Pension Plan Senior Analyst
Corning, Inc.
in NY

Assistant General Counsel
1199SEIU Family of Funds
in NY

Relationship Manager
Verisight, Inc.
in CA, IL

Pension Outsourcing Project Manager
Towers Watson
in ANY STATE, IL, MA, MN, OR, PA, TX

Voluntary Benefits Account Manager - Senior Consultant, Health & Productivity
Buck Consultants a Xerox Company
in CA, CO, GA, TX

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Agent and Broker Participation in the Federally-facilitated Marketplace for Plan Year 2015
August 5, 2014 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS])

What's Hot; What's Not – 401(k) Trends and Insights
August 28, 2014 in IL
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Chicago West Chapter)

Future of Health Care in America: The ACA and Beyond
September 3, 2014 in DC
(National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation)

Understanding Accounting for ESOPs: What Every CPA, CFO and Banker Should Know
October 22, 2014 WEBCAST
(Beyster Institute)

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[Guidance Overview]

Recent Private Letter Rulings Confirm IRS's Position Allowing Retiree Cashouts
"One ruling addresses a plan covering collectively-bargained employees where the plan already offers a lump sum option to non-collectively bargained employees. One ruling addresses a multiple employer plan. There was no financial counseling offered in three of the five rulings, and a fourth merely indicated that retirees would be provided with 'information and guidance sufficient to enable participants to clearly understand their options without steering participants to a particular result.' None of these differences appeared to impact the IRS's analysis or the outcome of the rulings." [PLR 201422028, PLR 201422029, PLR 201422030, PLR 201422031, and PLR 201424031.] (King & Spalding)  

[Advert.]

ASPPA Annual Conference on October 26-29 in Washington DC

We don't just set the bar, we're constantly raising the bar for America's Retirement. And we unleash that tenacity at every ASPPA Annual Conference.

PBGC Coverage May No Longer Apply to Puerto Rico-Only Qualified Retirement Plans
"PBGC officials stated that, going forward, PBGC will determine that a plan is not covered under Title IV of ERISA if [1] the plan's trust is created or organized outside of the United States (e.g., Puerto Rico) and [2] no election under ERISA section 1022(i)(2) has been made.... Since few Puerto Rico plans have made an election under ERISA section 1022(i)(2) due to the strict U.S. laws applicable to such arrangements, this new PBGC position will affect a number of Puerto Rico-only defined benefit plans." (McDermott Will & Emery)  

Supreme Court and DOL Settlement Agreement Both Provide New Guidelines for ESOP Trustees
"For ESOP trustees responsible for the purchase and sale of the stock of privately owned companies, the GreatBanc Settlement Agreement and a number of other DOL enforcement actions make it clear that ESOP trustees cannot accept appraisal reports as the definitive determination of the stock's fair market value until they independently review the valuation report and verify that its projections and assumptions are reasonable. ESOP fiduciaries may want to engage an independent valuation firm to assist with this process." (The Retirement Plan Blog)  

Survey of PPA Document Restatement Fees
"Volume Submitter documents are the most often used plan document (84%) followed by Prototype documents (60%) and Custom documents (21%).... Among those using Volume Submitter documents, nearly half (48%) are most often charging a full plan document fee for the upcoming required restatement. Another 41% charge a discounted fee and 11% charge an annual maintenance fee. More than 80% rely on an Opinion Letter from the IRS while another 17% both request separate IRS Approvals and rely on the Opinion Letters." (TPAResources)  

Tips for a Smooth Transition When Changing Employee Benefit Plan Vendors
"[S]ome common issues ... [1] Beginning participant or overall plan asset balances at the successor vendor don't agree with ending balances from the predecessor vendor's auditor. [2] Amounts transferred aren't mapped to the proper investments. [3] Participant contributions aren't remitted in a timely manner to the successor vendor ... [4] Reconciliations aren't completed ... [5] One of the vendors fails to provide the 'limited scope certification'[.]" (Moss Adams LLP)  

[Advert.]

Don't Leave Your Healthcare and Retirement Plans to Chance!

Join industry experts & colleagues for 50+ educational sessions targeting critical issues and trends affecting employee benefits. Leave with the tools you need to manage your plans AND earn 14.5 HRCI credits. Register by Aug. 15 and save $100.

