ASPPA

Part Time On Call Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in AR, CA, HI, IL, MI, MO, NJ, NY, TN, TX, UT

Bilingual Retirement Education Consultant
OneAmerica
in CA

Legal & Compliance Specialist
Associated Third Party Administrators
in CA

Manager, Retirement Compliance
Paychex, Inc.
in NY

Department and Account Associate (Benefits Administrator)
YMCA of the USA
in IL

Pension Consultant In-Training/Marketing Support
Associated Pension Consultants
in CA

Pension Administrator
TPA Firm in the East Bay
in CA

Marketing/Communications Developer
New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in MA

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Steps to Maintaining ERISA Compliance for Broker Dealers and Investment Advisers
August 15, 2014 WEBCAST
(North American Professional Liability Insurance Agency [NAPLIA])

The DOL is calling....Will you be ready?"
September 10, 2014 in TX
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Houston Chapter)

ABC of Cleveland Full Day Seminar with Derrin Watson
September 16, 2014 in OH
(ASPPA Benefits Council [ABC] of Cleveland)

Retirement: How to Invest and Plan for a Healthy Retirement
September 18, 2014 in GA
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Atlanta Chapter)

Annual Conference
October 19, 2014 in DC
(American Council of Life Insurers)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Guidance Overview]

Terminated Plans Can Roll Over Benefits of Lost Participants
"[T]he plan fiduciary should make reasonable efforts to locate the participants and beneficiaries using all of the following: Certified mail; Check records of related plans and employer(s); Contact designated beneficiaries to ask about participants; Use free electronic (Internet) search tools.... If the participant or beneficiary is not located, then the fiduciary should consider distributing the plan account directly to an IRA because the account will continue the deferral of income, and avoid both the 20% mandatory withholding and the 10% early distribution tax." (Nelson Mullins)  

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ftwPortal Pro is here to help you during the testing season!

Streamline your census and annual questionnaire process with ftwPortal Pro. Choose from batch delivery or online electronic completion on the portal, and seamlessly import the information directly into our Admin software!

[Guidance Overview]

DOL Guidance: Use Internet to Find Missing DC Participants
"The new [Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) No. 2014-01] removes a requirement to use IRS and Social Security Administration letter-forwarding services that were ended in recent years. Instead, DOL said, expanded, free electronic search tools are to be used. Improved Internet search technologies also have led DOL to codify its enforcement safe harbor for distributing missing participant benefits ... The new FAB also reflects some suggestions from the 2013 ERISA Advisory Council, which focused last year on the topic of locating missing participants[.]" (Thompson SmartHR Manager)  

[Guidance Overview]

Upcoming IRS Phone Forum: Correcting Retirement Plan Mistakes Using IRS Correction Programs, September 4, 2014
"Learn about: [1] The correction programs available under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS); [2] The Voluntary Closing Agreement Program (VCAP) for issues that cannot be addressed under EPCRS; [3] Common failures and approaches to addressing those failures; [4] Procedural tips that could facilitate the processing of VCP submissions; [5] Q&As -- Responses to selected questions submitted in advance of the presentation." [Submit questions to IRS via email by August 28, 2014.] (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

Divided Fourth Circuit Panel Rules on Burden of Proving Loss Causation in ERISA Fiduciary Breach Case
"The Fourth Circuit's decision makes a number of significant statements and rulings on the burdens of proof related to loss causation, the meaning of 'objective prudence,' and the standards for reviewing decisions pertaining to stock funds in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling in Fifth Third v. Dudenhoeffer. Some of the Court's pronouncements are difficult to reconcile with existing case law. If not set aside on en banc or Supreme Court review and if adopted elsewhere, the decision could substantially impact the future conduct of fiduciary breach litigation, as well as plan practices in administering stock funds." [Tatum v. RJR Pension Investment Committee, No. 13-1360 (4th Cir. Aug. 4, 2014)] (Proskauer's ERISA Practice Center)  

Employees Highly Value Their 401(k) But Are More Likely to Get Help Changing Their Oil Than Managing Their Investments
"Half of those surveyed (50%) say their 401(k) plan investment information is more confusing than their health care benefits information. Roughly one in three (34%) admit they feel a lot of stress when it comes to allocating their 401(k) dollars.... Less than one quarter (23%) of those with access to professional 401(k) advice say they have used it.... A large majority of participants surveyed (70%) say they would feel extremely or very confident in their ability to make the right investment decisions if they enlisted the help of a financial professional. Only 39 percent feel that same level of confidence when making investment decisions on their own." [Also available: an infographic and survey results (17 pages).] (Charles Schwab)  

[Advert.]

