ASPPA

Vested Interest Account Manager - Institutional Investments
PNC
in PA

Daily Valuation Administrator
Ingham Retirement Group
in FL

Manager, Plan Services
The Standard
in OR

Executive Benefits Team Lead - Non-Qualified Plans
Aon
in ANY STATE, GA, TX

Supervisor - Trust Accounting & Distributions
Loren D. Stark
in TX

ERISA Testing & Reporting Consultant
MassMutual Financial Group
in MA

Retirement Plan Administrator
Actuarial Consultants, Inc.
in CA

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[Webinar] A Guide to Target Date Fund Selection and Monitoring
February 25, 2015 WEBCAST
(Multnomah Group)

ERISA Issues in Mergers and Acquisitions
February 27, 2015 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

Healthcare Reporting - New Instructions Issued
March 4, 2015 WEBCAST
(Trucker Huss)

Highlights of the Second Cycle E Determination Letter Application Process
March 5, 2015 WEBCAST
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

Reporting Group Health Plan Eligibility and Enrollment to Employees and the IRS: Based on New Instructions
March 5, 2015 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

What the DOL v. GreatBanc Trust Co. ESOP Court Settlement Means for ESOPs
March 10, 2015 WEBCAST
(National Center for Employee Ownership)

Health Benefits Laws Compliance Assistance Seminar
March 24, 2015 in CT
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor)

9th National Forum on ERISA Litigation
April 13, 2015 in IL
(American Conference Institute)

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Treasury 'Greenbook': General Explanations of the Administration's Fiscal Year 2016 Revenue Proposals (PDF)
312 pages. Table of Contents includes hyperlinks to specific proposals; retirement plan proposals generally appear starting at page 134 and at page 165. (U.S. Department of the Treasury)  

[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.

In the FY2016 Treasury Greenbook: Proposals for Eliminating Stretch IRAs, Repealing NUA, and the $3.4M Retirement Account Cap
"Every year, the proposed changes to the tax laws encapsulated in the President's budget request for the Federal Government are recorded in the Treasury Greenbook, which is then taken under advisement by Congress to create its own budget resolution.... While some tax proposals in the Greenbook are relatively minor, or pertain to issues not directly relevant to our work as financial planners, this year's FY2016 budget request had several proposals that would represent major changes in the world of planning for retirement accounts, both during clients' lives and after they pass away." (Michael Kitces in Nerd's Eye View)  

DC Plan Sponsors Faced with More Numbers to Decipher
"In addition to looking at their participant counts, investment behaviors, market performance, corporate budgets, etc., company-sponsored DC plans are now being ranked and rated by multiple rating systems in the marketplace.... At the most basic level, these rating systems provide a simplistic way to evaluate each plan and provide a comparison relative to other plans. However, one of the key challenges of any ranking system is the integrity of the data used in the analysis -- both in how timely the available information is and how accurate and complete the data might be. As a result, these scoring systems may not tell the whole story about a benefit program, as well as oversimplify how to measure success." (Towers Watson)  

Inspired by Innovation: The Actions Early Adopters Are Taking in Their DC Plans (PDF)
"[Employers] who considered themselves more innovative ... [1] are more likely than the rest of the [survey] respondents to have tools in place to assist their employees with improving their financial wellness.... [2] are also taking more actions that are designed to drive as much money in the plan as possible.... [3] want to keep as much money as possible in the plan. This is primarily done by discouraging participants from taking loans against their account and having former employees keep their money in the plan.... [4] prefer to have terminated vested employees keep the money in the plan ... [5] are more likely to provide their participants with the best tools and funds available for investments ... in the form of providing more institutional funds instead of mutual funds ... or offering more creative fund offerings." (Aon Hewitt)  

Comparison of Retirement and Deferred Compensation Plans for Governmental and Tax-Exempt Employers (PDF)
4-page chart compares 23 different aspects of the design, operation and legal requirements as applied to 403(b) plans, 457(b) plans sponsored by governmental employers, and 457(b) plans sponsored by private, tax-exempt employers. Dated 2013, but appears to still be valid for current use. (Belfint Lyons & Shuman, CPAs)  

[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.

Not Much of a Dispute in ERISA Case About Duty to Monitor Investments
"The big issue in the case, on which the Justices granted review, is whether the fiduciaries of an ERISA plan have a continuing duty of prudence, which requires periodic monitoring of investments, or whether the duty is instead measured at a single point in time -- when the investment is made. Now that the briefs are in, both sides (and the federal government for good measure) agree that the duty is continuous.... As it stands now, the narrow dispute between the parties is whether the ongoing duty of prudence requires a periodic full review of the propriety of all assets in the portfolio (the position of the employees), or whether a more superficial periodic review is adequate until some 'change' in the character of an asset occurs that warrants a 'full due diligence process' (the position of the plan)." [Tibble v. Edison International, No. 13-550 (9th Cir. Aug. 1, 2013; cert. pet. granted Oct. 2, 2014)] (SCOTUSblog)  

