Pensions & Investments

Retirement Specialist
Nationwide Insurance
in GA

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Target-Date Funds: Does Your Plan Come Up Short?
January 27, 2015 WEBCAST
(CFO.com)

ERISA Audits: What We All Knew but Forgot
February 5, 2015 WEBCAST
(Clear Law Institute)

Mental Illness and the ADA
February 6, 2015 WEBCAST
(Clear Law Institute)

Recordkeeping for HR: What to Keep, What to Throw Away, and How to Transition from Paper to Electronic Files
February 11, 2015 WEBCAST
(Clear Law Institute)

Rural Accountable Care Initiatives: The National Rural Accountable Care Consortium Approach
March 11, 2015 WEBCAST
(Healthcare Web Summit)

National Conference
May 3, 2015 in FL
(State and Local Government Benefits Association [SALGBA])

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NIPA [National Institute of Pension Administrators]

ERISA Section 4062(e) Significantly Reformed Effective December 16, 2014
"The new law returns to the original intent of ERISA Section 4062(e) by ensuring that liability does not arise unless there is a permanent cessation of all operations at a facility that results in a significant workforce reduction.... 'Eligible employees' under the Act are now those persons eligible to participate in any defined contribution or defined benefit plan established and maintained by the employer. This significant change to ERISA Section 4062(e) greatly expands the denominator for determining whether a reduction triggers liability." (McDermott Will & Emery)  

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Pension Risk Transfer: Evaluating Impact and Barriers for De-Risking Strategies (PDF)
61 pages. "This paper develops a framework plan sponsors can use to assist in determining their 'de-risking readiness'. The framework contains three major, often iterative, stages: [1] Identify Options Available; [2] Analysis of De-Risking Strategy; [3] De-Risking Execution.... Throughout each stage of the proposed framework, the economic environment will impact the viability of pension risk management alternatives.... In addition to the classic risk transfer strategies of using cash from plan assets to pay lump sums or purchase annuities, ... [other] strategies include asset in-kind transfers, guaranteed separate accounts, annuity buy-ins, longevity swaps and reinsurance." (Society of Actuaries and Deloitte)  

'How-To' Guidelines to Follow When Creating 401(k) Plan Benchmarks
"[For] all the talk of benchmarking, no 'benchmark' for benchmarking actually exists.... Regulators treating benchmarks as a fungible concept appears more appropriate than one might guess. Between changes in technology, new revelations from academic research, and even evolving court cases, the target benchmark can move considerably. Perhaps the best example here occurs in the realm of fees. What's acceptable today can get you in trouble tomorrow, so caveat emptor is more than just a quaint Latin cliche, it's a stark warning to 401k plan sponsors." (Fiduciary News)  

Can a Fiduciary Duty for Investment Advisers Co-Exist with Commissions?
"[T]he reality is that commissions and a fiduciary duty are not entirely inconsistent with one another. In point of fact, even the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 does potentially allow for some commissions, and a look at the history of fiduciary law reveals other situations where a fiduciary duty and at least some forms of commissions have been allowed to co-exist (and client advice or advisor business models haven't necessarily been harmed as a result)." (Michael Kitces in Nerd's Eye View)  

Selling Savings the Amazon Way
"[I]t's no surprise how quickly employees give up when they're encouraged to save more in their retirement plans, yet then have to complete a long process to do so.... [Vanguard has] developed 'nudges' for savings, including Meet Your Match and Recommended Savings Rate.... Both nudges use a sophisticated combination of plan design information and participant data to make a specific recommendation to an employee logging into the retirement plans site. This information includes match structure, contribution source information, participant compensation data, participant savings rate, and more." (Vanguard)  

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The Role of IRAs in U.S. Households' Saving for Retirement, 2014 (PDF)
"About half of traditional IRA-owning households indicated their IRAs contained rollovers from employer-sponsored retirement plans. Among households with rollovers in their traditional IRAs, 81 percent indicated they had rolled over the entire retirement account balance in their most recent rollover." [Editor's note: see also the Appendix of additional data on IRA ownership.] (Investment Company Institute [ICI])  

White-Labeling Investment Funds Is a Bad Idea
"The process of white-labeling obscures the true identity of the fund(s) that underlie a particular asset class.... Anything that helps participants better understand their plans should be embraced.... [T]here are investment funds and mutual fund companies that participants quickly recognize, helping them become more comfortable with the investment offerings in their plans.... [W]hite-labeling facilitates an easier fund change process. Funds or strategies can be changed without notifying participants. This is another activity that seems to lead to less transparency rather than more." (Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants)  

Is Your Target Date Fund Ripping You Off?
"[A]nnual returns can vary dramatically -- even for investors of identical ages -- and some funds can carry sky-high fees, according to an analysis of more than 1,700 target-date funds conducted by online financial advisor FutureAdvisor.... Among all the funds it analyzed, FutureAdvisor found an average expense ratio of 1.02%, or around $102 a year, for a $10,000 investment." (CNNMoney.com)  

Are ETFs and Self-Directed Brokerage Accounts Available in 403(b) Plans?
"If the ETF is not a registered investment company complying with IRC Section 851(a), it is not an eligible 403(b) investment; it is a misconception that all ETFs are eligible.... ETFs are continuously valued throughout the day unlike mutual funds which are valued daily. Most plan recordkeeping platforms are designed for daily-valued investments, which presents another challenge." (National Tax-Deferred Savings Association [NTSA])  

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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.

[Opinion]

Industry Organizations Stake Their Position Against the DOL's Fiduciary Rule
"Arguments against a fiduciary rule fall apart when you consider one simple reality -- investment advisers already provide fiduciary grade investment advice to retirement plans today. And often at a lower price! If brokers exit the retirement plan market due to a fiduciary rule, advisers will fill the vacuum. Retirement plans do not need to settle for conflicted investment advice." (Employee Fiduciary)  

[Opinion]

Six Things 401(k) Participants Need to Know
"Our industry spends a lot of time and money educating workers about the advantages and mechanics of saving for retirement. But here are six things [that] too often go unsaid. [1] Your 401(k) isn't free.... [2] That employer match isn't 'free' either.... [3] Saving to the level of the match is probably not enough.... [4] How much you save is more important than how you invest what you save.... [5] If you've never tried to figure out how much you'll need to live in retirement, you may not live very comfortably in retirement.... [6] If you don't know what you're doing, get help." (Nevin Adams, via LinkedIn)  

SEC Has Yet to Set Rule on Tricky Ratio of CEO Pay to Worker Pay
"The prevailing wisdom among experts following the debate is that the S.E.C. is preparing the rule so that companies don't have to determine the exact pay median for their workers. Instead, to make it easier to comply, the agency may allow companies to conduct a statistical sampling of the pay of its employees to divine the median. That could leave companies a remarkable amount of room to play with the number.... With all the wiggle room that is expected to be allowed, companies may devise ratio numbers that are largely irrelevant." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)  

Castle Rock Investment Company Announces Support of SaveOurRetirement.com
Castle Rock Investment Company

ESOP Association Files Amicus in Supreme Court Case Tibble V. Edison International
ESOP Association

Karen W. Scheffler Joins Olshan as Partner in the Employee Benefits Practice
Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP

Dietrich & Associates Celebrates 35 Years of Business
Dietrich & Associates, Inc.

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