Network, Learn and Sell at the SPARK Forum Retirement Industry Conference

Join top record keepers, asset managers, TPAs, advisors, marketing and sales executives for unequaled education and networking. Gain insights into the latest market trends, business strategies, regulatory and legislative issues, and product developments.

CalPERS Pension Rules Would OK 99 Types of Extra Pay to Count Under Benefit Formula
"Staff at [CalPERS] has suggested that the fund's board authorize 99 types of special payments as counting toward pension calculations for employees hired since [Gov. Jerry] Brown's pension law took effect on Jan. 1, 2013. Among them: longevity pay, police marksmanship certification pay, physical fitness pay, smog inspector license pay, notary pay, cement finisher pay and holiday pay. Public pension-change advocates, including Democratic San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, say the proposal is another sign that the union-dominated CalPERS board 'is doing what they can to resist reforms. ... They're in favor of anything that expands benefits.'" (The Sacramento Bee)  

Retirees Living on Less
"The majority of the recent retirees reported their annual income is between $25,000 and $100,000. Social Security is the largest single source of that income, and smaller but equal shares come from defined benefit pensions and from retirement savings plans. Many of the retirees report their households are managing to get by on less than the 70 percent to 80 percent of their pre-retirement income that most financial planners and retirement experts estimate they need. And four out of 10 are living on 60 percent or less." (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)  

IRS Has No Plans to Establish Determination Letter Program for Individually Designed 403(b) Plans
"The new 403(b) pre-approved plan program has no mechanism for providing opinion and advisory letters to plan sponsors of individually designed 403(b) plans ...[E]mployers are allowed to adopt individually designed 403(b) plans, and those plans still have a remedial amendment period ... But there is no letter that sponsors of individually designed plans can rely upon for corrections made during the remedial amendment period, unless the plan is restated as a pre-approved plan by the required deadline." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)  

Should Pension Assets Be Leveraged?
"[V]ery few pensions have implemented risk parity at the fund level, meaning that the fund borrows directly as part of a strategic asset allocation. [The San Diego County pension system] is one and targets 35% leverage. Another is the Ohio Police & Fire Pension, which targets 18% leverage. What they have in common, apart from leverage, is a significant overweight to fixed income.... Both are leveraging lower risk, lower return portfolios in very similar ways." (Cliffwater LLC)  

Understanding the Social Security Trust Funds
"[T]he Social Security trust funds are invested in Treasury securities that are every bit as sound as the U.S. government securities held by investors around the globe; investors regard those securities as being among the world's very safest investments. This brief paper provides some basic information about the Social Security trust funds." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)  

Total Annuity Sales Improve Eight Percent in Second Quarter 2014
"Total U.S. annuity sales reached $61.4 billion in second quarter, improving eight percent from prior year. In the first six months of 2014, total U.S. annuity sales increased 10 percent, compared with 2013. 'This is only the second time we have seen quarterly sales over $60 billion since the third quarter of 2011,' said Todd Giesing senior analyst, LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute Annuity Research. 'Despite declining interest rates during the first six months of this year, fixed annuity sales continue to drive overall annuity sales growth.'" (LIMRA)  

Alternative Financing Strategies Are Needed to Reach U.K. Pensions Stability
"Companies and trustees will therefore increasingly view their schemes through different lenses, as the companies see the risk of trapped surplus, while the trustees still see funding deficits because they are required to consider a prudent funding basis. Companies will want to consider reducing deficit contributions, but trustees with schemes which are still underfunded on a prudent funding basis are likely to seek other means of security for members' benefits if they are to accept the end of deficit contributions." (Aon Hewitt)  