Estimates of the Financial Effects on Social Security of the Proposed 'Social Security 2100 Act' (PDF)
"Enactment of the seven provisions of this proposal would eliminate the entire long-range OASDI actuarial deficit of 2.72 percent of taxable payroll under current law, replacing the OASDI actuarial deficit with a surplus of 0.05 percent of payroll for the long-range period.... [S]ome additional provisions would be needed to attain sustainable solvency, which requires a stable or rising trust fund ratio at the end of the projection period." (Office of the Chief Actuary, U.S. Social Security Administration [SSA])  

Potential Reallocation of the Payroll Tax Rate Between the Disability Insurance Program and the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Program (PDF)
"[This memorandum presents] one possible temporary reallocation of the payroll tax rate, one that would equalize the projected years of reserve depletion for the two programs.... [A table] contains one option for a temporary reallocation of payroll tax rates for 2015 through 2024. Under this option, the projected dates of reserve depletion of the OASI Trust Fund and the DI Trust Fund would occur in the same year." (U.S. Social Security Administration [SSA])  

Funded Status of U.S. Corporate Pensions Falls in July
"The funded status of the typical U.S. corporate pension plan declined 1.2 percentage points in July 2014 to 90.8 percent ... July 31st completely reversed what would have been a positive month for funded status, although losses at corporate plans were cushioned by their holdings in long duration corporate bonds.... [T]he typical U.S. corporate plan is allocating approximately 26 percent of its assets to long duration bonds as it implements liability driven investing (LDI) programs." (BNY Mellon)  

Public Pension Reform Handbook: A Starter Guide for Reformers (PDF)
139 pages. "[A]number of jurisdictions have paved the way for substantive reform, and several state and local governments now stand as models from which others can learn. This handbook captures their experience, comprising the best practices and lessons learned... The [authors] address problems that troubled pension systems typically experience and then delve into the principles for reform.... The later chapters focus on how to build a pension reform effort from the ground up ... They provide all the elements -- technical, political and otherwise -- for successful reform" (Reason Foundation)  

Overcoming Challenges to Automatic Escalation in a Public Employee DC Plan
"Historically, governments have been reluctant to adopt automatic features for supplemental DC plans for a myriad of reasons: perceived lack of need, concerns about paternalism, and, most importantly, anti-garnishment laws that prohibit automatic escalation. However, a handful of governments have overcome these challenges with pragmatic approaches and by seeking legislative support[.]" (Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association [DCIIA])  

New York City Pension System Is Strained by Costs and Politics
"[A] close examination of the system's problems reveals [that its] investment strategy has failed to keep up with its growing costs, hampered by an antiquated and inefficient governing structure that often permits politics to intrude on decisions. The $160 billion system is spread across five separate funds, each with its own board of trustees, all making decisions with further input from consultants and even lawmakers in Albany." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)  

Los Angeles Board Ruling Shields City's New Hires from Pension Cuts
"The five-member Los Angeles Employee Relations Board unanimously adopted a hearing officer's conclusion that the city violated labor law by imposing a pension cut on non-sworn new hires without bargaining with public employee unions.... The pension cut for employees hired after July 1 last year is expected to save the city $4.3 billion over three decades." (Calpensions)  

Employee Ownership Update for August 1, 2014
Article titles: [1] New Report on Potential Impact of Equity Compensation in Australia; [2] New Jersey Bill Would Encourage Employee Ownership; and [3] Casino to Give Shares to Employees. (National Center for Employee Ownership [NCEO])  

[Opinion]

Pension Smoothing Has Become a Modern-Day Indiana Pi Bill
"[A] good case can be made for the stabilization of pension contribution requirements. But not by massaging market reality: any stabilization that is needed should be done by smoothing the output of the contribution calculation, not by smoothing the inputs. And the case needs to rest on whether it makes sense in itself, not on whether it can be used to fund an unrelated activity." (Russell Investments)  

[Opinion]

Stockton's Bankruptcy and Pension Reform: Limited Options
"[R]ejecting the CalPERS contract ... will not produce any more cash for other creditors to divvy up in bankruptcy or to fund more services. Moreover, state law provides a financial incentive for employees to find another CalPERS job within six months after terminating the CalPERS contract. Stockton would experience a massive employee exodus, and retirees would experience a huge reduction in benefits, to well below the poverty line.... Moody's latest pronouncement that cities will file for bankruptcy protection to get out from under their CalPERS bills is ridiculous, because once cities understand what happens in this scenario, they will quickly realize this will lead to their undoing as a viable city." (Bob Deis, former city manager of Stockton, for The Sacramento Bee)  

[Guidance Overview]

August and September 2014 Filing and Notice Deadlines for Qualified Retirement and Health and Welfare Plans
"[This] filing and notice deadline table ... provides key filing and notice deadlines common to calendar year plans for the next two months.... [D]eadlines will be different if your plan year is not the calendar year.... [T]he table does not include all applicable filing and notice deadlines, just the most common ones." (King & Spalding)  

A Trap for the Unwary: Employee Benefit Plans and the Fiduciary Exception to the Attorney-Client Privilege (PDF)
"Employers who serve as ERISA fiduciaries should be conscious of the dual rationale for the fiduciary exception and understand that not all communications with attorneys regarding employee benefit matters are privileged.... [W]hen it becomes clear that the interest of an employer/fiduciary and that of a plan participant or beneficiary are set to diverge, communications with an attorney should be maintained separate from previous communications and the attorney's services should be billed directly to the employer." (Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, via The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel)