Employee Benefits Associate
Frost Brown Todd LLC
in KY, OH

Insurance Benefits Analyst
The Air Line Pilots Association, International
in VA

Quality, Compliance & Projects Analyst
DC Retirement Board
in DC

Client Relationship Manager
Goldleaf Partners
in NC

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Healthcare Reform Fees and Taxes: PCOR, Reinsurance, HIT, and Cadillac
RECORDED
(Hill, Chesson & Woody)

Secret to Success with Voluntary Benefits
RECORDED
(Benefitfocus)

DB Top Tips
July 14, 2015 WEBCAST
(ASC)

Affordable Care Act – Compliance Challenges for Employers
July 16, 2015 WEBCAST
(Winston & Strawn)

Excepted Benefits
July 22, 2015 WEBCAST
(Hill, Chesson & Woody)

Groom Retirement Policy Report
July 22, 2015 WEBCAST
(Groom Law Group)

What the Healthcare Law Means for your Small Business
July 30, 2015 WEBCAST
(Small Business Majority)

Safe Harbor 401(k) - Dallas
August 6, 2015 in TX
(SunGard Relius)

Advanced Cross-Tested Plans: Adding More Tools - Dallas
August 7, 2015 in TX
(SunGard Relius)

Certificate of Achievement in Public Plan Policy (CAPPP®)
October 6, 2015 in RI
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])

61st U.S. Annual Employee Benefits Conference
November 8, 2015 in HI
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])

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[Guidance Overview]

Plan Sponsors Must Retain Hardship and Loan Documentation
"[Recent IRS] guidance stresses that self-certification is never sufficient to demonstrate the nature of the participant's hardship. More specifically, to qualify for a hardship withdrawal, a participant must prove that the withdrawal is 'necessary' and that it will meet an 'immediate and heavy' financial need. While self-certification is permitted to show that a distribution was necessary, it is not permitted to show that the need is immediate and heavy. Thus, the guidance instructs sponsors that they must independently obtain and retain documentation showing the nature of the hardship." (Legacy Retirement Solutions)  

[Advert.]

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Text of Amicus Brief on Appeal to Fourth Circuit, Supporting Employer's Application of Top-Hat Plan Exemption (PDF)
"This Court should reject Appellants' effort to limit the definition of the top-hat plans in 29 U.S.C. Section 1051(2) to plans that consist exclusively of management or highly compensated employees. This interpretation contravenes both the statute's plain text ... and the statute's purpose. Every other circuit court to consider the issue has squarely rejected this contorted interpretation.... Nor should this Court give any deference to the DOL interpretation on which Appellants heavily rely ... Section 1051(2) is not ambiguous, the DOL's interpretation of the top-hat provision is not based on any asserted agency expertise, and the DOL's insistence that its 1990 opinion letter articulated prior agency policy is merely a post hoc rationalization unsupported by contemporaneous agency pronouncements." [Bond et al. v. Marriott International, Inc., No. 10-cv-01256 (D. Md. Jan. 7, 2014; on appeal to 4th Cir.)] (The ERISA Industry Committee [ERIC], American Benefits Council, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce)  

Text of Report of Senate Finance Committee Savings and Investment Bipartisan Tax Working Group
18 pages. "[O]ur initial review led us to focus on the area of private retirement savings. Though this system has been a success story, it also has many clear shortcomings that have been identified by policymakers in both parties as well as a broad coalition of market participants and advocates. Specifically, the working group identified three key goals for policy makers to pursue: [1] increasing access to tax deferred retirement savings, [2] increasing participation and levels of savings, and [3] discouraging leakage while promoting lifetime income." (Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate)  

Senate Finance Panel Recommends Changes in Rules for Tax-Qualified Retirement Plans
"The recommendations include: [1] enabling employers to use 'open' multiple employer plans; ... [2] requiring plans to allow long-term, part-time employees to participate; [3] making lifetime income solutions more attractive by excluding a portion of the payments from income, encouraging portability, and considering other options (e.g., fiduciary safe harbors and lifetime income disclosures); ... [4] reducing leakage by, for example, extending the rollover period for plan loans; [5] clarifying certain rules related to church plans; and [6] making changes to encourage employee-ownership in S corporation ESOPs." (Groom Law Group)  

Expansion of S Corporation ESOPs Recommended by Senate Finance Committee
"The Senate Committee on Finance's Tax Reform Working Group on Savings & Investment released a report on their findings for reforming the tax system. Recommendations include the expansion of gain-deferral provisions of Code section 1042 for S [corporation] ESOPs ... and guaranteeing that small businesses with SBA certification do not lose their status when they become majority employee-owned companies." (The ESOP Association)  

[Advert.]

Your input needed! GAO asking DC plan sponsors about eligibility and vesting requirements

This GAO survey examines why plan sponsors use certain eligibility and vesting requirements, how they may have changed the requirements, and how they communicate them to employees and participants. GAO estimates the survey will take about 15-20 minutes to complete; responses will be accepted until July 24th.

