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DB and DC Administrator
Actuarial Consulting Services
in NJ

Pension Administrator
Alliance Pension Consultants, LLC
in IL

Pension Administrator
GF Pension Corp.
in PA

Plan Administrator
California Retirement Plans
in CA

DC/401(k) Plan Administrator
Peery & Associates, Inc.
in ANY STATE

Retirement Product Manager
New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in MA

Account Manager
Garnett-Powers & Associates, Inc.
in CA

Pension Director
1199SEIU Family of Funds
in NY

Account Manager
American Trust & Savings Bank
in IA

Compliance Coordinator / Senior Plan Administrator
Scholz, Klein & Friends Enlightened Retirement Group, Inc.
in TX

Retirement Consultant
NFP Retirement
in MA

Institutional Services Client Consultant
Fifth Third Bank
in IN

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After-tax Contributions: the untold story
December 17, 2014 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

IRA Reporting – Compliance
December 18, 2014 WEBCAST
(Ascensus)

SHOP Marketplace Series
January 6, 2015 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS])

457(b) Plans for 401(k) Practitioners
January 12, 2015 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

SHOP Marketplace Series
January 13, 2015 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS])

Governmental Pension Reporting — The New Standards
January 14, 2015 WEBCAST
(Accounting Continuing Professional Education Network [ACPEN])

Earned Income - A Practical Approach
January 14, 2015 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

Defined Benefit Plans for DC Practitioners [A Two-Part Event]
January 20, 2015 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Field Directive on Pension Equity Plan Determination Letters: Accrued Benefit Issues (PDF)
"This memorandum provides direction ... on the application of the accrued benefit rules under section 411(b)(1)(G) of the Internal Revenue Code to pending requests for determination letters by [pension equity plans (PEPs)].... [A] PEP must contain language that ensures compliance with the accrued benefit rules under section 411(b)(1)(G). Pending the issuance of guidance that will provide for more specific ways of complying with section 411(b)(1)(G), this directive contains a number of acceptable provisions for inclusion in plan documents." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

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[Guidance Overview]

New IRS Guidelines for Pension Equity Plan Determination Letters
"A PEP is a type of hybrid pension plan under which the benefit is expressed as a lump sum amount rather than as an annuity payable at normal retirement age. Under a PEP formula, the benefit is usually defined as a percentage of a participant's final average pay. The percentage typically accumulates over a participant's career according to an annual schedule based on a participant's age or years of service. A PEP also generally provides for hypothetical interest on a participant's accumulated benefit." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Explanation of Pension Equity Plan Issues (PDF)
"This document is a line-by-line explanation of the questions on the Pension Equity Plan Determinations Worksheet. The Worksheet and this Explanation are intended for use by Employee Plans Determinations personnel reviewing pension equity plans.... The Worksheet is divided into sections that deal separately with plans with explicit interest, plans with implicit interest and plans that do not include an interest component. Additional sections cover plans with multiple formulas, lump sum issues and hybrid plan conversions." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

Fixing Common Plan Mistakes: Failure to Obtain Spousal Consent for Distributions
"Normally, the correction method under VCP for a failure to obtain spousal consent requires the plan sponsor to notify the affected participant and spouse ... to secure a spousal consent for the distribution that has already been made. If the spouse refuses to consent, does not respond to the notice, or cannot be located, the spouse is entitled to a benefit under the plan equal to the portion of the QJSA that would have been payable to the spouse upon the death of the participant had a qualified joint and survivor annuity been provided to the participant under the plan at his or her retirement. Such spousal benefit must be provided if a claim is made by the spouse." (Belfint Lyons & Shuman, CPAs)  

Are Annuities a Good Fit for Target Date Funds?
"[W]hat if you could mimic the outcome of having a deferred income annuity in a target-date fund without ever having to lock into an insurance contract or wait for record keepers to catch up with this innovation? ... [T]he same result (a more reliable retirement income stream) can be achieved by using what's called a liability-driven investment, or LDI. Put simply, the way LDIs work is you invest in bonds with varying maturities and immunize the portfolio by matching the durations of the fixed-income assets with the liabilities. This duration-matching strategy can cushion the impact of interest-rate changes and major market swings on a retirement investor's net worth." (Allianz Global Investors)  

[Advert.]

