|
|
Employee Benefits Jobs
|
|
Webcasts and Conferences
|
|
|
|
[Official Guidance]
Text of PBGC Monthly Interest Update for June 2015
"The June 2015 interest assumptions under the benefit payments regulation will be 0.75 percent for the period during which a benefit is in pay status and 4.00 percent during any years preceding the benefit's placement in pay status. In comparison with the interest assumptions in effect for May 2015, these interest assumptions are unchanged."
(Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])
|
[Guidance Overview]
DOL Re-Proposed Definition of 'Fiduciary' -- Part 1: The Rule and Its Exceptions
"In one camp are those who would impose an impossibly high fiduciary standard on the financial services industry without regard to the consequences to plan participants and investors; there are others who think the status quo is fine, despite transformative changes in the retirement investing environment over the past 40 years. [The authors] believe that there is a middle ground between the competing constituencies, and that the proposed regulations strike an appropriate conceptual balance of completing interests. However, [they] also believe that the proposal, as currently drafted, falls short in some important, practical respects. This post explains the proposed regulations and the context in which they arise."
(Mintz Levin)
|
Defined Contribution Plan Success Factors: Framework for Plans with an Objective of Retirement Income Adequacy (PDF)
"DCIIA has developed this best practices framework to outline actions that plan sponsors and fiduciaries can take to build plans that have the greatest potential to help participants achieve retirement readiness.... The framework further addresses specific factors related to Plan Design, Investment Structure, and Plan Monitoring. It can help plan sponsors and fiduciaries: [1] Evaluate existing plans; [2] Develop thoughtfully designed plans; [3] Maximize the effectiveness of auto features programs; and [4] Identify and address suboptimal plan participant behavior."
(Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association [DCIIA])
|
Retirement Income Solutions for Defined Contribution Plans (PDF)
"Chief investment officers would generally like ongoing involvement with retirees -- the main reason being that significant amounts of money leave a plan when participants retire, and that deprives the plan of volume that could noticeably reduce fees. General counsels would typically prefer to let participants leave the plan ... the main reason being that direct fiduciary risks are reduced when circumstances aren't well defined.... Human resources professionals are usually ambivalent, and could be persuaded either way."
(Russell Investments)
|
Redefining Outcomes-Based Investing
"While TDFs are generally viewed as long-term investment solutions, the target date concept is still in its infancy. As such, the limited track record over which to assess a glide path's ability to help participants achieve their goals is one of the more significant evaluation hurdles that plan fiduciaries face.... [By] considering plan goals and participant demographics, plan fiduciaries may be in a better position to identify a glide path that best aligns with their plan's desired outcomes. However, it's important to recognize that, if taken too far, these tools' projected results may provide a sense of certainty where there is none."
(Manning & Napier)
|
Plan Participants Who Are Former Employees: What Is in Their Best Interest?
"Participants and sponsors alike are considering changes that shift the plan design discussion from retirement accumulation topics to the 'de-accumulation' or payout phase. So what plan design changes are they making? Partial lump-sum distributions.... Installments.... Annuities.... Why would participants choose to defer their distributions and not roll them over to an IRA or their new employer's qualified plan? Lower fees.... Monitored investments.... Online access."
(Milliman)
|
Text of Second Circuit Summary Order: Plaintiff Lacked Standing in Stock Drop Case Absent Showing of Specific and Particular Loss
"Taveras attempts to demonstrate injury-in-fact by showing diminution in the value of [the assets of the Savings and Investment Plan (SIP)] generally. However, SIP participants, such as Taveras, directed their own investment choices from a menu of options selected by SIP's fiduciaries. It was possible that the SIP lost value while Taveras's individual account did not.... Failure to allege individualized harm goes directly to constitutional standing and is fatal to Taveras's Amended Complaint." [Taveras v. UBS, No. 14-4009 (2d Cir. Apr 30, 2015; unpub.)]
(U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit)
|
IRS Provides Tips for Speeding Up Determination Letter Process
"[Tips include] using the current version of the applicable forms (i.e., Form 5300, 5307, 5310, and 5316), completing and submitting the procedural requirements checklist, not stapling, binding, or folding plan documents, and using 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper... [T]he IRS instructs applicants to be sure that the forms are completed, signed, and dated. Also, applicants should use the employer identification number (EIN) of the plan sponsor, not the associated trust.... The IRS notes that reference lists help verify that a plan has been amended for all necessary law changes."
(Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
|
Will Longer-Working Boomers Change the Workplace?
"Nearly half of non-working, retired American Baby Boomers (48%) would like to work, but can't. The reasons vary ... but it adds up to a large number of retirees who would like to be in the workforce. Most retired Baby Boomers (72%) aren't currently working for pay in retirement ... Employers will need to ask themselves what role a highly experienced, part-time workforce can play in an organization as the lines blur between retirement and working for pay."
(planadviser)
|
Fewer Retirees Claiming Social Security Benefits at Age 62
"[D]uring the mid-1990's, roughly 56% of men claimed their Social Security benefits when they turned 62.... [T]oday, only about 36% of men turning 62 claim Social Security benefits at that time.... [T]he trend is clearly moving towards waiting longer. So is waiting beyond 62 right for you?"
