Client Relationship Manager (Retirement Services)
Marsh & McLennan Agency
in NJ

Retirement Plan Specialists
Arista Wealth Management
in NV

Benefits Analyst
Directors Guild of America - Producer Pension and Health Plans
in CA

Benefits Manager - Retirement
BNY Mellon
in PA

Retirement Plans Account Manager
Ohio National Financial Services
in OH

Insurance/Benefits Account Coordinator
RFSI - Raffa Financial Services, Inc.
in MD

Account Manager - Retirement Plans
Keller Benefit Services, Inc.
in MD

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Top Ten ACA Compliance Issues Organizations Face
July 23, 2015 WEBCAST
(Employee Benefit Adviser)

Affordable Care Act: Employer Shared Responsibility Provisions and Information Reporting
July 28, 2015 WEBCAST
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

New EEOC Rules for Wellness Plans
July 30, 2015 WEBCAST
(Frenkel Benefits, LLC)

Safe Harbor 401(k) - Kansas City
August 13, 2015 in KS
(SunGard Relius)

Advanced Cross-Tested Plans: Adding More Tools - Kansas City
August 14, 2015 in KS
(SunGard Relius)

Transparency in Healthcare Audio/Webcast
December 16, 2015 WEBCAST
(Conference of Consulting Actuaries)

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[Guidance Overview]

DOL Clarifies Safe Harbor on Defined Contribution Annuity Distribution Options (PDF)
"Some plan fiduciaries and insurance companies will find the guidance in [FAB 2015-02] helpful to the extent a defined contribution plan offers an immediate annuity distribution option ... or a qualified longevity annuity contract option (QLAC) ... Unfortunately, however, the FAB does not address how the Safe Harbor applies when the fiduciary selects an insurance company that provides other 'guaranteed lifetime income' options or features in a defined contribution plan, such as deferred income annuities that may not be a QLAC, guaranteed minimum income benefit features, and guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit features." (Groom Law Group)  

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[Guidance Overview]

DOL's Proposed Redefinition of ERISA Fiduciary: The Best Interest Contract Prohibited Transaction Exemption
"Any Financial Institution wishing to use the PTE must maintain a public web page disclosing, basically, all its compensation and pricing data.... [B]efore the execution of the relevant investment transaction, the Adviser must provide the advice recipient with a chart showing information about the investment's 'all-in cost' and 'anticipated future costs.' ... DOL also expressed a desire to propose a separate 'streamlined exemption' for certain 'high-quality low-fee investments.' DOL did not formally propose this streamlined exemption because it could not 'operationalize' it." (October Three Consulting)  

[Guidance Overview]

Reminder: One-Rollover-Per-Year Rule for IRAs Began in 2015
"[B]eginning this year, you can make only one rollover from an IRA to another (or the same) IRA in any 12-month period, regardless of the number of IRAs you own.... The one-rollover-per-year limitation is applied by aggregating all of an individual's IRAs, including SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, as well as traditional and Roth IRAs, effectively treating them as one IRA for purposes of the limit." (EisnerAmper)  

Legal Advice on Your 401(k) Plan -- Is It Confidential?
"Let's say you have a concern about how your 401(k) plan is operating.... The lawyer writes a memo outlining the situation and advising on corrective steps. You drop the memo in your 401(k) file. Then the [DOL] comes calling and asks to look at your plan administrative documents. You would like to withhold the lawyer's memo as confidential 'attorney-client' communications. Can you do that? Or do you have to produce the memo -- and give the DOL a roadmap on how to assert a claim against the Plan Administrator or other in-house fiduciaries?" (The Retirement Plan Blog)  

A Retirement Planning Provision Hidden in a Trade Bill
"The current 'Age 50 Exception' allows certain state and local public safety workers ... to take penalty-free distributions from their government-sponsored defined benefit plans -- like a pension plan -- if they have separated from service in the year they turn age 50 or later.... Under the new law, more public safety workers will qualify for the exception.... [and] the exception is expanded to cover distributions from more plans.... The changes to the age 50 exception are not effective until 2016. The 'old' rules will continue to remain in effect throughout the remainder of 2015." (Slott Report)  

