ASPPA

Account Manager
National Retirement Services, Inc.
in NC

Compliance Analyst
National Retirement Services, Inc.
in NC

Legislative and Technical Director
Employers Council on Flexible Compensation
in ANY STATE, DC

Pension Installation Coordinator
Western & Southern Financial Group
in OH

Retirement Specialist
Nationwide Retirement Services
in FL

Senior Benefits Consultant
Deckelbaum & Associates, LLC
in NC

Client Service Manager
Charles Schwab
in AZ

Client Service Manager
Charles Schwab
in TX

Senior Client Service Manager
Charles Schwab
in AZ

Senior Client Service Manager
Charles Schwab
in TX

Client Service Team Manager
Charles Schwab
in TX

Attorney/Sr. Attorney
The Standard
in ANY STATE, OR

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Hedge Fund Due Diligence: ERISA and Other Legal Concerns
RECORDED
(Wagner Law Group P.C.)

The New 162(m) Regulations: What You Need to Know Now
April 15, 2015 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

Workplace Culture/Emotional Health & Compliance with Mental Health Parity
June 2, 2015 WEBCAST
(Midwest Business Group on Health)

Affordable Care Act: 2015 Update for Tax Professionals
June 2, 2015 in NY
(Hodgson Russ)

Incredibly Credible Assumptions Audio/Webcast
June 10, 2015 WEBCAST
(Conference of Consulting Actuaries)

HSAs, HRAs, and Consumer-Driven Health Care
October 7, 2015 in WA
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Rev. Proc. 2015-28: EPCRS Safe Harbor Correction Methods for Certain 401(k) Plan Failures (PDF)
12 pages. "The following modifications to Rev. Proc. 2013-12 are reflected in this revenue procedure: [1] New safe harbor EPCRS correction methods relating to automatic contribution features (including automatic enrollment and automatic escalation of elective deferrals) in plans described in Section 401(k) and Section 403(b); and [2] Special safe harbor correction methods for plans (including those with automatic contribution features) that have failures that are of limited duration and involve elective deferrals." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Advert.]

Celebrate! It's National Employee Benefits Day

Give yourself a pat on the back for all that you do and the important role you play in your colleagues' well-being! Celebrate the day by learning how to expand your workplace wellness program to encompass all areas of total well-being. Learn More!

[Official Guidance]

Text of PBGC Proposed Regs: Multiemployer Plans; New Electronic Filing Requirements
14 pages. "PBGC is proposing to require electronic filing of the following multiemployer plan filings: [1] Notices of termination under part 4041A; [2] Notices of insolvency and of insolvency benefit level under parts 4245; [3] Notices of insolvency and of insolvency benefit level under part 4281 (following mass withdrawal); [4] Applications for financial assistance under part 4281 (following mass withdrawal)." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of OPM Proposed Regs for Federal Employees' Retirement System: Present Value Conversion Factors for Spouses of Deceased Separated Employees
"The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing a proposed rule to revise the table of reduction factors for early commencing dates of survivor annuities for spouses of separated employees who die before the date on which they would be eligible for unreduced deferred annuities. This rule is necessary to ensure that the tables conform to demographic assumptions adopted by the Board of Actuaries and published in the Federal Register on March 20, 2015[.]" (Office of Personnel Management [OPM])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of OPM Notice: Present Value Factors for Use by Federal Employees' Retirement System
"The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is providing notice of adjusted present value factors applicable to retirees who elect to provide survivor annuity benefits to a spouse based on post-retirement marriage, and to retiring employees who elect the alternative form of annuity or elect to credit certain service with nonappropriated fund instrumentalities. This notice is necessary to conform the present value factors to changes in the economic and demographic assumptions adopted by the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System." (Office of Personnel Management [OPM])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of OPM Notice: Present Value Factors for Use by Civil Service Retirement System
"The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is providing notice of adjusted present value factors applicable to retirees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) who elect to provide survivor annuity benefits to a spouse based on post-retirement marriage; to retiring employees who elect the alternative form of annuity, owe certain redeposits based on refunds of contributions for service ending before March 1, 1991, or elect to credit certain service with nonappropriated fund instrumentalities; or, for individuals with certain types of retirement coverage errors who can elect to receive credit for service by taking an actuarial reduction under the provisions of the Federal Erroneous Retirement Coverage Correction Act. This notice is necessary to conform the present value factors to changes in the economic and demographic assumptions adopted by the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System." (Office of Personnel Management [OPM])  

[Advert.]

3 Live Spring Workshops – Stay-up-to date and Earn CE credits

PPA Workshops help prepare staff for plan restatements. 401(k) Plan Workshop offers solutions to help with complicated 401(k) plan issues. With the recent changes, the Form 5500 Workshop helps you meet the new challenges. Earn CE credits. Register Now.

