Employee Benefits Jobs
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Webcasts and Conferences
Lost Participants: Welcome to the 21st Century
October 1, 2014 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)
New Rules, New Opportunities: Understanding the 2014 Cash Balance Regulations
October 21, 2014 WEBCAST
(Kravitz)
Plan Sponsor Basics: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Issues for Pension Plan Sponsors
October 21, 2014 WEBCAST
(Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP)
Fixed Income in Defined Contribution Plans
October 29, 2014 WEBCAST
(Multnomah Group)
Plan Sponsor Basics: Issues for 401(k) Plan Sponsors with Employer Stock Investment Funds
November 4, 2014 WEBCAST
(Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP)
Financing an ESOP Transaction
November 4, 2014 WEBCAST
(National Center for Employee Ownership)
Public Exchange Enrollment Preview: Insurer Strategies to Sidestep the Pitfalls Ahead
November 5, 2014 WEBCAST
(Atlantic Information Services, Inc)
California Employment Law Year in Review: Significant Cases and Employment Law Trends
November 6, 2014 WEBCAST
(Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP)
Private Insurance Exchanges: Bottom-Line Strategies for Insurers
November 12, 2014 WEBCAST
(Atlantic Information Services, Inc)
ASPPA Annual Meeting Recap
November 18, 2014 in MN
(ASPPA Benefits Council [ABC] of Greater Twin Cities)
Valuation Issues for Internal Trustees
November 18, 2014 WEBCAST
(National Center for Employee Ownership)
Get Your Ducks in a Row -- 58 Questions from the Department of Labor
November 19, 2014 WEBCAST
(Multnomah Group)
ESOP Overview: An Introduction to ESOPs
December 2, 2014 WEBCAST
(National Center for Employee Ownership)
Hot Topics in Employee Benefits - What WeÂre Seeing
December 10, 2014 WEBCAST
(Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP)
View All Webcasts and Conferences
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[Guidance Overview]
Florida Doc Stamp Tax Applies to 401(k) Loans
"Under its revenue laws, Florida imposes a document tax on loan transactions that are made, signed, executed, issued, or otherwise transacted in the State. The Florida Department of Revenue has specifically ruled that 401(k) plan loans are subject to the tax. The law further provides that no state court may enforce the provisions of a promissory note if the document tax is not paid. [The authors] believe it would be a challenge to sustain a position that the Florida statute is preempted by ERISA."
(Benefits Bryan Cave)
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[Advert.]
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Issues Final Regs on Retirement Plan Electronic Filing Requirements
"Minor modifications include the following. [1] Form 8955-SSA, Annual Registration Statement Identifying Separated Participants With Deferred Vested Benefits, must be filed under the Filing Information Returns Electronically (FIRE) system. [2] One-participant or foreign plans eligible to file the Form 5500-EZ, Annual Return of One-Participant (Owners and Their Spouses) Retirement Plan, may use the DOL's computerized ERISA Filing Acceptance System (EFAST2) to file without being subject to any of the attachment filing requirements. [3] The regulations specify that the economic hardship exemption to the electronic filing requirement guidance will be issued separately and that the Treasury anticipates granting the waivers only in exceptional cases."
(Ascensus)
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Reaches a Split Decision on Rollover Allocation Rules
"The guidance issued in Notice 2014-54 becomes effective on January 1, 2015. For periods before January 1, 2015, the Notice permits a reasonable interpretation of the statutory rollover rules, which would include allowing pre-tax and after-tax amounts to be directed to separate destinations. Plan administrators using the IRS model rollover notice or a notice with similar language may consider revising their rollover notices to reflect the new guidance."
(Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP)
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Provides Flexibility for Allocating the Pre-Tax and After-Tax Portions of a Distribution Made to Multiple Destinations
"In its background discussions, the IRS indicates that ... comments ... following the release of the 2009 rollover notice ... pointed out that participants could achieve their allocation goals by taking their distributions in several steps, but only if they had sufficient other funds to replace the portion of the distribution withheld to pay income tax withholding.... [Notice 2014-54] clarifies and simplifies the process for multiple destination distributions. It also indicates that the IRS will revise the 2009 rollover notice to reflect this change."
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)
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[Guidance Overview]
Longevity Annuities Become More Accessible: New QLAC Rule Overcomes RMD Hurdle
"While QLAC's are presumably intended to be portable, final regulations do not yet specifically address the permissibility or the consequences of such transfers from qualified employer-sponsored plans ... Consequently, the appetite for these products may initially be more prevalent in the IRA market than with the employer-sponsored retirement plan market until such time as the mechanics of the details are determined."
(Insured Retirement Institute [IRI])
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[Advert.]
