Retirement Plan Coordinator
Benefits Administrators, LLC
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John Hancock Retirement Plan Services
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Excess Contributions Three-Part Series - Session 1: IRA Excesses
December 1, 2015 WEBCAST
(PenSys, Inc.)

How to Calculate the Cost of a Data Breach and How to Get the Budget for Your HIPAA-HITECH Compliance Program
December 3, 2015 WEBCAST
(Clearwater Compliance)

Excess Contributions Three-Part Series - Session 2: SEP and SIMPLE Excesses
December 3, 2015 WEBCAST
(PenSys, Inc.)

Employee Plans - Examinations Update – Fall 2015
December 8, 2015 WEBCAST
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

How to Mature Your Information Risk Management Program
December 8, 2015 WEBCAST
(Clearwater Compliance)

Excess Contributions Three-Part Series - Session 3: QP and 403(b) Excesses
December 9, 2015 WEBCAST
(PenSys, Inc.)

How to Implement a Strong, Proactive HIPAA Business Associate Risk Management Plan
December 10, 2015 WEBCAST
(Clearwater Compliance)

How to Develop Your HIPAA HITECH Policies and Procedures
December 17, 2015 WEBCAST
(Clearwater Compliance)

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Today's Discussions on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

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Alvin D. Lurie Dies at 92 (PDF)
We report with great sadness the death of Alvin D. "Al" Lurie yesterday (Nov. 17). Most recently associated with the Wagner Law Group, Al's career spanned decades of service in the employer-sponsored retirement plan arena. He was the first person to be appointed Assistant Commissioner (Employee Plans and Exempt Organizations) under ERISA, a prolific author, an AV-rated attorney in private practice, and a Charter Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. The funeral will be tomorrow (Nov. 19) at Larchmont Temple in Larchmont, New York. Al will be greatly missed. (BenefitsLink)  

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[Guidance Overview]

DOL Publishes Interpretive Bulletin and Proposed Safe Harbor Regulation for State-Sponsored Retirement Savings Plans
"In the DOL's view, [the three state arrangements described in Interpretive Bulletin 2015-02] would not be preempted by ERISA because they do not mandate any employee benefit structures or administration, they do not provide any alternate enforcement mechanisms to an ERISA plan, and they do not force employers or plan fiduciaries to choose any particular program or preclude uniform administrative practices.... The DOL cautions, however, that in order to avoid ERISA preemption, a state enacting such an arrangement must avoid establishing standards or remedies that would be inconsistent with ERISA and may not require employers to participate in the arrangement or mandate the adoption of any particular plan by an employer." (The Wagner Law Group)  

[Guidance Overview]

DOL Issues Guidance for State-Run Retirement Plans (PDF)
"The DOL does not feel that permitting states to coordinate MEP arrangements violates its longstanding principle that multiple employer plans must be made up of entities that have common interests, such as common ownership or common purpose. The DOL cites states' ties 'to the contributing employers and their employees by a special representational interest in the health and welfare of its citizens' as the apparent commonality or authority for circumventing the commonality issue. The DOL further states, 'The state is standing in the shoes of the employer in sponsoring the plan.' " (Ascensus)  

[Guidance Overview]

DOL Proposes Safe Harbor and Issues Interpretive Bulletin on State-Based Savings Programs
"The proposed regulation does not address several important issues that may raise implementation questions and concerns for employers operating in states that offer SSPs, including [w]hether employees that participate in the SSP must be: employed within the state that establishes the SSP; residents of that state; or employed by employers doing business within that state. The DOL is soliciting comments on whether the safe harbor should be limited to require some connection between the employers and employees covered by the program and the state that establishes the program." (Practical Law Company)  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Publishes Final Hybrid Plan Regs
"The new regulations do not change or expand permissible interest crediting rates. The prescribed transitional corrections are specifically tailored to a particular compliance failure of a plan's current interest crediting rate. Generally two or more alternatives are offered for each category of compliance failure, and the new regulations expressly allow rounding of annual and less frequently determined interest rates, within prescribed parameters." (Morgan Lewis)  

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[Guidance Overview]

IRS Issues Final Regs Providing Anti-Cutback Relief and Guidance for Hybrid Retirement Plans
"[T]he final regulations provide anti-cutback relief by permitting a plan with a noncompliant interest crediting rate to be amended: [1] For benefits that have already accrued so that its interest crediting rate complies with the market rate of return rules. [2] Only for interest credits credited for periods that begin on or after the later of the effective date of the amendment or the date the amendment is adopted." (Practical Law Company)  