2015 Mid-Sized Retirement & Healthcare Plan Management Conference

Educationally driven, solution-focused programs keep you on pace as you manage your retirement & healthcare plans. Register by Dec. 31 and save $200 off the full fee; use code BENL. 99% of past attendees agree -- it's time and money well spent!

How To Evaluate Your 401(k) Plan Investment Advisor
"Top advisors: Sign-on to your plan as a fiduciary.... Have a clean background.... Do not accept soft dollar payments.... Are objective.... Work for investment advisory firms.... Are able to work with everyone." (Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants)  

Selling ERISA 3(16) Fiduciary Services: Behind a Veil of Authenticity (Video)
"Savvy retirement plan vendors have jumped on the chance to sell a 'new thing' and are pushing hard on a not-so-new concept. Hidden behind a veil of authenticity, it can now be determined that most ERISA Section 3(16) services being promoted are anything but authentic. This short video blog tells more." (Roland|Criss)  

Auto Enrollment and Default Deferral Rates Went Up in 2013
"The percentage of 401(k) and profit-sharing plans using auto enrollment rose to 50.2% last year, up from 47.2% in 2012, said the latest annual survey by the Plan Sponsor Council of America ... [A] greater percentage of defined contribution plans offering auto enrollment moved away from the traditional 3% default deferral rate. Last year, the percentage of plans offering more than 3% rose to 40.2% vs. 35.2% in 2012 ... 47.1% of plans offered the 3% deferral rate last year vs. 51.8% in 2012." (Pensions & Investments)  

Analyzing PBGC's 2014 Annual Report
"In 2014, PBGC had a net underwriting gain of $4 billion, a $1.4 billion increase over 2013 underwriting gain.... Given this extraordinarily positive underwriting experience, it's hard to understand why PBGC keeps asking for premium increases.... The loss in the multiemployer plan program is extraordinary -- greater than any one-year loss in PBGC's history. There are at this point no proposals that would fix a problem of this size." (October Three Consulting)  

[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.

DB Plan Sponsors Should Prepare Now for Higher Year-End Liabilities
"[P]ension accounting discount rates are down by almost 90 basis points since December 31, 2013. Fortunately, many plans have experienced solid investment returns so far during 2014. This will take some of the sting out of the liability increases, but it likely won't be enough to entirely offset the effect of lower interest rates and the new mortality tables. The higher liabilities will affect both the year-end funded status of the plan and also the 2015 pension expense calculation." (Van Iwaarden Associates)  

Funded Status of Corporate Pensions Rises to 89.9 Percent
"For the typical corporate plan in November, assets increased 1.5 percent, outpacing the 1.1 percent increase in liabilities ... The funded status for the typical corporate plan is now down 5.3 percent from the December 2013 high of 95.2 percent[.]" (BNY Mellon)  

Aggregate Funded Ratio of Corporate Pension Plans Unchanged at 84.8 Percent in November (PDF)
"The stability in funding during November was the result of comparable increases in asset and liability values.... Year-to-date, the funded ratio for the sample plan has decreased by 5.0 percent from 89.8 percent to 84.8 percent. This decrease was driven by the larger increase in liability value of 13.0 percent versus the 6.6 percent increase in asset value[.]" (Wilshire Associates)  

Illinois House Approves Retirement Savings Plan for Private-Sector Employees
"The program is aimed at helping the 2.5 million people in private-sector jobs in Illinois who do not have access to a retirement plan through their place of work.... [T]hose workers would be automatically enrolled in the savings program [but] would have the ability to opt out of the program if they wished. Employers with 25 or more workers would have to offer the savings plan.... Supporters said 96 percent of the employers covered by the bill use payroll services, which means the program should be implemented at little or no cost to the business." (The State Journal-Register)  