[Guidance Overview]

Text of Instructions for 2015 IRS Form 1098-Q: Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contract Information (PDF)
"What's New: Full year reporting. Form 1098-Q has been modified to enable reporting for a full calendar year. Boxes 5a through 5f are to be used for reporting payments made in January through June. See the instructions for boxes 5a through 5l ... File Form 1098-Q, Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contract Information, if you issue any contract that is intended to be a qualifying longevity annuity contract (QLAC). A QLAC is an annuity contract that is purchased from an insurance company for an employee under any plan, annuity, or account described in section 401(a), 403(a), 403(b), or 408 (other than a Roth IRA) or eligible governmental plan under section 457(b), and that, in accordance with the rules of application of paragraph (d) of Regulations section 1.401(a)(9)-6, Q&A-17, satisfies each of the following requirements." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Employee Plans News 2015-4, April 1, 2015 (PDF)
8 pages. Topics include: [1] Plan sponsors: Keep documentation for hardship distributions and plan loans; Retirement plan distributions to foreign persons require withholding; and Follow up on the plan corrections you agreed to in your VCP compliance statements. [2] Plan document help: Apply for a determination letter for your individually designed plan; Tips to expedite the determination letter process; FAQs on reference lists of changes in qualification requirements (new); and Updated 403(b) Listing of Required Modifications. [3] IRAs: Still time to contribute to an IRA for 2014; IRA limits for contributions and deductions; and April 1 deadline to take required retirement plan distributions for many retirees who turned 70-1/2 in 2014. [4] List of recently updated publications. (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Retirement News for Employers, April 2, 2015 (PDF)
Topics include: [1] Understanding your CP 214 notice -- answers to common questions on Form 5500-SF or 5500-EZ filing requirements; [2] Include all eligible employees in your 403(b) plan -- how to correct failing the universal availability rule; [3] Self-employed individuals -- you must use a special rule to calculate your own retirement plan contribution and deduction; [4] Start a SEP retirement plan for 2014 -- you can still take a deduction if you fund your SEP by the due date of your 2014 business tax return (including extensions); [5] Keep documentation for hardship distributions and plan loans; [6] Retirement plan distributions to foreign persons require withholding; and [7] Mark your calendar -- upcoming retirement plan deadlines. (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Modifies Retirement Plan Correction Procedures (PDF)
"IRS did not change the limited ability to use a plan amendment for corrections without obtaining IRS approval; revising the plan to conform to a plan overpayment is only available with IRS involvement -- not to self-correction.... Self-correction of loan failures is still not available under EPCRS. Plan sponsors had asked for the ability to self-correct loan failures so they could avoid a formal filing for problems that are somewhat commonplace." (Buck Consultants at Xerox)  

[Guidance Overview]

Required Minimum Distributions for 5% Owners of Companies Sponsoring Retirement Plans (PDF)
"It's possible for an individual's ownership percentage to change. The timing of such a change can have a critical impact on whether the individual is required to take an RMD. An explanation of the current rules for 5% owners follows, as well as some examples that outline how ownership changes can affect RMD requirements." (Pentegra Retirement Services)  

[Guidance Overview]

DOL Issues Final Annual Funding Notice Rules for Defined Benefit Plans (PDF)
"The final rules provide guidance on: [1] The timing of the notice; [2] Exemptions to the notice requirement; [3] Persons entitled to the notice; and [4] The content of the notice.... The final rules provide two model notices. The model notice in Appendix A is intended for use by single-employer and multiple employer plans and the model notice in Appendix B is for multiemployer plans.... [U]se of a model notice will satisfy the content requirements." (Prudential)  

Is This the End of Favorable Determination Letters? (PDF)
"It is being reported ... that the IRS is seriously considering whether to eliminate the favorable determination letter (FDL) program for all retirement plans. If the current thinking prevails, no FDLs will be available, except at the plan's inception and termination. This would mean that plans that are either individually designed (that is, not written in the form of a check-the-box plus boilerplate document that has been preapproved by the IRS) or for which the preapproved document has been significantly modified, will have no means after the initial year, or before termination, to have the IRS confirm that the language of the plan is acceptable." (Ferenczy Benefits Law Center LLP)  

Settling a 401(k) Fee Lawsuit Means Much More Than Writing a Big Check
"Protracted Iitigation in excessive fee cases ... puts the employer in an extended adversarial relationship with the bulk of its active workforce. The reputational damage that results from the public disclosure that it has fought hammer and tongs, expending many millions in defense costs, to unsuccessfully avoid restoring fiduciary losses to the company's 401(k) plan, will only frustrate its strategy to attract greater participation rates and is clearly inconsistent with the incentive and retention purposes of the plan. For all these reasons, we may be witnessing a waning of the customary urge to fight giving way to a deeper appreciation that an aggressive posture does not normally serve the company's long-term financial interests." (ERISA Fiduciary Administrators LLC)  

The Best 401(k) Communication Ever
"What did the young Manager of Employee Services do? She found employees who would support the 401(k) plan.... She didn't run the meetings. She is corporate.... She found employees in the workforce who she thought would be well-suited to deliver the right messages.... The results were astounding. Employees took an interest in their plan. Levels of participation increased. Levels of deferrals increased.... They are now in a better place on being on the road to retirement some day." (Benefits and Compensation with John Lowell)  

