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

Implementation Specialist
benefitsCONNECT
in CA

Vice-President of Sales
Verisight, Inc.
in CA

Pension Field Service Rep
Nationwide Insurance
in CO, WA

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Evaluating Your Employee Health Benefit Program
November 21, 2014 WEBCAST
(Clear Law Institute)

A Deeper Dive into Social Security Claiming Strategies: Mary Beth Franklin Answers Your Questions
December 9, 2014 WEBCAST
(InvestmentNews)

Ethical Considerations for the Employee Benefits Practitioner
December 9, 2014 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

Retirement Plan Distributions - What Every Participant Should Know
December 11, 2014 WEBCAST
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

Information Risk Management Essentials
December 11, 2014 WEBCAST
(Clearwater Compliance)

Protection of IRA & Qualified Plan Assets after Clark v. Rameker
January 8, 2015 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

Just for ERPAs Workshop
January 27, 2015 in FL
(SunGard Relius)

SunGard's Advanced Pension Conference
January 28, 2015 in FL
(SunGard Relius)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Guidance Overview]

IRS and DOL Issue Guidance on Including Deferred Annuities in Target Date Funds
"The guidance should provide comfort for the use of deferred annuities in TDFs. It is also helpful to consider that the Notice provides guidance by way of example, leaving room for interpretation for variations in different target date fund annuity structures and for future innovations, so long as the general conditions described in the Notice are met. Similarly, the DOL Information Letter does not prescribe a specific type of investment structure, but clarifies the availability of the DOL QDIA and annuity selection safe harbors in these circumstances." (Morgan Lewis)  

[Advert.]

The hottest trend in pensions made easy with DATAIR!

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[Guidance Overview]

IRS Chart of Rollover-Eligible Retirement Plans and IRA Combinations, Updated November 2014 (PDF)
BenefitsLink came across this handy unofficial chart on the IRS web site. It's a one-page summary in the form of a table, listing the eight kinds of plans and IRAs that can make rollover-eligible distributions, and the corresponding eight kinds of plans and IRAs into which those distributions can (or cannot) be rolled over. Updated Nov. 17, 2014, to reflect revised rollover rules. (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

Guaranteed Lifetime Income and the Importance of Plan Design (PDF)
"[W]hen workers are left to their own devices in a plan without a guaranteed lifetime income benefit, the participation rate is 65%.... [T]he optimal design for the best participation was a plan with a default investment with [a guaranteed lifetime retirement income product], automatic enrollment (for all plan eligible workers), and participant automatic contribution escalation (for all plan members), resulting in an 88% participation rate." (Prudential)  

Funding and Investment Strategy for DB Plan Terminations (PDF)
8 pages. "[S]ponsors of frozen DB plans do not really need to decide whether they will terminate -- they just need to decide when.... Hibernation -- the indefinite managing of a frozen plan, ideally with minimal risk and well-managed expenses -- may be a feasible alternative until termination time. But once termination is set as a firm goal, sponsors should assess their existing policies for funding and investment and align them, as needed, with their new endgame in mind." (Russell Investments)  

Supreme Court Declines Participants' Request for Review of Stock-Drop Case
"The Supreme Court on Monday [November 17] declined to hear an appeal by participants in a class-action lawsuit against Cleveland-based KeyCorp and fiduciaries of the firm's $1.5 billion 401(k) plan, alleging company stock was an imprudent investment." (Pensions & Investments)  

[Advert.]

Ready for 2014 year-end retirement plan amendment deadlines?

Mercer Select members are! With a user-friendly website and daily emails, Mercer Select members stay informed about retirement and other key benefit, comp and HR issues. Sign up for a free demo or guest membership.

How to Tell If You Are Receiving Good Investment Advice
"The advice shared should be comprehensive in terms of ensuring that there are investment tracks available for all types of 401(k) plan investors.... The investment advisor should demonstrate a thorough, prudent and understandable process for surfacing investment options for the investment committee to consider.... The advisor should understand the client well enough to introduce investment options that are appropriate for their plan participants.... The advisor should be presenting monitoring reports which everyone on the investment committee understands." (Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants)  

