Senior Employee Benefits Account Manager
Johnson & Dugan
in CA

Consulting Support Specialist
Northwestern Benefit Corporation of Georgia
in GA

Experienced Pension Administrator
KB Pension Services, Inc.
in FL

Account Manager
Benefit Administration, Inc.
in WI

Retirement Services Consultant
Insperity
in TX

Implementation Specialist
Nova 401(k) Associates
in ANY STATE

Account Executive Director
Principal Financial Group
in MA

Plan Administrator
The Newport Group
in CA, FL, TX, VA

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How Telehealth Is Reshaping Care Delivery
RECORDED
(National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation)

Retirement Plans -- Today and Looking Forward
July 23, 2015 in GA
(Fidelity Investments)

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[Guidance Overview]

IRS, PBGC Issue Guidance on Multiemployer Plan Benefit Suspensions and Plan Partitions
"The Guidance provides that benefit suspension applications can be submitted beginning June 19, 2015, but also indicates that any submitted applications likely will not be approved prior to consideration of public comments on the proposed regulations and the subsequent issuance of final regulations. Moreover, applications submitted before the issuance of final regulations may need to be revised (including potential revisions to participant notices) or supplemented to take into account any differences that might be included in the final regulations. For these reasons, some struggling multiemployer plans may choose not to submit applications for benefit suspensions until final regulations are issued." (McGuireWoods LLP)  

[Advert.]

Work With IRAs? What the DOL's Fiduciary Proposal Means to You

The Department of Labor's proposed regulations– and its implications for 403(b) and 457 plan advisors – will be the focus of a special regulatory update session at the upcoming NTSA 403(b) Summit June 28-20 in Nashville, Tennessee. Join us.

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Explanation, Worksheet (Alert Guidelines), and Deficiency Checksheet: Section 401(k) Requirements (Rev. 4-2015) (PDF)
31 pages; this single PDF document includes Publication 7335, Form 9002, and Form 9417. Excerpt: "The purpose of Worksheet Number 12 (Form 9002) and this explanation is to identify major problems that relate to plans that include a cash or deferred arrangement." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Explanation, Worksheet (Alert Guidelines), and Deficiency Checksheet: Employee and Matching Contributions (Rev. 4-2015) (PDF)
20 pages; this single PDF document includes Publication 7334, Form 8799, and Form 9416. Excerpt: "The purpose of Worksheet Number 11 (Form 8799) and this explanation is to identify major problems that relate to plans providing for employee and/or matching contributions (a '401(m) plan)." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

Peer Behavior and Peer Outcome Influence 401(k) Participant Investment Decisions
"[I]ndividuals are likely to increase (decrease) their risky share when they have lower (higher) equity exposure than their coworkers in the last period. The effect is especially strong when the difference in equity exposure is substantial.... [P]eer behavior and peer outcome influences investment decisions, inducing individuals with substantially lower equity exposure than their coworkers to increase their risky share when coworkers also earned higher returns." (Pension Research Council, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; free registration required)  

Defined Contribution Investment Perspectives: Why Investment Re-Enrollment Matters (PDF)
"[P]lan sponsors should consider an investment re-enrollment, an action that requires little effort from participants and can improve their long-term prospects.... [The authors] provide four case studies that demonstrate how plan sponsors have success fully re-enrolled participants to help improve their investment allocations." (Capital Group, for Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association [DCIIA])  

Use of 401(k) Plan 'Auto Features' Increases, But Barriers Still Remain (PDF)
"Plan sponsors of the larger plans (greater than $200 million) continue to adopt automatic enrollment, with 62% of survey respondents indicating that they utilize this feature, compared to just 44% in 2010.... Thirty percent of plans with automatic enrollment reported a savings level of at least 10%, whereas only 18% of plans without automatic enrollment have savings levels of 10% or more.... 30% of [large plans] that do not have automatic enrollment reported that the cost of matching is an obstacle ... 30% of [small plans] plans that do not have automatic enrollment said it is unnecessary because participation is already high." (Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association [DCIIA])  

Aligning Goals, Improving Outcomes: 2015 Defined Contribution Plan Sponsor Survey Findings (PDF)
"A majority of plan sponsors (75%) consider helping ensure that employees have a financially secure retirement to be a highly important goal.... [A] preponderance (74%) also feel a somewhat to very high level of responsibility for employees' overall financial wellness (up from 59% in 2013).... [T]he percentage of participants with account balances on track to replace 80% of final salary in retirement, while definitely growing in importance, is currently ranked last among a variety of plan success criteria." (J.P. Morgan Asset Management)  