(Slott Report)
|
Daniel Gallagher Resigning as SEC Commissioner
"Mr. Gallagher, 42, plans to remain on the five-member commission until a successor is confirmed, a process that could take several months ... The White House has already identified candidates to fill both his and Mr. Aguilar's seats.... [Mr. Gallagher] was instrumental in negotiating a compromise overhauling rules for money market mutual funds in July 2014[.]"
(Investment News)
|
[Opinion]
Social Security on the Fritz?
"[L]et the academics and actuaries debate on whether the assumptions underlying Social Security are right or wrong.... [A] much bigger debate is how are they going to revamp Social Security to bolster the retirement security of millions of Americans. That's the real challenge that lies ahead."
(Pension Pulse)
|
[Opinion]
Lifetime Income Disclosure Act Would Boost Retirement Security
"Under the [the Lifetime Income Disclosure Act (S. 1317), recently introduced in the U.S. Senate], participants in workplace retirement plans would receive an annual statement of how their lump-sum savings translate into a guaranteed lifetime stream of monthly income from an annuity. This vital information would make it easier for workers to understand how their savings will address their month-to-month living expenses."
(American Council of Life Insurers [ACLI])
|
|
Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
|
|
|
[Guidance Overview]
SEC Proposes Pay Versus Performance Disclosure Rule (PDF)
6 pages. "The aggregate change in actuarial present value of the executive's accumulated benefit under all defined benefit and actuarial pension plans set forth in the summary compensation table would be deducted from the total to calculate compensation actually paid, with only actuarially determined service costs for services rendered by the executive during the applicable year added back. Smaller reporting companies would not have to make this pension adjustment because their scaled disclosures do not include pension plan disclosure."
(Mayer Brown)
|
[Guidance Overview]
IRS Clarifies that Correction of Section 409A Failures in Year of Vesting Will Not Shield Income Inclusion
"Under the 2008 proposed income inclusion rules, Section 409A income inclusion does not appear to be required for the year that nonqualified deferred compensation ceases to be subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture (or any later years) to the extent that the applicable plan is amended to comply with Section 409A prior to the taxable year in which the compensation vests. By not providing any indications to the contrary with regards to such a 'prior year' correction, it appears the IRS has tacitly blessed the correction of unvested amounts in years prior to the year of vesting." [Chief Counsel advice memorandum 201518013 was released May 1, 2015.]
(Proskauer's ERISA Practice Center)
|
Text of Federal District Court Opinion: Embezzler Not Entitled to Attorney's Fees Despite Successful Claim for Benefits (PDF)
"Plaintiff [Richard Thomas] brought this action under [ERISA], alleging that the transfer of $21,631.79 to Mr. Thomas's former employer from [his] profit-sharing account ... constituted a breach of fiduciary duty ... Although Mr. Thomas had previously embezzled nearly twenty million dollars from his employer, the Court held that the terms of the profit-sharing plan and ERISA's anti-alienation rules nevertheless prohibited the transfer, and accordingly entered judgment for Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas now moves to recover his attorney's fees ... [T]he Ninth Circuit has stated that '[s]uccessful plaintiffs in ERISA suits should ordinarily recover fees unless special circumstances would render such an award unjust.' ... Here, the most significant additional factor is that Mr. Thomas embezzled ... nearly one thousand times the amount Mr. Thomas recovered in this action, and hundreds of times the
fees sought in the present motion.... The Court therefore finds that Mr. Thomas' embezzlement constitutes [such] 'special circumstances[.]' "
(U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California)
|
$90 Million Would End Class Action Against Boeing Over Early Retirement Benefits
"The proposed deal would provide the Harkness Class with payments -- after deducting the costs of administering the settlement and proposed attorneys' fees and expenses -- that are worth more than $85.6 million, according to the settlement memorandum. The net settlement would be distributed to class members under a plan that gives 80 percent to class members based on a calculation of their alleged actual individual lost pension benefits, and 20 percent would be distributed as reimbursement of actual out-of-pocket medical costs that would have been covered (capped at $40,000 per class member)."
(Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
|
|
Press Releases
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Additional useful links:
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park, Florida 32789
Phone (407) 644-4146
Fax (407) 644-2151
Lois Baker, J.D., President
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager
Copyright 2015
BenefitsLink.com, Inc. — but feel free to forward this
newsletter without further permission from us, if you do not
modify the newsletter in any way (including this lower
portion).
All materials contained in this newsletter are
protected by United States copyright law and may not be
reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed,
published or broadcast without the prior written
permission of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., or in the case of
third party materials, the owner of that content. You
may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or
other notice from copies of the content.
Links to websites other than those owned by
BenefitsLink.com, Inc. are offered as a service to
readers. The editorial staff of BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
was not involved in their production and is not
responsible for their content.
We are proud of our
Privacy Policy.
Thanks for reading this newsletter!
|
![Sponsored by State and Local Government Benefits Association [SALGBA]](https://benefitslink.com/bnrs/2015/SALGBA_header_top.jpg "Sponsored by State and Local Government Benefits Association [SALGBA]")