Fiduciary Definition May Tighten for Brokers
"A White House announcement of the so-called fiduciary rules is expected to generate significant pushback from Wall Street, which says it already faces robust regulation and warns the rules' likely costs could make it uneconomical for brokers to serve lower-balance accounts. It likely would take several additional months for the Labor Department, which is drafting the rules, to collect public feedback before it can move to implement the rules. The administration is concerned investors aren't aware that brokers benefit financially by selling products that may not be in a client's best interest but still rise to the lower standard of being suitable investments." (The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)  

Measuring America's Retirement Deficit (PDF)
"[T]he aggregate national retirement savings deficit is about $4.13 trillion for all U.S. households between age 25 and 64. However, that estimate is based on current Social Security benefits not being cut in the future. With the [OASDI] trust fund projected to be exhausted by 2033, EBRI estimates the retirement deficit will increase to $4.38 trillion at that time if no additional funding is provided and a pro rata reduction in Social Security benefits is allowed to take effect." (Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI])  

Retirement Savings Shortfalls: Evidence from EBRI's Retirement Security Projection Model (PDF)
"The Retirement Savings Shortfalls [RSS] show that for those on the verge of retirement (Early Baby Boomers), the deficits vary from $19,304 (per individual) for married households, increasing to $33,778 for single males and $62,734 for single females.... Looking only at those situations where shortfalls are projected shows that the values for Early Boomers vary from $71,299 (per individual) for married households, increasing to $93,576 for single males and $104,821 for single females. RSS values are much smaller for Gen Xers with significant years of future eligibility for defined contribution plan participation." (Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI])  

The Rising Tide of Pension Contributions Post-2013: An Updated Analysis of Funding for the U.S. Private Sector Single-Employer Defined Benefit System (PDF)
13 pages. "Despite excess contributions by plan sponsors and market experience that outperformed expectations, the single-employer defined benefit system still faces significant increases in future funding requirements. While Moody's places an even chance on economic performance above or below their baseline projection, underperformance can be much more consequential for short-term funding of the defined benefit system than outperformance, based on their July 2014 view of the business cycle. Rising interest rates alone will not resolve future increases in funding requirements." (Society of Actuaries)  

Employee Contributions to Public Pension Plans (PDF)
10 pages. "[N]early all employees of state and local government are required to share in the cost of their retirement benefit.... Although investment earnings and employer contributions account for a larger portion of total public pension fund revenues ... by providing a consistent and predictable stream of revenue to public pension funds, contributions from employees fill a vital role in financing pension benefits. In the wake of the 2008-09 market decline, employee contribution rates in many states have increased. This issue brief examines employee contribution plan designs, policies and recent trends." (National Association of State Retirement Administrators [NASRA])  

Breaking Up (the Pension) Is Hard to Do
"The following methods for splitting a pension 50/50 have strikingly different outcomes for the participant in the pension plan and for his or her former spouse: Defined contribution plans: Tracing assets ... Subtraction ... Coverture ... Defined benefit plans: Dividing benefit payments ... Carve-out ... Value and offset." (SquaredAway Blog, by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)  

[Opinion]

Private Industry Converging on Fiduciary Solution Ahead of Regulators
"To call fiduciary and non-fiduciary financial advisors by the same name is akin to calling both doctors and pharmaceutical manufacturers as 'healthcare providers.' Brokers who hold themselves out as rendering investment advice should be equally as compelled to act in the best interests of their clients, at all times -- today they are not. Having only 'some' advisers beholden to the standard is the equivalent of having only 'some' doctors held responsible for caring for their patients to the best of their ability.... Our hope would be that the vast majority of advisers subscribe to these standards -- and that the public is educated and able to differentiate between them and that this, in turn, compels financial advisors to adopt." (Fiduciary News)  

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Issues Proposed Rule on Hedging Disclosure
"Among the four remaining Dodd-Frank executive compensation and governance disclosures awaiting rulemaking by the SEC, the disclosure on hedging transactions is the sole one that is uncontroversial and that does not create a significant compliance burden. Perhaps that is why the SEC decided at this time to issue its proposed rule on hedging transactions, rather than to adopt a final rule on the CEO pay ratio or to release proposed rules on the two other important Dodd-Frank mandates (i.e., disclosure on the relationship between pay and performance and mandatory recoupment or 'clawback' policies)." (Meridian Compensation Partners, LLC)  

2014 JCEB Q&As Offer Nonbinding DOL Responses on Employee Benefits Issues
"The Q&As, compiled by JCEB, are based on discussions between JCEB and DOL representatives at their 2014 Joint Committee of Employee Benefits Technical Session, held on May 7, 2014. Responses to the questions are unofficial and nonbinding. Topics addressed include (but are not limited to): [1] The definition of 'party in interest.' [2] Exceptions to the plan asset rules. [3] The use of target date fund indices as a fund benchmark. [4] The use of a range of fees in an ERISA Section 408(b)(2) fee disclosure. [5] Participant threats and ERISA Section 510. [6] Form 5500 requirements for insurers." (Practical Law Company)  

Benefitfocus Opens New Doors to Continued Customer Success
Benefitfocus

The Tenth Anniversary Cammack Health Benefit Survey of Hospitals Launches for 2015
Cammack Health

Database of U.S. ESOP Plans
National Center for Employee Ownership

Mercer Named World’s Best Provider of Pension Plan Administration Services for the Fifth Year in a Row
Mercer

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