ASPPA

Retirement Plan Services Consultant or Plan Manager
AUL / OneAmerica Financial
in IN

Sr Relationship Manager
T. Rowe Price
in MD

Client Service Manager
July Business Services
in ANY STATE

Investment Consultant
Multnomah Group, Inc.
in OR, WA

Director of Sales
Pension Consultants, Inc.
in MO

Product Manager, Retirement Consulting Services
Commonwealth Financial Network
in MA

Manager of Pension Administration
AUL / OneAmerica Financial
in IN

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Transitional Reinsurance Program: Submission of Supporting Documentation through Pay.gov
August 11, 2014 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS])

Strategies for Success: Employer Sponsored Population Health
August 13, 2014 WEBCAST
(Healthcare Web Summit)

Transitional Reinsurance Program: Submission of Supporting Documentation through Pay.gov
August 13, 2014 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS])

Transitional Reinsurance Program: Submission of Supporting Documentation through Pay.gov
August 15, 2014 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS])

2014 Western Benefits Conference Roundtable
August 19, 2014 in CA
(Western Pension & Benefits Council - Orange County Chapter)

Understanding Qualified Longevity Annuity Contracts (QLACs)
September 4, 2014 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

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[Guidance Overview]

IRS Issues Guidance on Offering Longevity Annuities in DC Plans
"There are ... significant issues ... that still must be resolved before it can be determined if QLACs will be successful as DC plan investment/distribution options ... [including] the fiduciary issues related to the selection of QLAC providers, the adequacy of state guarantees to back up the financial solvency of the providers, and the likely adverse selection a plan would experience because, particularly for male participants, an annuity purchased outside of the plan could be significantly less expensive than an annuity purchased under the plan." (Segal Consulting)  

[Advert.]

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Organized. Streamlined. Accurate. Profitable. Efficient. Secure. Growing. Find out how to achieve all of these qualities by scheduling a customized demo of the Pension Pro Software suite including Workflow, PlanSponsorLink, SalesPitch, and more!

[Guidance Overview]

Accepting Rollover Contributions Now Easier for Retirement Plans
"The IRS now has provided a streamlined process for validating rollover contributions in the form of two safe harbors, one for rollovers from other employer qualified plans and another for rollovers from IRAs. These safe-harbor rules eliminate the need for plan administrators to obtain a copy of a qualified plan's IRS determination letter ... and in the case of rollovers from IRAs, obtain evidence that the rollover amount originated from a qualified or governmental 457(b) plan." (Poyner Spruill LLP)  

Global DC Plans: Similar Destinations But Distinctly Different Paths
"[T]he investment strategies that have been adopted for most workers in Australia, the United States and the U.K. leave them exposed to a degree of risk that is beyond their capacity to bear. [The authors] believe most DC plans in the three countries would benefit from an analysis of the risk of loss in their investment defaults, as well as an analysis of the sources of risk.... The article will contrast current practices ... [with] outcome-focused solutions, which embrace risk-capacity limits and are designed for risk diversification, inflation hedging and market-shock protection in a way that should limit DC savers' risks." (PIMCO)  

Pension Indicator, July 2014
"July was a rather unassuming month. What meager gains pension plans had during June were just as quickly given back. There is [little] difference amongst investment strategies or plan designs: all plans are down slightly for the year." (Findley Davies)  

State Pensions Rethink High-Fee Hedge Funds But Love Private Equity
"[F]or all the griping about hedge funds' high costs and lousy performance, it doesn't appear pension funds have learned their lesson: They are maintaining their investment in private equity, in some cases, even expanding it. Private equity funds invest in non-publicly traded assets; like hedge funds, they also promise higher returns -- in exchange for high fees and often more risk. And historically, private equity has been a bust for pensions too." (Bloomberg Businessweek)  

[Advert.]

WEB's mission is to further the development of benefits professionals

We are committed to helping define the role of the benefits professional in the 21st century, and as changing market forces reshape the profession, WEB will help its members meet the challenges ahead.