2016 Annual Compliance Review for 401(k) Plan Administration (PDF)
"[T]his Annual Plan Compliance Review form [summarizes] many of the most important fiduciary responsibilities related to 401(k) plan administration. This review will focus on two key areas: [1] Document Retention -- the process of maintaining critical plan documentation in order to prove plan's compliance with the law; and [2] Major Plan Administration Tasks -- tasks that must be performed annually to keep plan in compliance with the law." (Employee Fiduciary LLC)  

Employers Actually CAN Resolve America's Retirement Crisis
"Prompt employees to run a retirement projection at least annually.... Auto-enroll employees at a 10% deferral rate.... Auto-enroll in auto-escalation as well.... Offer Benefits Planning Programs.... Target your communications.... Develop a comprehensive Financial Wellness program." (Liz Davidson, via LinkedIn)  

The 2014 and 2015 Mortality Improvement Scales: Mortality Meets Volatility
"MP-2014 moves away from simpler, less sophisticated improvement scales that change infrequently in favor of: [1] More complex mortality improvement scales that depend heavily on recent data [and] [2] Frequent adjustments to recent data. The combination of these two factors greatly increases the uncertainty of mortality's impact on plan liabilities from year to year. Now sponsors already contending with investment and interest rate volatility are faced with another challenge, one that can be neither avoided nor hedged -- mortality volatility!" (The Principal Blog)  

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Everybody Gives. Everybody Gets.

Each year the GSM Marketing Creative Team designs an interactive holiday ecard. We customize it for any company to use with absolutely no fee to us. The "cost" is a donation to the food bank or shelter in your town. That's it! Preview the card here and join the Holiday Card Project.

The New Best Practices for Company Stock in DC Plans
"For plan fiduciaries who do continue to offer a company stock option, ... a number of actions ... are being taken in order to ensure that plan participants are protected and, by extension, that the likelihood of a lawsuit is minimized. These include plan design features to guard against over-allocation, and ensuring that descriptions of the option -- in plan documents and employee communications -- are unambiguous and accurate.... And there may be a formal definition of what would determine a 'special circumstance' in which the market price may not be relied upon as a reasonable measure of stock value." (Russell Investments)  

A 403(b) Collective Trust? A Note of Caution
"Two issues need to be addressed regarding a 403(b) plan's purchase of the CITs of the sort that are typically sold to 401(k) plans.... Code Section 403(b) only permits investments in mutual funds and annuity contracts.... [T]he problem is that the typical CIT is NOT a mutual fund registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, and the interest which is being purchased is therefore not a mutual fund share ... [E]ven if you could do share accounting and overcome the legal and logistical challenges of making this work for the Section 403(b) rules ... 403(b) investments do not qualify for the exemptions from registration under the Investment Company Act or the Securities Act of 1933, while 401(a) plans do enjoy that exemption." (Robert Toth, via NTSA Net)  

PBGC Annual Report: Nearly $6 Billion in Pension Benefits Paid to Retirees in FY 2015
"The [PBGC] released its Annual Report, showing the agency paid $5.7 billion to more than 800,000 people in failed pension plans, similar to the amount of payments PBGC made in FY 2014. PBGC also continued its high standard of customer service with a retiree satisfaction score of 91.... PBGC's multiemployer insurance program reported a negative net position or 'deficit' of $52.3 billion, compared with $42.4 billion last fiscal year-end. The larger deficit is due to changes in interest factors that increased multiemployer program liabilities.... The single-employer program deficit increased to $24.1 billion, up from $19.3 billion reported in the previous year." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])  

PBGC Posts Record Deficit for FY2015
"The deficit racked up by the federal agency that insures pensions for about 40 million Americans has increased 23 percent to $76.4 billion. The agency's program for so-called multi-employer pension plans continues to account for a large share of the deficit, $52.3 billion.... The deficit reported Tuesday for the year ended Sept. 30 was the widest in the 41-year history of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. It has now run shortfalls for 13 straight years." (The Washington Post; subscription may be required)  

Who Benefits from the U.S. Retirement System? (PDF)
40 pages. "[T]his study shows that the benefits of tax deferral are proportionately higher for higher-earning workers.... [T]he benefits of the Social Security system are proportionately higher for workers with lower lifetime earnings.... For the higher-paid workers analyzed in this study, tax deferral affects when taxes are paid more than it affects the total amount of taxes paid over a lifetime. For these workers, increased taxes during retirement offset, in present value, more than half of the reduction in taxes enjoyed while working." (Investment Company Institute [ICI])  

Confidence and Reality Often at Odds When Planning for Retirement
"[J]ust over half of pre-retirees (age 50 to 75 with at least $100,000 in household investable assets) are confident in their retirement security based on their self-assessed ability to manage finances (62 percent) and the expectation of living modestly in retirement (59 percent).... [O]nly 20 percent actually have a formal retirement plan and less than 40 percent have done basic planning activities, such as calculating what their assets, income, and expenses will be in retirement." (LIMRA)  

