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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Tax Tip 2015-50: How the Health Care Law Affects Aggregated Companies
"The [ACA] applies an approach to common ownership that also applies for other tax and employee benefit purposes. This longstanding rule generally treats companies that have a common owner or similar relationship as a single employer.... If the combined employee total meets the threshold, then each separate company is an applicable large employer. Each company -- even those that do not individually meet the threshold -- is subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions."
(Internal Revenue Service [IRS])
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The Economics of Providing 401(k) Plans: Services, Fees and Expenses, 2014 (PDF)
32 pages. "401(k) plan participants investing in mutual funds tend to hold lower-cost funds.... The expense ratios that 401(k) plan participants incur for investing in mutual funds have declined substantially since 2000.... The downward trend in the expense ratios that 401(k) plan participants incur for investing in mutual funds continued in 2014.... 401(k) plans are a complex employee benefit to maintain and administer, and they are subject to an array of rules and regulations.... Employers and employees generally share the costs of operating 401(k) plans."
(Investment Company Institute [ICI])
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DOL Fiduciary Rule Price Tag: $3.9 Billion for Independent Financial Services Firms
"The study estimates the DOL's proposed rule will cost the independent financial services industry and investors nearly $3.9 billion in total startup costs to implement the rule -- nearly 20 times DOL's preferred cost estimate. This amount does not take into account the cost of investors' lost access to advice or the ongoing costs of maintaining compliance with the rule.... The proposed rule will result in estimated startup costs ranging from $1.1 million to $16.3 million per firm, depending on firm size.... The proposed rule will result in industry consolidation likely to force small broker-dealers out of business." [Also available: an executive summary (6 pages) and the full text of the study (39 pages).]
(Oxford Economics, for Financial Services Institute [FSI])
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DOL's Fiduciary Proposal: Significance for Plan Sponsors
"First, sponsors and sponsor staff may be directly affected, that is, they may themselves in some cases be advice fiduciaries under the proposed rule. Second, sponsors may be affected as direct consumers of advice, when, for instance, they retain a consultant to advise them about which funds to put in a fund menu. Third, sponsors may be affected as indirect consumers of advice, when, for instance, they retain persons (educators, investment advisors or call center operators) to advise their participants.... The third issue -- the effect of the proposal on advice (and education) provided to participants -- is more complex."
(October Three Consulting)
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Why, How and Which Investment Benchmark to Use
"A benchmark should be representative of the investment it is chosen to represent, the asset class. It is imperative to select a benchmark to represent an asset class, not select a benchmark to match an investment.... To properly assess the representativeness of a benchmark a plan sponsor must know how it is constructed."
(Pension Consultants, Inc.)
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Service and Technology Drive TPA Satisfaction (PDF)
"60% of TPAs indicate that they are very satisfied with their primary retirement service provider, providing a score of '7' or '6' for overall satisfaction. In contrast, 13% of TPAs are very dissatisfied with their primary retirement service provider, giving an overall satisfaction score of '3' or below. Relative to past years, the proportion of TPAs rating their overall satisfaction with their primary retirement service provider a '7' or a '6' has declined (60% vs. 67% in 2014 and 68% in 2013)."
(Chatham Partners)
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[Opinion]
Pension Rights Center Comments to PBGC on Partition Rules for Financially Troubled Multiemployer Plans (PDF)
"[These] comments will focus on five issues that bear directly on participants: [1] the content of the participant notices; [2] deficiencies in the required elements of the plan application; [3] the need for the PBGC to provide adequate technical and financial resources to the Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate; [4] whether the statute makes benefit suspensions an absolute prerequisite for partition; and [5] how Title I of ERISA interacts with new Section 4233."
(Pension Rights Center)
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[Opinion]
Vanguard Comment Letters to DOL on Fiduciary Proposal
"[Vanguard] expressed serious concerns that, unless substantially changed, the proposal would limit access to important educational and advisory services for retirement investors, including plan participants. [A] second letter addresses the DOL's proposed prohibited transaction exemptions under ERISA for fiduciaries providing investment advisory services. Vanguard encouraged the DOL to significantly streamline the conditions of the proposed new exemption to allow investors continued access to useful investment products and services."
(Vanguard)
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[Opinion]
American Benefits Council Letter to IRS on Adoption of New Mortality Tables (PDF)
"The SSA data shows actual annual improvement during the 2007-2011 period of just over 1%, as contrasted with SOA's 'projections' for the same period of more than 2% for most ages in the retirement years. For mortality guidance not to take this pattern into account would be concerning, as it would appear to rely more heavily on SOA's projections than on the actual experience reported by the SSA."
(American Benefits Council)
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[Opinion]
Don't Leave Working Americans in the Dark on Retirement Savings
"By far the scariest consequence of the DOL regulation is how it would curtail access to retirement education for middle class savers and potential savers who would benefit most from one-on-one advice. The regulation limits them to 'managed accounts' where financial services firms charge a fee, usually around one percent, based on an account's assets under management.... [T]he minimum balance required for managed accounts at most firms is at least $25,000 ... That would cut off as many as 20 million Americans whose accounts do not reach that threshold from receiving face-to-face retirement advice."
(Rep. Earl L. 'Buddy' Carter [R-GA], Member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives)
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