ASPPA

Employee Benefits Attorney
Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP
in FL

Regional Sales Consultant, Retirement Plans
United Retirement Plan Consultants
in NJ

Client Relationship Associate
Alliance Benefit Group of Michigan, Inc.
in MI

Implementation Consultant
T. Rowe Price
in CO, MD

Retirement Service Consultants
Ascensus
in NJ, PA

Client Relationship Manager
Goldleaf Partners
in IA, KS, NE

Retirement Plan Administrator
Prime Pensions, Inc.
in NJ

Sr Operations Investment Analyst
T. Rowe Price
in MD

Post Your Job

View All Jobs

RSS Feed: All Jobs

Employer Provided Vehicles – How and What to Report for Federal Tax Purposes
RECORDED
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

Taxability of Fringe Benefits - Part 1: What Is A Fringe Benefit and When Is It Taxable?
RECORDED
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

Affordable Care Act: A View From the Top
September 29, 2015 WEBCAST
(American Bar Association [ABA])

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Official Guidance]

Text of PBGC Interest Rate Update for October and Fourth Quarter 2015
"The fourth quarter 2015 interest assumptions under the allocation regulation will be 2.46 percent for the first 20 years following the valuation date and 2.98 percent thereafter. In comparison with the interest assumptions in effect for the third quarter of 2015, these interest assumptions represent no change in the select period (the period during which the select rate (the initial rate) applies), an increase of 0.14 percent in the select rate, and an increase of 0.68 percent in the ultimate rate (the final rate). The October 2015 interest assumptions under the benefit payments regulation will be 1.25 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 September 2015, these interest assumptions are unchanged." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])  

[Advert.]

A Revolutionary New Resource.

ERISApedia.com is an Online Compliance Library with real-time updates. Our robust platform offers outstanding search tools and an intuitive interface. Quickly find answers to your ERISA questions. Free Trial - Sign up or email sales@ERISApedia.com.

[Guidance Overview]

2015 Q&As: PBGC Meeting with ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, May 6, 2015 (PDF)
25 pages; 43 questions and answers. Topics include: PBGC coverage; standard terminations; guaranteed benefits; Section 430(k) liens; PBGC reporting; enforcement under ERISA Sections 4062(3), 4063 and 4064; early warning program; multiemployer plan issues; litigation; and informal guidance from 2015 Blue Book. (Joint Committee on Employee Benefits [JCEB], American Bar Association)  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Creates Permanent Form 5500 Penalty Relief Program for Non-ERISA Plans
"New to the permanent program is the creation of an IRS form to replace the informal 'transmittal schedule' that was previously required to accompany any submission made under the terms of the program.... The rather simple, one-page Form 14704 must be completed and, in the event of multiple late forms being included with a single submission, attached to the oldest delinquent return included with such submission.... [A]lso new to the program is the assessment of a fee in order to obtain the relief available under Rev. Proc. 15-32." (Legacy Retirement Solutions)  

Text of Ninth Circuit Opinion Clarifying Factors for Determining Successor Liability for Construction Industry Employer (PDF)
35 pages. "Agreeing with the Seventh Circuit, the panel held that ... the most important factor in assessing whether an employer is a successor for purposes of withdrawal liability is whether there was substantial continuity in the business operations between the predecessor and the successor, as determined in large part by whether the new employer has taken over the economically critical bulk of the prior employer's customer base.... The panel held that the district court erred in weighing continuity of the workforce as the most important factor, and, moreover, applied an incorrect test to determine whether there was continuity of the workforce." [Resilient Floor Covering Pension Trust Fund Bd. of Trs. v. Michael's Floor Covering, No. 12-17675 (9th Cir. Sept. 11, 2015) (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit)  

GAO Identifies Reasons Most Plan Sponsors Use TDFs as QDIA
"Plan sponsors interviewed by the GAO said they chose their QDIA type because it best fit the age distribution of their participant population. In one case, the sponsor stated that the age demographics of the plan's participants ranged from 21 to 71, so it believed TDFs best fit the wide spectrum of participant ages.... Plan sponsors who selected off-the-shelf TDFs as their QDIA said these products have a simple design, provide age-based asset allocations at a low cost, and create appropriate retirement outcomes for participants who have little interest in investing and tended not to change their investment selections over time." (planadviser)  

Fiduciary Education Considerations
"Rumor has it that regulatory exams of retirement plans continue to include explicit questions about whether a formal education program exists and, if it does, what it contains.... Some have suggested that formalizing a training requirement makes sense, adding that guidelines can demonstrate good faith and thereby serve as a defense in the event that a lawsuit is filed against investment fiduciaries down the road. Others counter that too much specificity may not allow for changes in circumstances or be inadequate to the multiple tasks of selecting advisors for more than one specialized asset class or strategy." (Pension Risk Matters)  

