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Vice President, National Sales
United Retirement Plan Consultants
in OH

Compliance Analyst
Pension Corporation of America
in OH

Retirement Plan Field Representative
Cultural Institutions Retirement Systems
in NY

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Information Risk Management Essentials
March 27, 2015 WEBCAST
(Clearwater Compliance)

Fundamentals Series 06: ADP/ACP Testing 2015
March 30, 2015 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

Fundamentals Series 07: Safe Harbor 401(k) Plans 2015
April 6, 2015 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

ACO’s / ACA Payment Reform / Shared Savings Arrangements Audio/Webcast
May 6, 2015 WEBCAST
(Conference of Consulting Actuaries)

Transforming Diabetes Management: New Directions for Employers
May 6, 2015 WEBCAST
(Healthcare Web Summit)

Nondiscrimination Rules Audio/Webcast
May 20, 2015 WEBCAST
(Conference of Consulting Actuaries)

2015 IHC Forum & Expo Atlanta Conference
June 23, 2015 in GA
(Institute for HealthCare Consumerism)

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EPCU Summary Report: Diversification of Investments
"The goal of this project was to identify plans that invest in employer securities which are publicly traded and determine whether the plans are in compliance with the diversification requirements under Code section 401(a)(35) both in operation and in form. The Diversification of Investments project began in September 2013 and ended in December 2014.... The overall compliance rate was very high in this project... The one issue that we found in approximately 15% of the cases is that the plan document did not contain the diversification language required under Code section 401(a)(35)." (Employee Plans Compliance Unit [EPCU], Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

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EPCU Summary Report: Single Employer DB Plans under PPA
"The project goals were to determine whether plan sponsors of single employer defined benefit plans with an adjusted funding target attainment percentage (AFTAP) of less than 80% were aware of the benefit restrictions introduced by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and were in compliance with these restrictions.... The overall compliance rate was about 73%. Processing error cases and cases with errors on returns amounted to approximately 20% of the total cases reviewed. On the majority of these cases the plan sponsor failed to indicate the plan was frozen on line 8A of the Form 5500 return. A significant number of cases, due to both processing errors and taxpayer errors had AFTAPs of over 80% and if originally reported correctly, would have been excluded from our sample." (Employee Plans Compliance Unit [EPCU], Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

New EPCU Project: Transfers from a Plan
"You filed a Form 5500 series return which reflected that assets were transferred from the plan in the 'Financial Information' section of the return. In general, if assets are transferred from a plan, additional information is required to be completed on Form 5500-SF line 13c or Form 5500 Schedule H or I, line 5b.... We want to make sure the Form 5500 series return you filed reflects accurate information. We also want to determine common reasons why this error may have occurred." (Employee Plans Compliance Unit [EPCU], Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

New EPCU Project: Form 5500-EZ First Return Filer
"The Form 5500-EZ (or Form 5500-SF), which you marked as 'the first return filed for the plan', showed plan assets on the first day of the plan year greater than $250,000. The Employee Plans Compliance Unit (EPCU) wants to understand: [1] why you did not file a Form 5500-series return for the prior plan year, [2] whether you have corrected the situation, and [3] if our records reflect accurate information." (Employee Plans Compliance Unit [EPCU], Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

New EPCU Project: Failure to Provide a Benefit
"The Employee Plans Compliance Unit (EPCU) wants to understand: [1] Why you didn't provide the plan benefit when it was due, [2] Whether you've corrected the situation, and [3] If our records reflect accurate information." (Employee Plans Compliance Unit [EPCU], Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

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Federal District Court Weighs Dudenhoeffer in $25M Case Targeting Investment in Lehman Bros. Notes
"Although the instant dispute didn't involve the type of employer stock plan at issue in [Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer], BNY Mellon argued that this decision foreclosed the Teamsters plan from arguing that the bank should have realized from publicly available information that Lehman's debt was overvalued. [U.S. District Court Judge John R. Blakey] disagreed ... explaining that the Teamsters plan argued only that it was imprudent for BNY Mellon to hold Lehman debt given the 'circumstances existing in the market' and the Teamsters plan's 'investment profile.' This claim remained viable following Dudenhoeffer, Blakey concluded." [Teamsters Local 710 Pension Fund v. The Bank of N.Y. Mellon Corp., No. 1:13-cv-01844 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 16, 2015)] (Bloomberg BNA)  

Americans' Retirement Funds Increasingly Contain Tech Start-Up Stocks
"Big money managers ... have all struck deals worth billions of dollars to acquire shares of these private companies that are then pooled into mutual funds that go into the 401(k)'s and individual retirement accounts of many Americans.... Because these tech companies are not required to issue financial reports and are not traded on traditional exchanges, they are the sort of speculative investments not normally found in retirement accounts. Increasingly, however, investors are betting that these companies will be bought or go public at prices that exceed their latest funding rounds, a prospect that is anything but guaranteed." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)  

The DC Plan Document Restatement Window Is Open (PDF)
"[T]he restatement is also an opportune time to assess whether the plan is properly existing and operating in the first place, i.e., whether the plan was previously timely updated for changes in the law and/or whether it is achieving the employer's design objectives). The following are some examples of issues for employers to consider[.]" (The ERISA Law Group)  