401(k) Index Observations, July 2014
"July was another light month for trading activity in defined contribution plans ... Only 0.019% of balances transferred last month marking the ninth consecutive month that trading activity was below 0.03%. Total transfer activity was $291 million with one day in July with above normal trading activity. When trading occurred, plan participants favored equity funds over fixed income funds for 64% of the trading days. This was the first time since January that the month had a majority of equity-favored days." (Aon Hewitt)  

Ventura Pension Reform Shelved as Backers Drop Legal Battle
"Backers of an initiative to phase out the county government's pension system have decided ... not [to] appeal Superior Court Judge Kent Kellegrew's decision this week to remove the initiative from the Nov. 4 ballot ... The initiative would have required new county employees to enroll in a 401(k)-style system, phasing out the $3.6 billion, 16,000-member pension system over decades. With some exceptions, the measure also would have imposed a five-year freeze on pensionable pay for 1,600 employees." (Ventura County Star)  

Text of Fourth Circuit Opinion Rejecting Baltimore Police and Firefighters' Federal Constitutional Challenge to Changes in Pension Benefits (PDF)
"[We] conclude that the members' rights under the Contract Clause were not impaired, because the members retained a state law remedy for breach of contract.... [U]nder Maryland law, the City is only permitted to make reasonable modifications to its pension plans and is required to provide members with a substantially similar program after such modifications." [Cherry et al. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City, Nos. 13-1007, 13-1115 and 13-1116 (4th Cir. Aug. 6, 2014)] (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit)  

Implementation of 2014 Puerto Rico Tax Prepayments by Retirement Plan Sponsors Is Optional
"[P]lan sponsors have discretion to decide whether they will amend their plans to allow for the prepayments, with the biggest caveat being that dual-qualified plans will most likely not be allowed to implement the prepayments, at least inasmuch as they permit an immediate distribution, because such a distribution could violate applicable distribution restrictions under IRC Section 401(a)." (Bloomberg BNA)  

[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.

2014 Report on State Pension Asset Allocation and Performance
"State pensions earned a median 7.2% annualized return over the 10 years ended June 30, 2013, with individual pension fund returns ranging from 5.0% to 8.8%.... Nearly all state pensions earned 10-year returns that exceeded the 6.4% return that would have been achieved by a simple 60/40 'buy and hold' mix of stock and bond index funds.... State pensions outperformed managed defined contribution plan returns by 0.9% over the last 10 years, represented by the average return on target date funds." (Cliffwater LLC)  

Solving Technology Challenges with IT Outsourcing for Retirement Administrators
"Retirement administrators' ability to adjust to emerging regulations, operate more efficiently, bring new products to market, communicate over multiple channels, and confidently scale their operations depends upon the flexibility and scalability of their IT platforms.... The benefits of IT outsourcing ... include the ability to: Improve efficiency by leveraging best practices ... Achieve cost-effective scalability through the cloud ... Mitigate compliance risk ... Use the most up-to-date technology ... Deliver mission-critical recovery." (SunGard Financial Systems)  

[Opinion]

Pensions Lost and (Hopefully) Found
"By contacting the PBGC, retirees are often able to track down the insurance company selected by their former employers to pay their benefits. But it is harder for them to establish that they were incorrectly omitted from the list of participants given to the annuity provider.... The Center recommends that the PBGC require that single-employer plans undergoing standard terminations to provide final lists of: [1] All annuity providers with which the plan has contracted; [2] All participants entitled to an annuity from each of the annuity providers; [3] Any plans that have been merged into the terminating plan and copies of plan documents, including Summary Plan Descriptions, from those merged plans." (Pension Rights Center)  

[Opinion]

Pension Rights Center Offers Reform Principles to Maryland Governor's Task Force to Ensure Retirement Security
"We ask that this task force take the following principles into account when studying and designing a new system that works for Maryland.... [A]ll workers should be covered by the plan unless they're participating in other employer-based plans.... [R]etirees should be able to rely on a steady stream of income.... [In] combination with Social Security, retirees should be able to maintain a reasonable standard of living in retirement.... [To] meet these goals, contributions should be made by both employers and employees; contributions should be pooled and professionally managed to minimize costs and financial risks; and benefits should be annuitized and paid out over the lifetime of retirees and surviving spouses." (Pension Rights Center)  

Exclusion for Employer-Provided Health Coverage Tops Tax Expenditures in JCT Report
"[T]he JCT said the employer health exclusion will cost $785.1 billion from 2014 to 2018 ... Other top tax expenditures [include] ... net exclusion of defined contribution plans, at $399 billion ... The employer-provided health exclusion will cost more in the 2014-2018 period than in the 2013-2017 period, when the estimate in February 2013 was for $760.4 billion, the JCT said." (Bloomberg BNA)  

CalSTRS Selects State Street’s Private Equity Index for Policy Benchmark
State Street

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