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AimPoint Pension
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National Project Manager Team Lead - Pension Practice
Towers Watson
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Towers Watson
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Towers Watson
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Pension Retirement Implementation Specialist
Towers Watson
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Lincoln Financial Group
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2016 Pension Update: Change is Constant. Now What?
November 18, 2015 WEBCAST
(Findley Davies, Inc.)

Learn about IRS Top Ethics Concerns & Much More!
December 3, 2015 WEBCAST
(ASC)

Defined Contribution Recordkeeping Fee Models & Fee Benchmarking
December 9, 2015 WEBCAST
(Multnomah Group)

Ethical Considerations for the Employee Benefit Practitioner
December 10, 2015 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

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[Guidance Overview]

2015 Bipartisan Budget Act: Pension Plan Implications (PDF)
"These provisions are intended to 'raise revenue' through higher premiums to the PBGC ... as well as indirectly raise corporate tax revenue through smaller, tax-deductible pension plan contributions.... Sponsors may find that these provisions give them more flexibility to shore up unfunded liabilities over time but that flexibility will come at the steep price of increased PBGC costs now." (P-Solve LLC)  

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Borzi Briefs ERISA Advisory Council on State Plan Guidance, Fiduciary Proposal
" 'In my 40 years of doing this, I never thought I'd see the day we'd have a president giving us direct instructions ...' [on state-run, automatic enrollment IRA programs], Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis Borzi told the ERISA Advisory Council Nov. 3-4.... State efforts are currently paused because of arguments that they're preempted by ERISA -- and Borzi said she believes the courts should be the ultimate arbiter -- but the president directed the department to create guidance to help the states figure out what they might be able to do without triggering ERISA preemption." (National Tax-Deferred Savings Association [NTSA])  

Fiduciary Case Against Novant Health Settles Early for $32 Million
"Defendants have agreed to pay $32 million and have agreed to very significant affirmative relief. Counsel for the plaintiff's will seek no more than $10,666,666 in attorney's fees and $95,000 in costs.... [T]he early settlement of this case suggests that the plan fiduciaries were engaging in conduct that did not meet the stringent standards of ERISA. While the allegations of real estate deals and money payments are dramatic, the fiduciary of the average plan can look to this lawsuit and settlement as an example that ERISA requires you to act in the best interest of plan participants at all times." (Fiduciary Matters Blog)  

Will New DOL Rule Contain Fiduciary Surprise for 401(k) Recordkeepers?
"[R]ecordkeepers will probably be less likely to refer sponsors to financial advisors when asked for fear their referral will be considered investment advice. That would be unfortunate.... [One recordkeeper is] concerned with the impact of the proposal on ... web based planning tools. Under current DOL rules advice that is not individualized to a person is not considered fiduciary. Under the proposal any communication that is specifically directed to a person can be considered fiduciary, which would include these targeted communications on the web as well as any phone call, e-mail, letter, or other communication directed to a specific person." (Fiduciary News)  

The Full Picture on DB Plan Partial Buyouts
"Unless a buyout is paired with a hibernation strategy, the sponsor may spend time and money arriving at an outcome that leaves a lot of pension risk unmanaged. A hard look at these different de-risking strategies suggests that the lion's share of pension risk can be eliminated by simply changing asset allocation." (NISA Investment Advisors; free registration required)  

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What's The Right 401(k) Contribution Rate?
"It is often not until our 30's that we begin to think about funding our retirements. At that point, most of us contribute the minimum required to receive the maximum employer match.... Most participants ... feel they can fix it by contributing much more during their latter years to make up the difference.... [T]he contribution rate they would need to average during the final 10 years of their careers (to average 15% for 40 years) is 36%!" (Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants)  

Best Practices for Portfolio Rebalancing (PDF)
16 pages. "[F]or most broadly diversified stock and bond fund portfolios (assuming reasonable expectations regarding return patterns, average returns, and risk), annual or semiannual monitoring, with rebalancing at 5% thresholds, is likely to produce a reasonable balance between risk control and cost minimization for most investors. Annual rebalancing is likely to be preferred when taxes or substantial time/costs are involved." (Vanguard)  

Robo-Advisors Squeeze Advisor Profits, Not Fees
"[T]he latest industry benchmarking data shows no sign at all that advisors are cutting their AUM fees to compete against robo-advisors.... [R]obo-advisors provide a very limited scope of 'advice', essentially focused on the construction of an asset-allocated portfolio based on the investor's time horizon. By contrast, advisors are increasingly focused on a wider range of comprehensive financial planning services.... [In] the coming years, the real growing pressure on advisory firms may not be cutting fees to compete against robo-advisor pricing head-to-head, but declining profit margins as advisors reinvest into the value-added financial planning services necessary to defend their existing 1% AUM fee!" (Michael Kitces in Nerd's Eye View)  