2015 PSCA 403(b) Survey Finds Higher Contributions, Better Balances
"Average account values among 403(b) plan participants grew to $62,513 in 2014, compared to $54,600 in 2013. Participants contributed an average of 6 percent of their annual pay to their account, up from 5.8 percent in 2013. In addition to participant contributions, the survey shows nearly a quarter of 403(b) plan sponsors match employee contributions dollar for dollar on the first 5 percent or 6 percent deferred.... Just 16.2 percent of 403(b) plans use automatic enrollment, up slightly from last year's 16 percent." (Plan Sponsor Council of America)  

457 Plans: Know Before You Go
"[Internal Revenue Code section] 457 plans are for state- and local-government workers, as well as certain executive employees of nonprofit organizations.... Among the big positives of 457 plans is that withdrawals are more flexible than is the case for withdrawals from 401(k)s or 403(b)s.... Contributors to 457 plans may also have a bit more latitude in when they can make catch-up contributions ... [W]orkers may also have the opportunity to contribute to a 457(b) plan in addition to -- rather than instead of -- their 403(b) plans ... Among the chief drawbacks is that matching contributions are rare.... It's also important to note the distinction between government and nongovernment 457 plans from the standpoint of creditor protections." (Morningstar)  

Corporate Pension Funded Status Improves in June by $36 Billion (PDF)
"The funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans increased by $36 billion during June ... The deficit fell to $244 billion at the end of June primarily due to an increase in the benchmark corporate bond interest rates used to value pension liabilities.... As of June 30, the funded ratio rose to 85.6%, up from 84.1% at the end of May. The funded ratio is up year-to-date from 81.5% as of December 31, 2014." (Milliman)  

Bad Math and a Coming Public Pension Crisis
"The recommendations made by pension actuaries, like which mortality table to use, are largely hidden from public view, but each decision ripples across decades and can have an outsize effect. More and more actuaries are now worried that their profession will be blamed for its role in steering states and cities into what is looking like a trillion-dollar quagmire.... On [July 9], a panel of senior actuaries will consider whether to update, or elaborate on, the existing actuarial standards for public pensions.... It is only the second time in recent memory that the Actuarial Standards Board has held a public hearing, an indication of the gravity of the nation's pension woes." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)  

Illinois Governor's Pension Plan: Cut Benefits for Police, Firefighters, Teachers
"The lengthy bill -- all 500 pages of it -- would cut retirement benefits for police officers, firefighters and public teachers. It would also give local governments a way to file for bankruptcy 'as a last resort' after a review or the declaration of a fiscal emergency.... [T]he proposal was a far cry from a negotiated deal and appears to have been put together with little or no input from organized labor. A closer look at the governor's proposal raises questions over its constitutionality, since it appears to offer workers the choice between one diminished benefit or another." (Chicago Sun-Times)  

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Proposes Clawback Rules
"The SEC proposal acknowledges that one result of implementation of incentive-based recovery policies may be that executive officers demand incentive-based compensation be a smaller portion of their total compensation. As incentive-based compensation typically aligns the interests of executive officers and shareholders, less incentive-based compensation may move shareholder and executive interests in opposing directions." (Bryan Cave LLP)  

Delaware Court Decides in Favor of Board in Director Compensation Lawsuit
"Now along comes a Chancery Court decision reciting Disney-esque facts and governance practices, but finding in favor of the board at the motion to dismiss stage (Freidman v. Dolan). This is, of course, great news for Delaware corporations and their board members. And what was the magic bullet that differentiated this case from those allowing compensation lawsuits to go forward? ... [T]he fact that the company maintained a separate stock plan for the non-employee directors." (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

FASB Approves Project for Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost
"The Board decided to add a project to its technical agenda to improve the presentation of net benefit cost in an employer's financial statements ... by requiring the following: [1] If a plan is material, an entity would be required to present service cost in the same line item or items as other current employee compensation costs ... and present the remaining components of net benefit cost in a separate line item outside operating items, if applicable ... [and] [2] Limit the components of net benefit cost eligible to be capitalized to service cost[.]" (Financial Accounting Standards Board [FASB])  

Will Domestic Partner Benefits Stay or Go After the Supreme Court Decision?
"More than half of employers (57.4%) offered benefits to same-sex domestic partners at the time of the ruling. Among those organizations, more than 70% are likely to continue providing those benefits and 30% are unlikely. What's the main reason 30% of employers are unlikely to continue providing benefits to same-sex domestic partners? They only offered it in the past because same-sex couples couldn't legally marry -- and now they can.... Almost half of employers (45.4%) offered benefits to opposite-sex domestic partners at the time of the ruling. Among those organizations, more than 80% are likely to continue providing those benefits and less than 20% are unlikely." (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])  

ERISApedia.com Adds Forms Suite to The Fiduciary Responsibility eSource
Burrmont Compliance Labs LLC

Alliance Benefit Group Adds The Retirement Plan Company
Alliance Benefit Group

Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Ranked a Top RIA by Financial Advisor Magazine
Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors, Inc.

National Business Group on Health Elects Erik Sossa, PepsiCo Benefits Executive, to Board of Directors
National Business Group on Health

DST Acquires Retirement Plan Rollover Specialist WMSI
DST

KPMG To Acquire Towers Watson’s Human Resources Service Delivery Practice
KPMG LLP

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