[Opinion]

Supreme Court Disregards ERISA and Goes Further Astray in Applying Bankruptcy Law to Retirement Assets
"The Court's implicit addition of the phrase 'debtor's created' at the start of the exemption is based on its unexamined assumption that otherwise the phrase, 'Retirement funds to the extent that those funds are in,' would be rendered 'superfluous.' ... The phrase 'retirement funds to the extent that those funds are in' has a significance without the addition of any words that is consistent with the legislative history of the phrase, the other bankruptcy provisions, and ERISA.... Under this analysis the bankruptcy fund protection would be available to the participants and beneficiaries of such non-ERISA pension plans." [Clark v. Rameker, No. 13-299 (U.S. June 12, 2014)] (Albert Feuer via SSRN)  

[Opinion]

Detroit Bankruptcy Reveals Virtues of the Defined Contribution Retirement Plan Model
"Regardless of the final cuts imposed, the message is clear: promised city and county pension benefits are no longer sacrosanct, including those that are fully vested and supposedly guaranteed under state law.... The Detroit experience also means that public employees, who routinely have lobbied for oversized pensions local governments can't afford, need to realize that defined-benefit pensions may not be such a good deal after all. Defined-contribution pensions, such as the 401(k) or 403(b), where retirement benefits are not tied to the long-term financial health of a single business or local government, may be a better idea." (USA TODAY)  

[Opinion]

Outsource Fiduciary and Combine with HSA or Die!
"Given that healthcare costs could consume us all in the years ahead, cost control, limiting liability and reducing administrative burden has become Job #1 for employers of all sizes. Outcomes are being redefined and retirement specialists who fail to adapt and provide solutions to these glaring needs may not survive.... In addition to huge employer savings on healthcare and employment taxes, advisors can combine HSAs with a few other tactics to facilitate retirement readiness, outcomes (employer & participant), added value, and differentiation to capture plan sponsor attention in an unprecedented manner." (Fiduciary News)  

[Opinion]

Text of Comments by American Benefits Council to IRS Requesting Guidance on HATFA Funding Stabilization Provision (PDF)
9 pages. "[S]ubject to a contrary election by the plan sponsor, the Act modifies the segment rates for a year prior to the year of enactment.... The core point here is that Congress intended for employers to be able to fully use the modified segment rates for 2013, despite the fact that we are now well into 2014. So Congressional intent is clear; any deadlines or rules that would prevent an employer from fully using the modified segment rates for 2013 should not apply." (American Benefits Council)  

A Tribute to Retirement Security Hero Bob Nagle
"As General Counsel of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Bob was responsible for crafting and securing passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, the seminal law that safeguards retirement protections for American workers and retirees. Later, as Executive Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation from 1979 to 1982, he implemented the law's insurance program. In recent years, Bob was a lawyer in private practice, an arbitrator, a neutral trustee for two mining industry pension and health funds, a participant in the Pension Rights Center's Conversation on Coverage, and a Michael S. Gordon Fellow at the Center." (Pension Rights Center)  

Robert Nagle, an Architect of ERISA, Dies at 84
"Robert E. Nagle, who as general counsel of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare was one of the architects of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, died on Saturday [August 16, 2014] in McLean, Va., following a battle with cancer. He was 84." (Pensions & Investments)  

Proposal Questionnaire and Request for Proposal – Retirement System
City of Pontiac General Employees' Retirement System

New Collective Investment Fund Brings Endowment Investment Philosophy / Liquid Alternatives to Defined Contribution Plans
Alta Trust Company

Social Security Launches First National 'My Social Security' Week
Social Security Administration

Cynthia A. Groszkiewicz Wins Burrows Award
ASPPA College of Pension Actuaries [ACOPA]

Broadridge’s Matrix Financial Solutions Launches ModelTool(k)it for Financial Advisors and Retirement Plan Providers
Matrix Financial Solutions

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