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Text of Third Circuit Opinion: Mutual Fund Provider Has No Fiduciary Liability for Fees Charged on 401(k) Investments (PDF)
30 pages. "[T]he question in this case is not whether John Hancock acted as a fiduciary to the Plans at some point and in some manner and then charged an excessive fee for that fiduciary service; rather, the question is whether John Hancock acted as a fiduciary to the Plans with respect to the fees that it set.... [E]ven if they were incentivized to select certain funds by John Hancock's promise of indemnification ... the trustees still exercised final authority over what funds would be included ... Nothing prevented the trustees from rejecting John Hancock's product and selecting another service provider; the choice was theirs ... [We] do not see how monitoring the performance of the funds that it offers and relaying that information to the trustees, who retain ultimate authority for selecting the funds to be included ... gives John Hancock discretionary control over anything, much less
management of the Plans." [Santomenno v. John Hancock Life Ins. Co., No. 13-3467 (3d Cir. Sept. 26, 2014)]
(U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit)
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Hybrid Plan Rules Now Offer Certainty, Open Up Options for Employers
"The final rules open up a new world for employers wanting to offer retirement plans to their employees and could eventually slow the migration from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans ... The market rate of return in the final rules doesn't solve the problem for every plan, but 'at least moved in a direction that both gave clarity to all plan sponsors and put a lot more plan sponsors in the category of we're OK, versus we're not OK,' [said Alan Glickstein, senior retirement consultant at Towers Watson]."
(Bloomberg BNA)
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Public Pensions: $2 Trillion in the Hole
"Despite recent gains on their investments, U.S. public pension funds don't have nearly enough money to pay what they owe current and future retirees. In less than a decade, that shortfall has tripled to at least $2 trillion -- more than half of all outstanding state and local bond debt ... Moody's looked at the unfunded liabilities of the 25 biggest public retirement systems, which cover 40 percent of the $5.3 trillion in total U.S. public pension plan assets."
(CNBC)
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Pension Funds Feel Heat on Climate Change Issue
"Pension funds have used their investment clout for targeted social goals, notably divestments or stock boycotts of apartheid South Africa and tobacco. Curbing the use of carbon-emitting fossil fuels said to be disastrously warning the climate is a much larger global undertaking."
(Calpensions)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Official Guidance]
Text of DOL Proposed Regs: Electronic Filing of Notices for Apprenticeship and Training Plans and Statements for Pension Plans for Certain Select Employees
"This document contains proposed regulations that would revise filing procedures for apprenticeship and training plan notices and 'top hat' plan statements ... to require electronic submission of these notices and statements.... The Department has determined that regular mail or personal delivery are no longer the most efficient or cost-effective ways to file and process these notices and statements. The Department annually receives approximately 120 apprenticeship and training plan notices and approximately 2,000 top hat plan statement filings. To make the information on these notices and statements accessible, the Department converts each paper filing to electronic format. The proposal will eliminate the need for this time-consuming task."
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor)
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[Official Guidance]
Apprenticeship and Training Plan Notice (DOL Filing Page)
"Plan administrators of welfare plans that provide apprenticeship or training benefits, or both, may use this web page to electronically file the notice described in section 2520.104-22 of the [DOL's] regulations. The [DOL] recently published a proposed regulation that would make it mandatory to electronically file the notice. In the interim, plan administrators are encouraged to file plan notices using this electronic system. Plan administrators who use the electronic filing system will have satisfied the filing requirements under the current regulation."
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor [DOL])
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[Official Guidance]
Top Hat Plan Statement (DOL Filing Page)
"Plan administrators of 'top hat' plans can use this web page to electronically file the statement described in section 2520.104-23 of the [DOL's] regulations. Top hat plans are unfunded or insured pension plans for a select group of management or highly compensated employees. The [DOL] recently published a proposed regulation that would make it mandatory to electronically file the statement. In the interim, plan administrators of top hat plans are encouraged to file plan statements using this electronic system. Plan administrators who use this electronic filing system will have satisfied the filing requirements under the current regulation."
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor [DOL])
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House Democrats Introduce Bill to Link Executive Pay Deductions to Increases in Employee Wages, Productivity
"House Budget Committee Ranking Democrat Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has introduced a bill to prevent companies from deducting CEO and senior executive compensation over $1 million unless they increase the average wages of employees earning less than $115,000 to reflect average annual national increases in productivity and the cost of living.... Currently under Section 162(m) of the tax code, companies can only deduct compensation in excess of $1 million for the CEO and the other Named Executive Officers, other than the CFO, if it is 'performance-based.' Rather than eliminate the performance-based exception, as other legislation has proposed, the Van Hollen bill would link the deduction to pay increases for certain employees."
(HR Policy Association)
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Press Releases
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