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DB Pension Analyst
Milliman
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Associate Account Manager
Cammack Retirement Group
in NY

Account Manager
Cammack Retirement Group
in NY

Compliance Specialist, Employee Benefits (Health & Welfare)
Epic Insurance
in ANY STATE, CA, GA

Employee Benefits Account Manager
Owen-Dunn Insurance Services
in CA

Retirement Plan Consultant
Retirement Solution Group, LLC
in IL

Assistant Plan Administrator
DF Pensions, Inc.
in FL

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The Vivity Case Study: How Anthem Converted Adversaries Into Partners
February 11, 2015 WEBCAST
(Atlantic Information Services, Inc.)

Nonqualified Plans: Uncovering Trends and Overcoming Challenges
February 24, 2015 WEBCAST
(ProCourse Fiduciary Advisors, LLC)

Human Resources Conference
April 22, 2015 in NY
(Strategic Benefit Services)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP]

[Official Guidance]

Text of EBSA Field Assistance Bulletin 2015-01: ERISA's Annual Funding Notice Requirements Following the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014
9 Q&As, covering: [1] HATFA changes to definition of Applicable Plan Year; and [2] Changes to the content requirements of the [ERISA] Section 101(f)(2)(D)(i) Disclosures, the Model Supplement and the Funding Target Attainment Percentage Chart of the Model Notice. Appendix A contains a Model Supplement to the single-employer defined benefit plan model annual funding notice, which replaces the MAP-21 Supplement set out in Appendix A of FAB 2013-01 for applicable plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014. For a 2013 applicable plan year, the Model Supplement replaces the MAP-21 Supplement only if the funding notice reflects the use of the HATFA segment rates. (Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor [DOL])  

[Advert.]

P&I 2015 DC East | March 1 – 3 | Trump National Doral, Miami

Learn from experts in the fields of investments, plan design, and communications who will offer time-tested strategies to help you succeed in your efforts to improve your plan and provide an adequate retirement income for your plan's participants.

[Official Guidance]

IRS Notice 2015-5: January 2015 Interest Rate Update (PDF)
"This notice provides guidance on the corporate bond monthly yield curve, the corresponding spot segment rates used under Section 417(e)(3), and the 24-month average segment rates under Section 430(h)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code. In addition, this notice provides guidance as to the interest rate on 30-year Treasury securities under Section 417(e)(3)(A)(ii)(II) as in effect for plan years beginning before 2008 and the 30-year Treasury weighted average rate under Section 431(c)(6)(E)(ii)(I). The rates in this notice reflect the application of Section 430(h)(2)(C)(iv), which was added by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act ... (MAP-21) and amended by section 2003 of the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014 ... (HATFA)." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of PBGC Monthly Interest Update for February 2015
"The immediate interest rate for valuing lump sum payments for the month of February 2015 is 1.00% and the deferred interest rate I1 is 4.00%, I2 is 4.00%, and I3 is 4.00%.... The select and ultimate interest rates for valuing annuity benefits in single-employer plans and multiemployer plans for the month of February 2015 are 2.89% for the first 20 years following the date of plan termination, and 3.12% thereafter." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])  

[Official Guidance]

PBGC Updates Premium Rates to Reflect Changes under Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014
"The per-participant flat premium rate for plan years beginning in 2015 is $57 for single-employer plans (up from a 2014 rate of $49) and $26 for multiemployer plans (up from a 2014 rate of $12).... For plan years beginning in 2015, the variable-rate premium (VRP) for single-employer plans is $24 per $1,000 of unfunded vested benefits (UVBs), up from a 2014 rate of $14.... Amounts shown [in red in the chart in this article] are subject to indexing ... After 2016 all rates will be subject to indexing. There are no scheduled increases (other than indexing) after 2016." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Publication 590-B: Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), for Use in Preparing 2014 Returns (PDF)
60 pages. "Publication 590 has been split into two separate publications ... Publication 590-A covers contributions to traditional IRAs as well as Roth IRAs. This publication will include the rules for rollover and conversion contributions. Publication 590-B covers distributions from traditional IRAs as well as Roth IRAs. This publication will include the rules for required minimum distributions and IRA beneficiaries.... What's New for 2015: Application of one-rollover-per-year limitation." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Advert.]

11,000 members rely on our key retirement/HR news and analysis

With a user-friendly website, daily emails, and regular web briefings, Mercer Select members stay informed about retirement and other key benefit, comp and HR issues. Contact us for a free demo or guest membership.