DOL Extends Period for Annual Participant-Level Fee Disclosures
"Plan administrators were hamstrung by the rigidity of the 12-month rule, and the two additional months should provide much needed flexibility.... The preamble to the final regulations notes that the change relates only to the deadline for annual disclosures; comments are requested as to whether similar flexibility is needed for quarterly disclosures." (Thomson Reuters / EBIA)  

Communicating the Transition to a Variable Annuity Pension Plan
"[V]ariable annuity pension plans (VAPPs) ... have stable costs like those of a 401(k) plan, while providing participants with reliable, lifelong income like a traditional pension plan. Communicating the change to a VAPP, however, may feel daunting for plan sponsors. Effective communications ensure that employees understand how the VAPP works, how it will affect them, and why a VAPP is a stable retirement solution for the sponsor and for them." (Milliman Retirement Town Hall)  

2015 Lifetime Income Score Study: Optimism and Opportunity (PDF)
"Viewed independently and as a whole, the findings -- from this year and years past -- reveal a strong sense of optimism and opportunity about the workplace savings system. Though the median LIS has dipped slightly this year -- to 58 -- the report shows that much higher LIS results are a reality within the system. When the right strategy is followed -- namely participating in a workplace savings plan and incrementally increasing savings rates to at least 10% -- these plans genuinely work. In fact, nearly 30 million working Americans are on track to replace 100% or more of their income in retirement. That is success by any reasonable measure." (Empower Institute)  

What Empty Nesters Don't Know About Saving for Retirement
"One method assumes that parents still spend the same amount when the kids leave, just more on the two of them. Using that projection, and others, the CRR's calculations suggest that 52 percent of U.S. households may not be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement.... If parents save a lot with the kids gone and spend less as they approach their 80s, it improves the retirement forecast considerably, because if they're spending less, they need less in savings. Look at it this way, and the 52 percent of households that the CRR sees at risk shrinks to about 17 percent." (Bloomberg)  

What Percent of 75-Year-Olds Are Still Working?
"There have been significant changes for all seniors, but the increase is most striking among people 65 and older. For 75-year-olds, labor-force participation has risen to 14 percent from 9 percent since 2000. The number of people age 65 to 79 in the workforce has grown by 3.5 million. Of that, 1.6 million is due to the growing population in that age group, and 1.9 million is due to the increased propensity to work." (Salim Furth, in The Daily Signal)  

Advocates Push for More Multiemployer Reform
"Multiemployer pension reform advocates continue to pursue what they consider a critical missing piece in new legislation: a regulatory green light to do more alternative plan designs. These advocates would like congressional approval for composite plan models that would give plan trustees more tools for maintaining a balance between plan benefits and assets, such as reducing the rate of future accruals and trimming certain benefits, changes that now require lengthy regulatory approval." (Pensions & Investments)  

Cognitive Constraints on Valuing Annuities
"[B]uy values are negatively correlated with sell values and ... the sell-buy valuation spread is negatively correlated with cognition; the spread is larger for those with less education, weaker numerical abilities, and lower levels of financial literacy." [Working Paper No. WP2015-04] (Pension Research Council, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; free registration required)  

Optimal Purchasing of Deferred Income Annuities When Payout Yields Are Mean-Reverting
"[A] risk-averse consumer who is concerned the payout yield will remain below average for an extended period and worries about losing mortality credits while waiting, should employ a barrier purchasing strategy, as in the portfolio choice problem under transaction costs. In fact, the optimal behavior of a risk-averse consumer resembles an asymmetric dollar-cost averaging strategy, with a portion of the DIA-budget spent even while payout rates are below historical averages." (Huang Huaxiong, Moshe A. Milevsky, and V.R. Young, via SSRN)  

Robo-Advisors: The Ins and Outs of Automated Investment Platforms
"Who might benefit from using a robo-advisor rather than a traditional advisor? What can this new technology do better than the tried-and-true model? ... Since robo-advisors use technology to streamline their services at a lower cost, they make themselves available to a much wider audience.... You don't need to constantly monitor your investments, move money around, or set up a meeting with an advisor, it's all taken care of for you based on your appetite for risk.... Robo-advisors are great if you have money you know you want invested in a diversified portfolio ... and that's pretty much it." (AFS 401k Retirement Services)  

For Public Pensions, Fossil Fuel Divestment Offers No Easy Answers
"Treasurers, legislators and fund managers must ask themselves whether divestment hurts performance -- and if so, how that squares with their fiduciary duty. Given the consensus that climate change is a threat, do public retirement schemes have any business profiting from traditional energy producers? Is divestment or investor engagement the best way to influence companies' behavior? ... Massachusetts is one of three U.S. states wrestling with these questions." (Institutional Investor)  

Support for Executive Compensation Tax Reform on Capitol Hill
"Sen. Ron Wyden (OR) and the Democratic Committee Staff have released a summary report entitled 'How Tax Pros Make the Code Less Fair and Efficient: Several Tax Strategies and Solutions'.... [T]he report broadly endorses a number of proposals offered by other lawmakers ... including: [1] Further restricting the rules dealing with vesting of deferred income and the timing of income recognition; [2] Potential dollar limits/caps on deferred compensation; and [3] Closing perceived loopholes in the application of the Section 162(m) deduction limitation." (Squire Patton Boggs)  

vWise's Retirement Plan Engagement Software Receives Superior Uptake and Usability Ratings in Independent Testing
vWise Inc.

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