Widespread Increase Expected in Risk Appetite Among Pension Funds Along with Increased Allocations to Alternatives
"[O]ver the next three years, 77 percent of pension funds expect their appetite for investment risk to increase to enable them to meet long-term liabilities and deliver optimal value for members ... One in five (20 percent) of the asset owners surveyed expect their risk appetite to increase significantly during this period.... Private equity is of the greatest interest to respondents in the Americas, with 68 percent planning to increase their allocation, compared to 60 percent in Europe, Middle East and Africa and only 45 percent in the Asia Pacific region." (State Street Corporation)  

Employers Say Retirement Readiness is Big Issue for Employees
"78% of the 457 U.S. employers surveyed say retirement readiness has become a top issue for their employees. Additionally, 82% say retirement security will become a more important issue for employees in the next three years.... A mere 12% of respondents say employees know how much they need for a secure retirement, while only 20% believe their employees feel comfortable making investment decisions. More than half of the respondents (53%) are also concerned about older workers delaying retirement." (Towers Watson)  

Half of Employees Approaching Retirement Wish They Had Started Saving Sooner
"More than half (52 percent) of people approaching retirement (age 55-64) say they wish they had started saving for the future sooner ... Many say they wish they had made smarter financial decisions earlier in their career, including saving more of their paycheck (47 percent) and investing their savings more aggressively (34 percent).... Forty-five percent of respondents age 55-64 say financial readiness is the most important factor in determining when they will retire.... Only 35 percent say they saved in an IRA or met with a financial advisor, 32 percent have calculated the income they would need for each year of their retirement, and 12 percent have saved in a healthcare savings account." [Also available: Executive Summary presentation slides.] (TIAA-CREF)  

[Advert.]

6th Annual Financial Advisor Retirement Symposium - April 1-2, 2015

The editors of Financial Advisor and Private Wealth magazines bring together industry experts to share insights and strategies on retirement at a conference that promises to energize advisors with new practice-building ideas. BenefitsLink Discount.

Annuity Sales Fall Two Percent in Third Quarter
"Total fixed annuity sales were $22.7 billion in the third quarter, down five percent versus prior year. Year-to-date, fixed annuity sales reached $71.8 billion, a 21 percent increase from 2013. Sales of fixed-rate deferred annuities (Book Value and MVA) fell 32 percent in the third quarter, compared with prior year. Fixed-rate deferred annuities reached $22.4 billion in the first nine months, an eight percent increase compared to last year." (LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute)  

Let's Go, Broncos: Retiree Group Seeks Appeal of Detroit Pension Cuts
"In approving Detroit's modest reductions to most city pensions earlier this month, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes said there was a 25 percent chance his ruling could be overturned on appeal. A group of 133 holdout Detroit pensioners likes its chances. Late Monday [November 17], the pensioners asked the judge to halt implementation of Detroit's pension cuts pending their appeal to a higher court. In a court filing, the group of retirees, survivors and city workers cited the 4-to-1 odds the Denver Broncos will win Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1 as part of their justification[.]" (The Detroit News)  

[Opinion]

On SEC Chair Mary Jo White and the Investment Adviser Regulation Debate
"When asked where the SEC is going to come down on the issue of fiduciary standards, White waffled.... Responding to a query on the fiduciary standard issue, White said, 'Care needs to be taken to ensure we're not harming investors by driving away service providers in the brokerage space.' That's right: White is concerned that investors could be harmed if a new fiduciary standard for fund salespeople meant they could not sell as hard or as inappropriately as they do now." (Institutional Investor)  

[Opinion]

Participant Benefit Statements May Be Changing
"It had always been expected that at some point the DOL would supplant the benefit statement guidance in [FAB 2006-03 and FAB 2007-03] with actual regulations. The concern is that the new proposal slated for release in 2015 is likely to start from scratch rather than incorporate the rules that have been developed under the FABs. This could lead to a need for plan sponsors and their service providers to make significant changes in their existing processes." (American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries [ASPPA])  

[Opinion]

Text of Comments by Pension Finance Tax Force to Actuarial Standards Board on ASOPs Pertaining to Public Pension Plan Actuarial Valuations (PDF)
"[A]dditional guidance is needed, beyond that in the revised pension ASOPs, for public plan actuarial practice.... including but not limited to ... [1] An actuary's responsibility to various public plan stakeholders, including the taxpayers who ultimately finance the plan. [2] An actuary's responsibility to provide information to various public plan stakeholders beyond what is required by law or governmental accounting standards." (Pension Finance Task Force, a joint project of the American Academy of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries)  