[Guidance Overview]

Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 Brings New Pension Paradigm for Substantial Cessation of Operations (PDF)
"The new law constrains the determination of whether there is a 15% reduction ... [1] Separated employees are not taken into account if they are replaced within a reasonable time by other employees who are U.S. citizens or residents and are working at a facility in the U.S. [2] Such separated employees are not taken into account even if replaced at another U.S. facility. [3] Eligible employees are not taken into account in the case of an asset or stock sale of business operations if replaced (by other employees who are U.S. citizens or residents) and the new employer provides ongoing coverage via a spun off plan, or if the eligible employee had not participated in the original employer's plan." (Buck Consultants at Xerox)  

Federal District Court: Service Provider Not a Fiduciary in Negotiating Its Contract
"The court determined, among other things, that Principal Life was not acting as a plan fiduciary because service providers do not act as fiduciaries when negotiating the terms of their service with the plans as long as the service providers do not control the named fiduciary's negotiation and approval of those terms." [McCaffree Fin. Corp. v. Principal Life Ins. Co., 4:14-cv-00102 (S.D. Iowa Dec. 10, 2014)] (Proskauer's ERISA Practice Center)  

Automatic Enrollment: The Power of the Default
16 pages. "[This report provides] updated statistics drawn from Vanguard recordkeeping data of the effects of automatic enrollment on participants' saving and investing behaviors. [The] study is based on more than 500,000 eligible newly hired employees in 460 plans.... [The authors] examine the effects of automatic enrollment on new hires because it is the most common way that the feature is first introduced into DC plans. Participants in the sample are younger, have shorter tenure (an average of about one year), and have median account balances of generally less than $4,000[.]" (Vanguard)  

Employers Offering More Tools and Resources to Improve Financial Outcomes for Workers
"[M]ore employers are offering tools and resources to help boost retirement savings: 69 percent currently offer online investment guidance, up from 56 percent in 2014, and 18 percent of the remaining employers are very likely to add this feature in 2015. More than half (53 percent) offer phone access to financial advisors in 2015, up from just over a third (35 percent) in 2014. Approximately half (49 percent) offer third-party investment advice, up slightly from 44 percent in 2014. 47 percent offer managed accounts, up 8 percentage points from 2014." (Aon Hewitt)  

[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.

DC Plans Wary of Auto Re-Mapping Participant Assets
[F]ew sponsors have bought into the idea of annually automatically re-enrolling participants in a qualified default investment alternative, such as a target-date fund, as a means of assuring that their assets are allocated in a manner experts would consider appropriate for retirement investing. Less than 5% of surveyed employers said they had ever done so.... [T]he most common reason [for] 're-mapping' participants' investments on those rare occasions when it did occur wasn't to play an aggressive role in influencing participant investment behavior, but as a response to significant changes in the plan's investment option menu." (Employee Benefit News)  

Custom Target Date Funds Gaining in DC Plans
"In an annual survey of DC plan executives, Callan found that 28.7% offered their record keeper's proprietary target-date fund series last year vs. 47.5% in 2013. In addition, Callan reported that the percentage of plans offering custom funds rose to 22.3% vs. 11.5% in 2013. Several factors influenced the decline in using record keepers' target-date fund series, ranging from performance issues to changes in the glidepaths[.]" (Pensions & Investments)  

[Opinion]

Let's Help Participants Invest With Knowledge, Not Ignorance
"[F]ar too many plan participants -- when faced with a market reversal -- behave like poorly trained soldiers confronting their first battle. Rather than hunkering down and preparing to weather the siege of a market decline, they panic, cast off their good judgment and head for the imagined security of a non-volatile investment. Some may never again move back into the types of investments that have the potential to generate real long-term growth." (Todd Berghuis, for Ascensus)  

[Opinion]

Inactive 401(k) Accounts Need Greater Protections
"[U]nder the regulations issued in 2004, the plan satisfies its fiduciary obligation if the investment preserves the dollar value of the rolled balances. In other words, the money can be invested in a money-market fund. The problem is that the fees charged to the forced transfer accounts often outpace the low returns earned by the conservative investments prescribed by the DOL's safe harbor rules, causing account balances to decline." (Alicia Munnell, in MarketWatch)  

How to Win an ERISA Estoppel Claim in the First Circuit
"The Court explained that an equitable estoppel claim can be based on statements extrinsic to the plan documents where they concern an ambiguous term in the plan, but not otherwise. Thus, the first hurdle for proving an estoppel claim in the First Circuit -- if you are lucky enough to be the lawyer or participant in the case where the Court finally agrees that such a claim exists under the law -- is to demonstrate that the plan is ambiguous with regard to a provision related to the extrinsic statement in question." [Guerra-DelGado v. Popular, Inc., No. 13-2065 (1st Cir. Dec. 18, 2014)] (Stephen Rosenberg of The Wagner Law Group)  

ProCourse Renews Certification for Fiduciary Excellence
ProCourse Fiduciary Advisors, LLC

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