[Opinion]

Labor Coalition Protests Delaware Court's Gutting of Shareholder Rights (PDF)
"The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) has joined eight unions representing public and private sector workers in protesting a little noticed Delaware Supreme Court decision that in essence allows corporations to immunize themselves from investor lawsuits -- eviscerating investor rights and potentially threatening the retirement security of millions who are covered by public and private pension plans." (National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems [NCPERS])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Announcement 2014-34: Realignment of Technical Work Between the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division and Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Tax Exempt and Government Entities) (PDF)
"On January 2, 2015, the authority to prepare revenue rulings, revenue procedures, announcements, and notices, and to issue technical advice (including technical advice memoranda (TAMs)), certain letter rulings, and certain information letters on matters involving exempt organizations, qualified retirement plans, and IRAs will be shifted to TEGE Counsel. TEGE Counsel will be responsible for the issuance of letter rulings except for the letter rulings listed [in this announcement]. In addition, TEGE Counsel will be responsible for ruling on issues involving employer deductions for contributions to welfare benefit funds.... The Employee Plans office of TE/GE (Employee Plans) will retain the authority to issue determination letters and the Exempt Organizations office of TE/GE (Exempt Organizations) will retain the authority to issue determination letters, including determination letters on the exempt status of organizations under Sections 501(c) and 521." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

New Auditing Standard Will Require Auditors to Review Executive Compensation Arrangements
"[T]he new auditing standard requires the auditor to consider: [1] Obtaining an understanding of compensation arrangements with senior management other than executive officers, including incentive compensation arrangements, changes or adjustments to those arrangements, and special bonuses; [2] Inquiring of the chair of the compensation committee ... and any compensation consultants ... regarding the structuring of the company's compensation for executive officers; and [3] Obtaining an understanding of established policies and procedures regarding the authorization and approval of executive officer expense reimbursements." (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

Setting Annual Incentive Targets When Commodity Price Drops
"One of the hardest challenges for a Compensation Committee is to set annual incentive performance targets at levels that are lower than the prior year's actual performance. It is difficult to explain to shareholders when share price is dropping, how lower targets are appropriately challenging and why the executive team should be rewarded for lower performance. The need to retain key executives is generally not a sufficient answer." (Meridian Compensation Partners, LLC)  

[Opinion]

PCAOB Expands Purview of Accounting Profession to Review Executive Compensation Arrangements
"[The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)] and the SEC are either assuming that auditors have sufficient expertise in compensation arrangements to handle this undertaking or that the firms of which they are a part have this expertise internally to which the auditors may refer. At the Big 4, this is probably the case. They have massive staffs and are able to engage specialists to handle such complex questions. How about the next tier of auditing firms? Do they have this expertise?" (Benefits and Compensation with John Lowell)  

[Opinion]

World's Dumbest Idea: The Push for 'Shareholder Value' Created Environment Where Executive Compensation Trumped All
"In the last two decades one can see the increasing dominance of stock-related pay. In the last decade some two-thirds of total CEO compensation has come through stock and options.... [O]ptions aren't the same thing as stock. They give executives all of the upside and none of the downside of equity ownership.... [I]ncentives don't always work in the way that one might expect ... [W]hen incentives get too high people tend to obsess about them directly, rather than on the task in hand that leads to the payout. Effectively, high incentives divert attention away from where it should be." (GMO LLC)  

401(k) Advisors Rebrands as NFP Retirement
National Financial Partners Corp. [NFP]

MCG Grows Its Benefits Consulting Team
Marsh Consulting Group [MCG]

Pension Rights Center and the New England Pension Assistance Project Applaud Government Agencies for Rescuing SPDs
Pension Rights Center

Total Compensation on the Rise for Most Executives, According to the AESC’s BlueSteps Survey
Association of Executive Search Consultants [AESC]

Wells Fargo Launches ‘Wells Fargo Investment Institute’
Wells Fargo

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