Associate
Groom Law Group
in DC

Actuarial Analyst
Verisight
in IL

ERISA Attorney / Paralegal
Northeast Based Consulting Firm
in DE, NJ, PA

Plan Conversion Analyst - Retirement Plan Services
T. Rowe Price
in CO

Mid-level or Junior Consultant/Administrator
Retirement and Pension Plan Firm---Design, Consulting, & Administration
in CT, NY

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Cost, Concerns and Solutions to the Retiree Health Care Crisis
April 23, 2015 WEBCAST
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])

2015 Second Quarter Update
May 6, 2015 WEBCAST
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

401(k) Plan Workshop 2015
May 14, 2015 in IL
(SunGard Relius)

Minimizing the Impact of a Cyberattack: Strategies for Hospitals and Health Plans
May 14, 2015 WEBCAST
(Atlantic Information Services, Inc.)

Form 5500 Workshop 2015
May 15, 2015 in IL
(SunGard Relius)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Official Guidance]

Text of FASB Update 2015-04: Compensation, Retirement Benefits (Topic 715): Practical Expedient for the Measurement Date of an Employer's Defined Benefit Obligation and Plan Assets
"A reporting entity with a fiscal year-end that does not coincide with a month-end may incur more costs than other entities when measuring the fair value of plan assets of a defined benefit pension or other postretirement benefit plan.... [T]he amendments in this Update provide a practical expedient that permits the entity to measure defined benefit plan assets and obligations using the month-end that is closest to the entity's fiscal year-end and apply that practical expedient consistently from year to year. The practical expedient should be applied consistently to all plans if an entity has more than one plan." (Financial Accounting Standards Board [FASB])  

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[Guidance Overview]

DOL Fiduciary Rule to Revamp Regulation of Advice to Plans and IRAs
"The proposal includes a revised and broader definition of activities that would result in fiduciary status, a series of limited exceptions to fiduciary status, a package of new prohibited transaction exemptions, amendments to current exemptions for existing and newly covered fiduciaries (as well as nonfiduciaries), and a new regulatory impact analysis." (Morgan Lewis)  

[Guidance Overview]

DOL Re-Proposes ERISA Fiduciary Rule (PDF)
"Much like the 2010 Proposed Rule, the 2015 Proposed Rule is focused more on regulating conduct between retail investors and their advisors than between institutional investors and their advisors. These distinctions appear to be drawn more sharply in the 2015 Proposed Rule." (Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP)  

[Guidance Overview]

DOL Proposes New Regs on Fiduciary Advice
"The basic standards of impartial conduct set forth in the new proposed exemption reflect the conduct of many advisers in dealing with their clients, and standards that already apply under ERISA to advisers that work with employee benefit plans sponsored by employers. However, by making the standards a condition of the Best Interest Contract exemption, the DOL is extending the standards of impartial conduct to IRA advisers, many of whom have not historically been subject to formal regulation." (Ballard Spahr LLP)  

[Guidance Overview]

Definition of the Term 'Fiduciary' -- DOL 'Conflict of Interest' Rule (PDF)
"[T]he carve-outs would cover seven activities of persons who do not represent themselves as ERISA fiduciaries. [1] Seller's Carve-out....[2] Swaps.... [3] Plan Sponsor Employees.... [4] Investment Platform Providers.... [5] Objective Criteria or Financial Data.... [6] ESOP Appraisals ... [7] Investment Education." (fi360)  

[Advert.]

Retirement Education – Principles of Defined Contribution Plans Series

The retirement plan knowledge necessary for every new practitioner. Improve plan administration and reduce compliance problems with the latest regulatory and law changes. Seventeen 60-minute live and prerecorded modules. Call (973) 492-1880.

Pension Plan Administration and Court Deference to the IRS: The 'Church Plan' Cases as a Case Study on the Significance of Agency Deference to Plan Administration (PDF)
"Uniformity and predictability are critical protections that ERISA affords plan sponsors, and these goals have been used to justify important aspects of ERISA, such as the need for judicial deference to plan administrators.... Yet, as the recent rulings in the 'church plan' cases aptly illustrate, federal judges have sometimes become quick to second-guess the IRS and to develop their own unique pension rules, even when these new rules are a 'marked departure from past practice.' ... [T]his lack of judicial deference can, unfortunately, create balkanized and unexpected legal rules, defeating some of the very protections ERISA is supposed to provide plan sponsors." (Proskauer Rose LLP)  

Grading Target Date Funds from a Fiduciary Perspective (PDF)
"There is no fiduciary upside to taking risk at the target date. Only downside. The next 2008 will bring class action lawsuits. There is a 'risk zone' spanning the 5 years preceding and following retirement during which lifestyles are at stake.... [A] new grading system focuses on these key differentiators: [1] Who has the broadest diversification at the long dates when risk is being taken for younger participants?.... [2] Who defends best at the target date? ... [3] Are the fees reasonable?" (Target Date Solutions)  

Spring Cleaning Series: Regular Monitoring and Correction of Retirement Plans Can Reduce Correction Costs
"A company can correct most qualified retirement plan operational failures under EPCRS. Many plan sponsors prefer to self-correct plan failures under the Self-Correction Program of EPCRS (SCP) to avoid the time and expense of filing for IRS approval of the correction under the Voluntary Correction Program of EPCRS (VCP).... Regular retirement plan monitoring will help you ensure that SCP is available to correct any retirement plan failures your company experiences.... Regular monitoring and timely correction can also benefit a company when the company attempts to correct a fiduciary violation under the DOL's Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP)." (Quarles & Brady LLP)  