Tailoring Retirement Plans to Companies With a Handful of Workers
"Only 14 percent of businesses with 100 or fewer employees sponsor a retirement plan ... and employees at the smallest companies, those with 50 workers or fewer, pay administrative fees that are twice as high on average as those paid by participants in larger plans. That market gap is luring new players into the field." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)  

How a Harvard Economist Screwed Up -- and Then Saved -- Her Retirement
"Retirement expert Alicia Munnell confesses her 'not-so-smart' moves and explains how she recovered. It had nothing to do with stocks or bonds." (Bloomberg)  

Innovative Strategies to Help Maximize Social Security Benefits (PDF)
20 pages. "No other vehicle can match the combination of inflation-fighting increases, longevity protection, investment risk elimination, and spousal coverage that Social Security delivers -- potentially making it one of the most valuable sources of retirement income.... [M]any retirees today do not understand how their Social Security benefits really work.... This paper will outline why Social Security deserves to be considered as a valuable resource worthy of careful stewardship by individuals -- and how today's retirees can best maximize its benefits while helping minimize the taxes on their retirement income in general." (Prudential)  

The State Pensions Funding Gap: Challenges Persist
10 pages. "The nation's state-run retirement systems had a $968 billion shortfall in 2013 ... a $54 billion increase from the previous year.... [P]reliminary data from 2014 point to a reduction in unfunded liabilities for the majority of states.... Nevertheless, reported pension debt is expected to remain over $900 billion for state plans, which increases to more than $1 trillion when combined with the shortfalls in local pension systems ... Starting with the reporting of 2014 data, new standards required by GASB ... allow for the development of new metrics to determine whether annual pension payments are sufficient to reduce unfunded liabilities." (The Pew Charitable Trusts)  

[Opinion]

White House Plan to Help States Bypass Safeguards That Protect Retirement Plan Participants Is Misguided
"ACLI agrees with the administration's goal to help people save for retirement. But rather than drafting new regulations to support risky and costly state-managed programs like the one in Illinois, the administration should support efforts like the one passed this year in Washington state, where legislators worked cooperatively with the private sector to create a new retirement marketplace subject to ERISA's worker protections." (American Council of Life Insurers [ACLI])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Proposed Regs: Property Transferred in Connection with the Performance of Services
"[M]any taxpayers who wish to electronically file (e-file) their annual income tax return have been unable to do so because of the requirement in Section 1.83-2(c) that they submit a copy of their section 83(b) election with their income tax return. Commercial software ... does not consistently provide a mechanism for submitting a section 83(b) election with an individual's e-filed return. As a result, an individual who has made a section 83(b) election ... would be required to paper file his or her income tax return ... The proposed regulations would remove the second sentence in Section 1.83-2(c) of the existing regulations. This would eliminate the requirement that taxpayers submit a copy of a section 83(b) election with their tax return for the year in which the property subject to the election was transferred.... These regulations under section 83 are proposed to apply as of January 1, 2016, and would apply to property transferred on or after that date. Taxpayers may rely on these proposed regulations for property transferred on or after January 1, 2015." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Proposes Clawback Rules Mandated Under Dodd-Frank
"What type of restatement will trigger a clawback? ... What kinds of compensation are subject to the clawback policy? ... How is 'excess compensation' determined? ... Does the board have discretion regarding the means of recovery? ... Can a company protect an executive officer from personal liability associated with clawbacks?" (Steven Hall & Partners)  

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Issues Proposed Rules for Pay Versus Performance
"Registrants may consider modeling how their [cumulative total shareholder return (TSR)] may compare to the compensation 'actually paid' to their CEO and other NEOs and to the TSR of their peers. Companies should also consider whether supplemental disclosure measures ... may prove useful to address any perceived disconnect between pay and performance that might result from the Proposed Rules." (Haynes and Boone, LLP)  

US Labor Department and Kentucky Labor Cabinet Sign Three-Year Agreement to Protect Misclassified Workers
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

AHIP's Board of Directors Unanimously Elects Marilyn Tavenner as President and CEO
America’s Health Insurance Plans [AHIP]

Alex Assaley & Daniel Haverkos Named as Delegates to NAPA DC Fly-In Forum
AFS 401[k] Retirement Services

The Segal Group Announces Officer Promotions
The Segal Group

Health Care Service Corporation’s Blue Directions Private Exchange Now Offers Employers Increased Plan Options, Member Support and Transparency Tools
Health Care Service Corporation

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