An ESOP Can Lead to More Productive, Satisfied Employees
"ESOPs are a popular exit strategy for many company owners. While there are pros and cons with an ESOP just as there are with other exit strategies, most companies are suitable candidates.... The ESOP also provides retirement proceeds to participants that often exceed those of traditional plans, such as a 401(k). In fact, it isn't uncommon for the benefit to be more than double that of a traditional retirement plan." (Moss Adams LLP)  

It's Time for Advisers to Become QDIA Experts
"Advisers face a daunting fiduciary task, given the sheer number of options in the QDIA marketplace. Within each QDIA type -- balanced or risk-based funds, target date funds and managed accounts -- there are a growing number of providers to consider, with more than 50 distinct strategies in the target date fund universe alone. While ample time and consideration has been spent evaluating record-keeper suitability, the QDIA decision has often been an afterthought." (Investment News)  

Is Your Adviser Truly Protecting Your Retirement?
"There are, of course, many retirement advisers who put their clients' best interest first, regardless of whether they technically fall under the fiduciary standard. But there is growing concern that investors, many of whom may be retiring soon, will be heavily solicited to roll money out of lower-cost workplace plans and into higher-cost investment products.... There's a lot of pressure on the administration to delay any rulemaking. But Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said it's not a question of if but when." (The Washington Post; subscription may be required)  

Couples' and Singles' Savings After Retirement
"[The authors] model the saving problem of retired couples and singles facing uncertain longevity and medical expenses in presence of means-tested social insurance.... [They] then evaluate the relative importance of the various savings motives and the risk exposure of couples versus singles." (University of Michigan Retirement Research Center)  

Evaluate a Potential IRA Trustee Using These 15 Questions
"In most cases, an IRA owner who names a trust as the beneficiary of their IRA names either the spouse or a child as the trustee of the trust. This may not be the best option, especially if they cannot answer the 15 questions [in this article]." (Slott Report)  

[Opinion]

FINRA Seeks the Death of the Fiduciary's Duty of Loyalty
"[U]pon close inspection, FINRA's proposal demonstrates FINRA's continued inability to substantially raise the standards of conduct of brokers to the highest levels ... [A table summarizes] the flaws in SIFMA's and FINRA's recent 'best interests' proposals and demonstrate why SIFMA's proposed changes to FINRA's suitability rule do not come even close to the protections provided by the fiduciary standard:" (Ron Rhoades)  

[Guidance Overview]

2015 Q&As: IRS Meeting with ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, May 8, 2015 (PDF)
19 pages. Includes questions on plan loans, compensation definition, Form 2848, target benefit plans, rollovers to IRA, hardship definition, safe harbor plans, 401(k) testing, 415 limits, 457 plan deferral of sick leave, VEBA benefit valuation, 4980H measurement methods, and Form 1095-C reporting. (Joint Committee on Employee Benefits [JCEB], American Bar Association)  

Third Circuit: Benefit Denial Notice Must Include Plan-Imposed Deadline for Filing Suit
"Other courts have enforced a plan-imposed limitations period disclosed in a plan's [SPD] even if it was not specified in the denial notice ... [I]ncluding the plan-imposed limitations period in denial notices is easy to do and clearly notifies claimants of the deadline, increasing the likelihood that a reasonable plan-imposed limitations period will be enforced. And doing so now appears to be expressly required in the Third Circuit, as well as the First and Sixth Circuits." (Thomson Reuters / EBIA)  

Include the SOL in Your Benefit Denial Letter (or You'll Be SOL)
"[T]he Third Circuit considered whether a health plan's one-year SOL provision time-barred a lawsuit filed almost 19 months after the claimant exhausted the plan's administrative claims and appeals procedure.... It is a 'trivial burden on plan administrators,' the Mirza court explained, 'to require them to inform claimants of deadlines for judicial review in the documents claimants are most likely to actually read -- adverse benefit determinations.' " (Morgan Lewis)  

IRS Provides Guidance on Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation Plan Audits
"[T]he Audit Guide provides a reminder that a 401(k) plan may not condition, directly or indirectly, any other benefit with the exception of matching contributions, upon the employee's electing to make or not to make 401(k) under the arrangement. For example, the IRS will be looking for provisions in the NQDC Plan that Limits the total amount that can be deferred between the NQDC plan and the Company's 401(k) plan, or States that participation is limited to employees who elect not to participate in the 401(k) plan. In either of these plan provisions are found in the audit, the examiner is instructed to contact the Employee Plans division of the IRS that oversees 401(k) and other qualified plans. The rest, they say, can be history." (The Retirement Plan Blog)  

Mike Guarasci Joins ICMA-RC as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
ICMA-RC

Ted Godbout Joins DCIIA as Director of Communications
Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association [DCIIA]

View All Press Releases