[Opinion]

Text of Comments by American Academy of Actuaries to Actuarial Standards Board on ASOPs Pertaining to Public Pension Plan Funding (PDF)
"[A]dditional guidance or disclosure requirements could provide support to actuaries who make appropriate comments or disclosures when the plan or plan sponsor actions may not be consistent with the actuaries' recommendations.... With the new GASB standards, the determination of an appropriate actuarially determined contribution has become of greater importance for public plans and some additional guidance could be helpful ... [To] maintain the consistency of standards applicable to all pension actuaries, any new guidance should not be limited to a sub category based solely on the nature of the plan sponsor." (Public Plans Subcommittee, American Academy of Actuaries)  

[Opinion]

Text of Comments by U.S. Chamber of Commerce to EBSA on Standards for Brokerage Windows in Participant-Directed Individual Account Plans (PDF)
"Brokerage windows have long been understood as mechanisms by which plan participants may invest in a wide range of stocks, mutual funds and other investments not otherwise specifically designated by the plan as available for investment. To change this understanding now would upset decades of previous guidance and negatively impact the ability of employers to provide certain investment options to their employees." (U.S. Chamber of Commerce)  

Technical Explanation, Estimated Revenue Effects, Distribution Analysis, and Macroeconomic Analysis of the Tax Reform Act of 2014 (PDF)
702 pages; based on Discussion Draft prepared by the Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means. Provisions related to pension and retirement begin on page 101, and include: Changes to rules for individual retirement arrangements; Repeal of exception to 10-percent penalty for first-time home purchases and elimination of first-time home purchase as a qualified distribution from a Roth IRA; Termination of new simplified employee pensions; Termination for new SIMPLE 401(k) plans; Modification of required distribution rules for pension plans; Reduction in age for allowable in-service distributions; Modification of rules governing hardship distributions; Extended rollover period for the rollover of plan loan offset amounts in certain cases; Coordination of contribution limitations for 403(b) plans and governmental 457(b) plans; Application of 10-percent early distribution tax to governmental 457 plans; and Inflation adjustments for employer-sponsored retirement plan dollar limitations on benefits and contributions. Provisions related to compensation begin on page 457 and include: Nonqualified deferred compensation; Modification of limitation on excessive employee remuneration; Excise tax on excess tax-exempt organization executive compensation; Denial of deduction as research expenditure for stock transferred pursuant to an incentive stock option; and Determination of worker classification. (Joint Committee on Taxation [JCT], U.S. Congress)  

On Tetreault, Gabriel, and the First Circuit's Reluctance to Recognize Equitable Estoppel in ERISA Cases
"As an evidentiary bar, [the Ninth Circuit's requirement of extraordinary circumstances] separates the routine case where there is a random misstatement from a low level HR person upon which a plaintiff's lawyer tries to fashion an entire estoppel claim (which federal court judges have been seeing, and for the most part rejecting, for years) from a deliberate pattern and practice of self-serving conduct that harms participants (and which federal court judges don't see all that often). These types of additional requirements for estoppel claims under the equitable relief provision of ERISA, above and beyond the standard requirement of reasonable reliance on a misstatement of fact, allow the courts to limit this type of relief, in the ERISA context, to the more egregious circumstances only." [Tetreault v. Reliance Standard, No. 13-2353 (1st Cir. Oct. 6, 2014); Gabriel v. Alaska Electrical Pension Fund, No. 12-354581 (9th Cir. June 6, 2014)] (Stephen Rosenberg of The Wagner Law Group)  

2015 Compensation Committee Handbook
"The Handbook is intended to help compensation committee members understand and comply with the duties imposed upon them, and ... will also be a useful resource for compensation committee advisers. [The authors] deliberately wrote the Handbook in a less technical manner so as to make its content more accessible. As such, the Handbook should not be considered an exhaustive compliance resource. At the same time, however, ... it will provide helpful insights and bring clarity to an area that has become increasingly complex." (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP)  

Expansion Continues for Pensionmark Retirement Group with New Houston Office
Pensionmark Retirement Group

Mercer Alum Laura Ramanis Joins Verisight as COO
Mercer

Creative Retirement Systems, Inc. is Certified to Industry Best Practices
Centre for Fiduciary Excellence [CEFEX]

Ameritas Expands Investment Options in Retirement Plans Program
Ameritas Retirement Plans

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