ERISA Consultant
MassMutual Financial Group
in ANY STATE, AZ, CT, MA

Regulatory Testing Consultant
MassMutual Financial Group
in ANY STATE, AZ, CT, MA, TN

Administrator
Law Offices of R. David Danziger
in PA

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The Affordable Care Act: How Applicable Large Employers Should Report Health Care Coverage under IRC Section 6056
August 14, 2014 WEBCAST
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

ERISA Developments Affecting Private Equity & Hedge Funds
September 9, 2014 in NY
(New York City Bar Association)

Health and Welfare Benefit Plans
October 9, 2014 in VA
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Corrections to Final Regs for Longevity Annuity Contracts
"This document contains corrections to final regulations ... relating to the use of longevity annuity contracts in tax qualified defined contribution plans." [IRS has simultaneously published a second technical correction.] (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Advert.]

Advanced Pension Conference in Chicago – Save $150

Get 19 CE hours! Topics: PPA restatements, same gender marriage rulings, disclosures and notices, practitioner liability, outsourcing fiduciary functions, plan terminations and amendments, forfeitures, and much more. Register today, save $150.

[Guidance Overview]

2014 Q&As: PBGC Meeting with ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, May 7, 2014 (PDF)
28 pages. Includes questions on coverage of Puerto Rico plans, reporting and calculation of variable rate premiums, common errors in premium filings, PBGC experience with standard termination audits, fiduciary breach claims, Section 4062 issues, and litigation update. (Joint Committee on Employee Benefits [JCEB], American Bar Association)  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Employee Plans News 2014-11, August 4, 2014 (PDF)
Topics include: [1] Defined benefit plan terminations webinar (August 14 at 2 p.m. EDT); [2] Updated plan termination resources: Terminating a retirement plan, Plan amendments required before termination, FAQs regarding plan terminations, FAQs regarding partial plan termination, and User fee forms for determination, opinion or advisory letter requests; and [3] Comment request for Forms 8717 and 8717-A -- submit your comments by September 26, 2014. (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

Longevity Annuities in DC Plans: New Regs Pave the Way
"Fiduciaries of 401(k) plans have always had the responsibility to ensure that their plan's fund line up is diverse, well-performing and maintains competitive fees....These new regulations address the longevity issue of retirement income by making it easier for workers to get protection against outliving their retirement funds." (P-Solve LLC)  

[Guidance Overview]

Extension of Pension Interest Rate Smoothing Relief Clears Congress (PDF)
"The MAP-21 provision stabilized interest rates for purposes of calculating defined benefit plan funding by adjusting the segment rates used to determine funding status within 10 percent of a 25-year average of prior segment rates. This 10 percent corridor is gradually phased out under the original MAP-21 legislation -- the bill delays this phase out until 2017 under [a set] schedule, raising $6.4 billion by doing so[.]" (Groom Law Group)  

[Advert.]

IRS Phone Forum: Defined Benefit Plan Terminations, August 14 at 2 pm

Learn about issues related to terminating a defined benefit retirement plan. We'll discuss how the IRS defines the date of termination, final funding requirements, PBGC issues, reversions, and what is needed in a notice of intent to terminate the plan.

Text of Fourth Circuit Opinion Adopting 'Would Have' Standard for Fiduciary Prudence (PDF)
85 pages. "[T]he district court found that RJR did indeed breach its fiduciary duty of procedural prudence and so bore the burden of proving that this breach did not cause loss to the plan participants. But the court concluded that RJR met this burden by establishing that 'a reasonable and prudent fiduciary could have made [the same decision] after performing [a proper] investigation' ... [We], like our sister circuits, have adopted the 'would have' standard to determine a fiduciary's objective prudence. As the Supreme Court has explained, the distinction between 'would' and 'could' is both real and legally significant .... The 'would have' standard is, of course, more difficult for a defendant-fiduciary to satisfy. And that is the intended result." [Tatum v. RJR Pension Investment Committee, No. 13-1360 (4th Cir., Aug. 4, 2014)] (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit)  

Dudenhoeffer Dust Will Take Time to Settle
"Some have seen the Supreme Court's ruling as a blow to fiduciaries of plans offering employer securities, expecting a rash of new stock drop lawsuits.... Although the selection of prudent investments is clearly the province of a plan's fiduciaries, we would caution plan sponsors not to react in knee-jerk fashion and blindly remove what might be a prudent option from its investment lineup. A close look at the Court's ruling may conclude that it actually raised the bar and made it more difficult for stock drop cases to be brought successfully." (Todd Berghuis, for Ascensus)  

How a Fiduciary Can Assess a Retirement Investor's GOT
"You're a retirement investor and your plan fiduciary has just opened your eyes to the Retirement Readiness Calculator. Through this, you've discovered your number -- your Goal-Oriented Target (or GOT). Is your GOT 20%? Or is it 5%? Maybe you're one of the few who have obtained a GOT of 0%? What does it mean? Is it good? Is it bad? How can you tell? And what do you do about it if you don't like what you've discovered?" (Fiduciary News)  

Church-Plan Status Under Increased Scrutiny
"[T]he outcome of these cases could affect more than just church-related hospital defined benefit plans. If ERISA is found to apply, it could extend to 401(k), 403(b) and welfare plans of those and other church-related charities as well." (Pensions & Investments)  

Tentative Ruling Removes Pension Initiative from Ballot in Ventura, California
"Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kent Kellegrew found the measure proposed by leaders of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association could not legally be used to withdraw from a statewide retirement system the county joined in the mid-1940s.... As a result, allowing the measure to be considered 'would only result in a waste of public resources,' he wrote.... Kellegrew said counties seeking to withdraw from a system that encompasses 20 counties must petition the Legislature." (Ventura County Star)  

Eastman Kodak Company Moving Employees from a Traditional DB Pension to a Cash Balance Plan
"Beginning in 2015, participants in the traditional pension formula will participate in the cash balance formula and will be eligible for a benefit equal to the sum of the pre-2015 traditional benefit and the post-2014 cash balance benefit.... The firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2012, saying at the time that its pension plans were well-funded and implying that the bankruptcy would not affect pension benefits[.]" (PLANSPONSOR)  

Did the First Circuit Just Change Its Test for Preemption?
"Historically, courts in the First Circuit have focused on two concepts in deciding whether a state law claim is preempted: [1] whether the state law cause of action seeks to supplement the causes of action available under ERISA itself; and [2] whether the state law claim requires consideration of the ERISA plan to decide the claim or would dictate specific terms or operational procedures for the plan.... [T]he First Circuit [recently] discussed the second concept by, in essence, applying a sliding scale analysis that considered how much impact the state law in question actually had on the ERISA governed plan, finding that too much equals preempted, while too little equals not preempted." [Merit Construction Alliance v. City of Quincy, No. 13-2189 (1st Cir. July 16, 2014)] (Stephen Rosenberg of The McCormack Firm, LLC)  

A Resounding Yes on ASPPA Restructure
ASPPA [American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries]

Lockton Expands Employee Benefits Practice in Chicago
Lockton

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