legal standard, the Appellate Division determined that [the New Jersey statute] creates a contractual right to cost-of-living adjustments. This determination upends the Legislature's carefully crafted pension reform, threatens the fiscal integrity of the pension systems for active employees, and potentially puts a critical strain on State resources that already face many worthwhile, competing demands." [Berg v. Gov. Chris Christie, No. 74,612 (N.J. 2014; on cross-petition for certification to the Superior Court, Appellate Division)] (Supreme Court of New Jersey)  

Socially Responsible Investment Options Raise Fiduciary and Design Issues
"The average Star rating for responsible funds is 2.7, or just slightly below the midrange, with 41% of the funds holding 1-star or 2-star ratings (the lowest) versus 22% holding a 4-star or 5-star rating (the highest).... For retirement plan sponsors, this may pose a potential problem." (National Tax-Deferred Savings Association [NTSA])  

[Opinion]

Former Obama Administration Official Offers Plan to 'Fix' Tax Incentives for Retirement Plans -- Here's Why It's Dead Wrong
"Last week's Op-Ed in The New York Times ('A 401(k) for All' by Gene B. Sperling) ... aims to address wealth inequality by 'fix(ing) what I have long called our "upside-down" tax incentive system for retirement savings.' ... He proposes a policy to that would 'both reduce wealth inequality and encourage individual wealth creation.' ... [C]hanging 401(k) incentives is a poor tool for addressing wealth inequality ... The idea that there are winners and losers in 401k plans is an inappropriate frame of reference." (Employee Fiduciary)  

[Opinion]

Should We Save More or Spend More? An Economic Exploration
"There seems to be a bipartisan consensus amongst those in the retirement security business that increasing retirement savings is a good thing. Amongst policymakers not concerned with retirement security, however, there has been concern that, to recover from the recent recession and to improve a weak recovery, we need to stimulate spending.... In this article we consider the question: what does it mean for the broader economy to pursue policies that increase retirement savings?" (October Three Consulting)  

[Opinion]

New Jersey Appeals Lower Court Decision Finding Vested Right to COLAs
"If the state claims that the COLA elimination is only temporary and they expect COLAs to come back then why is that assumption not included in the actuarial calculations? Why, in their valuations, don't Milliman and Buck value benefits as if COLAs were going to return in, let's say, 2018?" (Burypensions)  

Transamerica Expands Enrollment Options to Better Serve Employers and Employees
Transamerica

Littler Adds Seasoned ERISA and Employment Litigator Sherril M. Colombo to its Miami Office
Littler Mendelson

NFP Advisor Services Announces Significant Enhancements to its Retirement Plan Capabilities
National Financial Partners Corp. [NFP]

Ecommerce for Employee Benefits is an Idea Whose Time has Come
Spotlite

Dynamic Health Strategies and Cerner Sign Product Development and Marketing Agreement
Dynamic Health Strategies

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