A Lurking Trap for Corporate Officers
"Plan participants constitute a ready-made class of individuals, creating the potential for large damage awards for any drop in stock price.... ERISA is a personal liability statute.... [T]he first two steps all corporations should take to reduce the risk of potential liability to their officers and directors are: [1] Remove from the plan fiduciary committee all Section 16 officers and others who tend to receive inside information; and [2] Cause the company's directors or compensation committee members to delegate away as much fiduciary authority (and potential liability) as possible." (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

Managing Risks in Retirement Through Diversification of Retirement Income Sources
"[D]epending on the relative size of a retiree's accumulated savings, the existence or non-existence (and relative size) of a pension benefit and the amount of the retiree's Social Security benefit, the best approach to managing retirement risks may be this partial annuity (or pension)/partial withdrawal approach." (Ken Steiner, FSA Retired)  

Survey of Multiemployer Plans' Zone Status: 2015 Results for Calendar-Year Plans (PDF)
"A majority of plans are in the green zone. The ratio between the number of active and inactive participants is a key indicator of zone status. The average PPA '06 funded percentage is 88 percent for 2015 calendar-year plans and 87 percent for plans with zone certification filing deadlines between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015.... Of the 2015 calendar-year plans, 65 percent are in the green zone. A similar percentage (63 percent) of plans in the larger group is also in the green zone." (Segal Consulting)  

Fact Sheet: Keep Our Pension Promises Act
"The legislation would allow financially distressed multiemployer plans to apply to the [PBGC] for a 'partition order' which, if issued, would require the PBGC to provide financial assistance to the plans.... A Legacy Fund would be created within the PBGC to enable the agency to provide plans with the financial assistance authorized by the new law. This assistance would be transferred to the plans each year and would be sufficient to pay amounts equal to PBGC guaranteed benefits to orphaned retirees, widows and widowers who are now receiving benefits." (Pension Rights Center)  

2015 Report on the Funding of State and Local Pensions: Most Public Pension Plans Have Improved Their Funded Status
"Most plans have improved their funded status in 2014, with the ratio of assets to liabilities increasing from 72 percent in 2013 to 74 percent in 2014.... Going forward, assuming plans achieve their expected rate of return, the plans should be 81 percent funded in 2018. If returns are lower, as predicted by many investment firms, funding will stabilize at about 77 percent." (Center for State & Local Government Excellence)  

State Street May Face SEC Action Over Retirement Plan Business
"State Street Corp. said ... that the Securities and Exchange Commission is planning an enforcement action related to its solicitation of business from public retirement plans. The Boston-based company was notified via a Wells notice from the securities regulator, according to a filing on Thursday [June 18]. The notice indicates that the agency intends to pursue civil charges but does not guarantee that it will take action." (TheStreet.com)  

San Francisco Loses State Supreme Court Ruling on Pension Cuts
"The state Supreme Court ... allowed thousands of San Francisco city employees and retirees to regain increases in future pensions that voters had sought to eliminate. A lower-court ruling had restored the increases for employees who retired after November 1996 and for future retirees, and the [California] Supreme Court] denied the city's appeal. The court also denied an appeal by a lawyer for the workers, who had wanted a ruling that eliminated the cutbacks for earlier retirees." (San Francisco Chronicle)  

Text of Sixth Circuit Opinion: Misleading SPD Which Conflicts with Terms of Plan Document Can Be Grounds for Equitable Relief (PDF)
"[We] think it is notable that inclusion of a single sentence, the exclusion clause (which is already required by 29 U.S.C. Section 1022(b)), would have easily prevented this misunderstanding from arising.... At bottom, 'You don't have to be an active employee' does not equate to 'You must be an employee.' The district court erred in concluding that a participant ... who read the SPD would understand that he must be an employee to qualify for 30-and-Out benefits. This material conflict between the Pension Plan and the SPD permits Pearce to seek equitable relief under ERISA Section 502(a)(3)." [Pearce v. Chrysler Group, LLC Pension Plan, No. 13-2374 (6th Cir. June 18, 2015; unpub.)] (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit)  

Do You 'Work For' Uber?
"There may, perhaps, have to be evolutionary movement in the case law that will allow the legal structure to incorporate these types of sharing economy worker bees into the system somewhere in a middle ground, and there may have to likewise be a similar movement in statutory provisions that control access to and administration of 401(k) plans, disability benefits and the like for these purposes.... Would we, and the workers of the sharing economy, be better served if state legislatures and Congress tackled the problem of their job classification and their rights under employment law in the type of thoughtful way that created ERISA forty years ago[?]" (Stephen Rosenberg, The Wagner Law Group)  

Steve Puckett of SBS Makes Top 100 Retirement Plan Adviser List
Strategic Benefit Services

Health Care Service Corporation Awarded The National Business Group on Health’s Highest Honor in the Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles Awards Program
Health Care Service Corporation

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