Safe-Harbor Leveraging for Small Business, Top-Heavy Retirement Plans
"Many employers are debating how to most efficiently take advantage of the defined contribution limit increase to $53,000. However, few owners of small businesses are aware of the extent to which certain types of 'leveraging' are now permitted in qualified retirement plans. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the provisions that allow owners of small businesses to get the most in return for what they are willing to contribute on behalf of their non-owner employees." (Retirement Management Services)  

One-Third of Plan Participants Are Giving Away Free Money ... Are You?
"Some 55% of plan participants in auto-enrollment employer plans -- which are becoming more and more popular -- are contributing less to their employer-sponsored retirement plan than the amount they need to contribute in order to receive the maximum employer-provided matching contribution. This is strong evidence that these participants are basically 'going with the flow' and choosing the default contribution rate selected by their employer rather than actually taking the time to figure out which contribution rate will be most beneficial." (Slott Report)  

Using Data Analytics to Find Pieces of the Participant Outcomes Puzzle
"Nearly every major retirement plan provider now offers a data analytics tool that purports to help plan sponsors determine how best to improve their plan design and participant outcomes. But how do data analytics work, and how can sponsors use such tools to perfect their plans?" (PLANSPONSOR)  

American Benefits Council Statement to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee Working Group on Savings and Investment (PDF)
37 pages. "Our nation's employer-based retirement saving s system is particularly vulnerable to disruption, because some of the commonly used measures of employer plan coverage are misleading and the true value of the current tax incentives for retirement savings is not widely understood, which can lead to proposals that result in more harm than good.... This statement illustrates how the vast majority of American workers are well served by the system of tax incentives that makes these plans possible. We will: [1] Describe the critical role that employers play in providing their employees with a secure vehicle for retirement savings. [2] Demonstrate the true value of tax-deferred retirement savings on personal financial security, broader economic growth and future tax revenues. Explain how retirement plan coverage and tax policy are intricately intertwined. [3] Provide targeted policy recommendations that would improve outcomes without compromising the successes of our current system. [4] Offer additional analyses regarding the way in which the tax incentives for savings in employer-sponsored retirement plans are measured and evaluated and offer some insights into how best to interpret retirement plan coverage statistics." (American Benefits Council)  

Private Pension Funding Drops to Lowest Level in 6 Years
"Even as stock market rose last year, pension funding levels at America's biggest companies in 2014 fell to levels not seen since just after the financial crisis. One big reason: Employers cut back on contributions to their plans to the lowest amount in six years ... thanks, in part, to a break offered up by Congress last summer to bail out the Highway Trust Fund." (CNBC)  

North Carolina, Maine Look at Retirement-Related Bills
"Legislation is before the North Carolina House of Representatives that would call on the Department of the State Treasurer to study the establishment of a voluntary 'work and save' retirement program for private-sector workers whose employers don't provide one.... The Maine bill, HP 715, would establish the Adjustable Pension Plan Program, a combined defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plan, to replace the State Employee and Teacher Retirement Program for state employees and teachers hired on or after July 1, 2017." (National Tax-Deferred Savings Association [NTSA])  

[Opinion]

DOL's Fiduciary Proposal Preserves Advice -- But at What Cost?
"While initial concerns about preserving the ability for 401(k) participants to work with the advisor of their choice on rollovers appear to be addressed in the new proposal, the new compliance regimen looks to be significant, adding cost and complexity to the process. Among other things, this includes written contracts with multiple signatures, as well as initial and annual disclosures." (American Retirement Association)  

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Proposes Rules on Dodd-Frank Anti-Hedging Policies
"A company that permits hedging transactions by some, but not all, of its employees and directors must disclose the categories of persons who are permitted to engage in hedging transactions and those who are not. If a company does not permit any hedging transactions or permits all hedging transactions, it can simply state that fact and need not describe them by category. A company must disclose the categories of hedging transactions it permits and those it prohibits. In disclosing these categories, a company may disclose that it prohibits or permits particular categories and permits or prohibits, respectively, all other hedging transactions." (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

2015 Workplace Benefits Report: Helping Employees Live Their Best Financial Lives (PDF)
20 pages. "[F]inancial wellness has evolved from a buzzword to reality and is likely to grow in importance in the future. Meanwhile employers face a challenging environment in which the complexities of benefits offerings require greater expertise from HR professionals, and rising health care costs force hard decisions about how to spend valuable benefits dollars. This report provides a clear picture of the data, trends and new ideas related to workplace benefits today. It uncovers new insights related to financial wellness, health care, incentives, the use of total rewards portals and employers' attempts to engage a multi-generational workforce." (Bank of America Merrill Lynch)  

Closing the Retirement Health Care Planning Gap?
"While many expect Medicare to address the bulk of health related expenses in retirement, the program only covers approximately 50 percent of total health care costs. With health care cost inflation expected to return to more normalized levels of around six percent, lower Social Security COLAs, more health care cost sharing in retirement, fewer retirees with pensions and health care benefits, and longer life expectancy, future retirees will see a much greater portion of their budgets consumed by health care than previous generations have experienced.... There are a number of key steps that should be part of a modified planning process that addresses health care[.]" (Insured Retirement Institute [IRI])  

Recent Developments in Employee Benefits Law (PDF)
"This article surveys recent developments in employee benefits law from fall 2013 through fall 2014.... The first portion of the survey reviews two important Supreme Court cases from last term, Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer and Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance Co. ... The second portion of the survey reviews eight important decisions issued by the appellate courts during the last year[.]" (Alston & Bird LLP, via Tort Trial and Appellate Practice Law Journal)  

CMS Announces Opportunity to Apply for Navigator Grants in Federally-facilitated and State Partnership Marketplaces
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS]

The ESOP Association Announces 2015 Silver ESOP Award Recipients
ESOP Association

University of Missouri System and Segal Group Communications Practice Win 2015 IABC Gold Quill Award
The Segal Group

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