2014 Lump-Sum Windows: Update on Plan Sponsor Experience (PDF)
11 pages. "[This paper describes] experience on terminated vested lump-sum windows implemented in 2014 and best practices for plan sponsors looking to implement future lump-sum windows ... [along with] related settlement transactions such as cash-out sweeps, repeat lump- sum windows, 'reminder' projects, and retiree lump-sum windows.... [The authors] analyzed plan sponsor experience related to 70 terminated vested lump-sum windows implemented during 2014, covering approximately 290,000 participants. The average lump-sum election rate for these plan sponsors was 58%. Total lump-sum payments in these windows were in excess of $4 billion, with the total lump sums offered exceeding $8 billion." (Aon Hewitt)  

How Companies Are Managing Pension Plan Assets
"[P]ension funds in the world's largest markets are shifting their portfolios from equities toward cash and alternative investments. In the United States, holdings of cash increased from 0 percent in 2004 to 2 percent of all pension plan assets at the end of last year. Holdings in 'other assets,' which comprises investments such as real estate, hedge funds, private equity, commodities, and even catastrophic bonds in the reinsurance area, nearly doubled from 16 percent to 29 percent over the same period. Meanwhile, U.S. pensions' equity holdings declined over the past decade from 60 percent of the total portfolio to just 44 percent." (Treasury & Risk)  

Why Pre-fund? Why Fully Fund? (PDF)
"Most public entities have a policy of pre-funding their pension plans.... But, a commitment to pre-funding is not the same as a commitment to full funding.... And the distinctions are often obscured.... [T]he concerns that have led to today's 'full funding' regime in the private sector -- participant concerns about benefit security, creditor concerns about a possible default, and future investor concerns about compromised value -- also exist in the public sector. But, the mechanisms by which those concerns can be brought to bear and affect funding policy are much weaker in the public sector." (The Terry Group)  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Finalizes 162(m) Equity Grant Transition Regulations for Companies Going Public
"The final rules make no changes to the original IRS proposal. They clarify that the transition relief ... expires at different dates depending on the type of equity grant made: [1] Stock options, stock appreciation rights and restricted stock: For these types of grants, the transition relief applies to all grants made on or before the end of the transition period.... [2] Restricted stock units and phantom shares: For these types of grants, the transition relief applies only to compensation paid on or before the end of the transition period." (Towers Watson)  

When May an Agent Act on Behalf of an ERISA Plan Participant or Beneficiary?
"State law may authorize an individual to be the agent of an ERISA plan participant or beneficiary. This article discusses when ERISA permits such an individual, on behalf of the agent's principal, to: [1] pursue a benefit claim; [2] obtain plan or benefit information; [3] determine the time and form of benefit payment; [4] determine to whom the plan makes a benefit payment; [5] make beneficiary designations; ... [and take various other actions]. The article also discusses when ERISA and [HIPAA] permit a state-law agent to make healthcare decisions for the agent's principal in ERISA healthcare plans, or obtain information from a healthcare plan[.]" (Albert Feuer, via SSRN)  

When the Intranet is Not Enough: Rules for Electronic Disclosure of Plan Documents
"If employees have work-related computer access, ERISA disclosures may be delivered electronically, or posted on the intranet, if the employees have the ability to effectively access documents furnished in electronic form at any location where the employee is reasonably expected to perform his duties, and are expected to have access to the employer's electronic information as an integral part of those duties. It is not enough that they have access somewhere at work or have access at a common location (like a break room). Accessing the computer has to be an actual requirement for their job function." [Thomas v. CIGNA Group Ins., No. 09-CV-5029 (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 2, 2015)] (Fox Rothschild LLP)  

Another Court Enforces DOL's Electronic SPD Rules
"[T]he DOL regulations governing the electronic distribution of SPDs.... limit this option to participants who can effectively access electronic documents wherever the participant is reasonably expected to perform his or her duties, and for whom access to the employer's electronic information system is a regular part of those duties. While that may have been true of this employee before she became disabled, it was not the case when she actually needed the SPD. This was after she had terminated her employment (due to the disability), thereby losing access to the intranet. As a result, she could not access the SPD during the 12-month period in which she was required to submit proof of her disability." [Thomas v. CIGNA Group Ins., No. 09-CV-5029 (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 2, 2015)] (Spencer Fane)  

The Rise and (Maybe) Fall of the Golden Parachute
"The practice of sending executives off with golden parachutes is ubiquitous in corporate America -- but shareholders are pushing back, in ways that could substantially deflate them.... [T]he Council of Institutional Investors -- whose members hold over $3 trillion in assets -- approved a policy encouraging shareholders to require that boards consider executive tenure and performance before signing off on those giant stock awards. The idea: To make sure a CEO is still incentivized to do well by the company rather than rush it towards a merger." (The Washington Post; subscription may be required)  

Employee Stock Purchase Plans: The Biggest Personal Income Tax Return Mistakes to Avoid
"[1] Not filing Form 8949 after an immediate sale of ESPP shares at purchase.... [2] Paying tax on the discount too early.... [3] Directly using what appears as the cost basis on your Form 1099-B.... [4] Paying the wrong tax on the discount.... [5] Using the wrong price when there is no lookback.... [6] Paying tax twice on the discount." (myStockOptions.com)