Schools and Teachers Being Asked to Carry a Large and Growing Pension Burden
"[O]n average across state pension plans that cover public educators, over 10 percent of salaries for new workers are being collected and used to pay down previously accrued pension liabilities. To say this another way, it is as if teachers' retirement contributions are subject to a 10 percent management fee that they personally do not benefit from. This is a deep deficit that makes accumulating net wealth over the long term very difficult.... The fact that teacher pension plans have been carrying substantial debt for an extended period of time, and the debt remained even after an unusually long period of sustained economic growth (through 2007), suggests that this is a structural problem, not a momentary aberration." (The Brookings Institution)  

[Opinion]

Industry Questions Wisdom of Latest PBGC Rate Hikes
"[Art Scalise, Managing Actuary at Cammack Retirement Group,] has been in his role at Cammack for nearly three years, after spending 16 years working at Aon Hewitt ... Throughout that time the PBGC has slowly shifted from being perceived as an ally of the DB system to a major obstacle to its survival....  'What's going to happen when interest rates start to rise for real and the liability the PBGC is reporting starts to dwindle significantly?' he asks. 'What happens if rates rise enough to get plans close to 100% funding, what are you going to do with any excess monies? Do they refund it? Do they give credits to the plans somewhat? We don't know what they will do.' " (PLANSPONSOR)  

[Opinion]

The Pension Coalition Fights to Stop PBGC Premium Increases
"[On Nov. 17,] a letter with signatures from more than 100 companies, including members of the Pension Coalition, was sent to Congress, expressing outrage and concern over recent increases to PBGC premiums. The letter urges lawmakers to protect job-creators, workers, retirees, and their retirement security by opposing any further increases in premiums paid to the PBGC by sponsors of single-employer defined benefit plans." (The ERISA Industry Committee [ERIC])  

Evidence on Defined Contribution Health and Retirement Benefits: The Road Ahead (PDF)
"For more than a quarter-century now, most private-sector American workers who have a retirement plan at work have funded it primarily through their own contributions -- and do not have a traditional pension funded exclusively by the employer.... While the majority of private-sector health benefit costs historically have been paid by employers, that may be starting to change with the advent of 'defined contribution' health plans that cap employers' health costs. These trends have major implications for the American work force, the U.S. health care system, and even economic security in the nation." (Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI])  

Reporting Requirements for Executive Benefit Plans (PDF)
"Sponsors of unfunded top-hat plans meeting IRS requirements must report only: [1] Name, address, and employer identification number (EIN). [2] That the employer's plan primarily provides nonqualified deferred compensation to a select group of management or highly compensated employees. [3] The number of plans and the number of employees in each. This statement must be filed within 120 days after the plan becomes subject to ERISA. Once the statement is filed, no other reporting is required unless the DOL requests plan documents. However, if the statement misses the deadline, the plan is subject to an annual filing requirement. A plan that fails to satisfy top-hat plan requirements will also be subject to ERISA in its entirety." (Lockton)  

[Opinion]

American Benefits Council Comment Letter to IRS on Changes to Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plans -- Form 5500 Series (PDF)
"[M]any of the changes described in the Notice and subsequent release of the draft Form 5500-EZ involve new or significantly changed questions and our members find many of them to be ambiguous. This ambiguity will require additional guidance before companies can implement the changes. Changes of this nature will need significant systems changes so it will be very difficult to implement them properly if required for the 2015 plan year. In fact, our members have indicated these thousands of forms will require development of a manual process after the additional guidance is issued, which will greatly increase the likelihood of mistakes as well as increase the costs." (American Benefits Council)  

IRI Recognizes Senator Isakson and Senator Murphy for Commitment to Retirement Security
Insured Retirement Institute [IRI]

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Selects Wellness Workdays to Conduct $1.3 Million Worksite Wellness Study with BJ's Wholesale Club
Wellness Workdays

MassMutual Announces Acquisition of Viability Advisory Group
MassMutual

OneAmerica Names Vice President to Lead Employee Benefits Sales
OneAmerica Financial Partners

Lockton’s New Parental Leave Policy a Way to Keep New Parents
Lockton

ECFC Launches My Money, My Health to Combat Cadillac Tax
ECFC [Employers Council on Flexible Compensation]

DOL Files Suit Seeking Restoration of Plan Assets to Health, Welfare Plan and Retirement Plan of Union in Windsor Mill, Maryland
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

Judgment Requires Company President to Restore Losses to Kinetic Solutions ESOP Plan in White Bear Lake, Minnesota
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

RedBrick Health Integrates Advanced Well-Being Platform into Towers Watson’s Private Exchange for Employers
RedBrick Health

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