Characteristics of Mutual Fund Investors, 2015 (PDF)
24 pages. "Employer-sponsored retirement plans increasingly are the gateway to mutual fund ownership. Sixty-seven percent of mutual fund-owning households that purchased their first fund in 2010 or later purchased that fund through an employer-sponsored retirement plan, compared with 57 percent of those that made their first purchase before 1990. In mid-2015, 40 percent of mutual fund-owning households owned funds both inside and outside employer-sponsored retirement plans. An additional 40 percent owned mutual funds only inside employer-sponsored retirement plans." (Investment Company Institute [ICI])  

Ownership of Mutual Funds, Shareholder Sentiment, and Use of the Internet, 2015 (PDF)
44 pages. "In mid-2015, 44.1 percent of U.S. households owned shares of mutual funds or other U.S.-registered investment companies -- including exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and unit investment trusts -- representing an estimated 54.9 million households and 93.1 million investors.... Most U.S. mutual fund shareholders had moderate household incomes and were in their peak earning and saving years.... Mutual fund owners reported that investment performance was the most influential of the many factors that shaped their opinions of the fund industry." (Investment Company Institute [ICI])  

Corporate Pension Funded Status Improves by $25 Billion in October
"The funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans improved by $25 billion during October ... The deficit fell to $287 billion from $312 billion at the end of September ... As of October 31, the funded ratio climbed to 83.3% from 81.7% at the end of September." (Milliman)  

Liquidity, Mortality, and Early Social Security Claiming
"Detailed tax return data for 1999 to 2011 suggest that most of those who claimed Social Security before the full retirement age had sufficient liquid assets to delay Social Security benefits until full retirement age. About a third of this group had [IRA] assets equal to at least two years of average Social Security benefits.... [I]ndividuals may be exploiting information about their own health; those who choose early benefits have worse self-reported health, think that their life expectancy will be shorter, and are more likely to die earlier than those who claim later." (National Bureau of Economic Research [NBER])  

[Opinion]

The Inefficiencies of Existing Retirement Savings Incentives (PDF)
18 pages. "The growing retirement crisis results, in part, from inefficient savings incentives embedded in the U.S. tax code.... [E]xisting savings incentives can be overwhelming and incredibly complex.... [S]avings incentives often benefit higher-income earners more than middle- and lower-income earners.... [E]ven as the savings incentives fail to prepare households adequately for retirement, the public loses out on increasingly large amounts of tax revenue that otherwise would have been collected without these tax breaks.... This issue brief will illustrate the link between the retirement crisis and savings incentives and further examine several key elements within this relationship[.]" (Christian E. Weller and Teresa Ghilarducci, for the Center for American Progress)  

[Opinion]

IT Projects in the Retirement Industry: Challenges with Budgets, Timeline and Resources (PDF)
"In the U.S. retirement industry, ... [p]rojects related to upgrading or replacing core applications like record keeping systems and other plan administration applications [often] have failed to deliver the planned business cases. In most of the cases, one common reason behind all budget overruns and project failures is lapse in factoring all critical cost drivers." (Altaf Darzi)  

Transcript of Oral Argument Before the Supreme Court on Tracing Requirement for Equitable Recovery of Overpayments by ERISA Plans (PDF)
"[Chief Justice Roberts, to counsel for Petitioner Montanile:] I'm just wondering if the solution you're advocating is going to make life a lot more complicated and expensive for the funds, which is, of course, contrary to the idea of preserving the assets.... [Chief Justice Roberts, to counsel for Respondent Health Plan:] It has to be pretty easy for you to protect yourself, doesn't it, at soon as at some suitable time after the injury you do write a letter to the person and say, look, you need to know that if you sue somebody, the money is ours, and because we have these rights of subrogation, or let us know if you're going to, and we'll show up in court with you and ... help you? ... I think your friend has ... a significant point that it's actually not as hard as it might appear." [Bd. of Trustees of the National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan v. Montanile, No. 14-11678 (11th Cir. Nov. 25, 2014; oral arg. Nov. 9, 2015)] (Supreme Court of the United States)  

Supreme Court Justices Hear ERISA Case on Equitable Remedies
"[U]nder Court precedent, if there is no tangible asset for which to the plaintiff to easily recognize and lay claim to recognizably, there can be no lien. Here, Montanile used all the funds on normal day-to-day living and for daycare expenses for his daughter. There were no tangible and identified assets that were available when the plan filed its suit.... The effect of this case could reach the other plans including Social Security payments and disability payments." [Bd. of Trustees of the National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan v. Montanile, No. 14-11678 (11th Cir. Nov. 25, 2014; oral arg. Nov. 9, 2015)] (Talk Radio News Service)  

Is Your Benefits Communication Reaching Your Millennial Employees?
"When it comes to benefits information, the challenge ... has become how to provide the same tech-centric and customer-friendly user experience that millennials have come to expect as everyday consumers.... Effective communication ... involves creativity and revitalizing older strategies: Make information available anytime, anywhere ... Speak to each individual, not the group ... Offer benefits they value ... Don't just talk...listen ... Encourage interaction." (Frenkel Benefits)  

Prudential Investment Management to Change its Name to PGIM
Prudential Financial, Inc.

SIFMA’s Board of Directors Announces Newly Elected Officers
SIFMA [Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association]

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