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ERISA Service Desk Specialist
John Hancock Retirement Plan Services
in MA

Client Executive
Transamerica
in MA

Senior Manager, Compliance
Charles Schwab
in AZ, CO

Retirement Service Consultant
Ascensus
in PA

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Controlled Groups & Affiliated Service Groups: What Employers Need to Know
February 9, 2016 WEBCAST
(Cowden Associates, Inc.)

ACA Reporting: Decoding the Codes
February 11, 2016 in NC
(Hill, Chesson & Woody)

5 Steps to Conducting a Successful Recordkeeper Search
February 11, 2016 WEBCAST
(ProCourse Fiduciary Advisors, LLC)

Roth Conversions: Understanding the Rules and When They Make Sense
March 16, 2016 WEBCAST
(ASPPA [American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries])

2016 City Event
November 10, 2016 in KS
(PSCA [Plan Sponsor Council of America])

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[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Proposed Regs: Applicability of Normal Retirement Age Regulations to Governmental Pension Plans
"These proposed regulations would provide guidance with respect to the applicability of the 2007 NRA regulations to governmental plans. These proposed regulations, when finalized, would provide guidance relating to the determination of whether the normal retirement age under a governmental plan satisfies the requirements of section 401(a) by amending the 2007 NRA regulations to provide additional rules for governmental plans. In addition, these proposed regulations would also include a minor change to the 2007 NRA regulations to reflect the addition of section 411(f), which provides a special rule for determining a permissible normal retirement age that applies only to certain defined benefit plans that are not governmental plans." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

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[Official Guidance]

Treasury Department Announcement: Iron Workers Local 17 Applies to Reduce Benefits Under MPRA
"The Board of Trustees of the Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Plan ... has submitted an application to Treasury to reduce benefits under the plan in accordance with the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA). The purpose of this notice is to announce that the application ... has been published on the website of the Department of the Treasury, and to request public comments on the application from interested parties, including contributing employers, employee organizations, and participants and beneficiaries of the Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Plan." (U.S. Treasury Department)  

[Official Guidance]

Treasury Department Announcement: Teamsters Local 469 Applies for Reduction of Benefits Under MPRA
"The Board of Trustees of the Teamsters Local Union No. 469 Pension Plan, a multiemployer pension plan, has submitted an application to Treasury to reduce benefits under the plan in accordance with the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA). The purpose of this notice is to announce that the application ... has been published on the website of the Department of the Treasury, and to request public comments on the application from interested parties, including contributing employers, employee organizations, and participants and beneficiaries of the Teamsters Local 469 Pension Plan." (U.S. Treasury Department)  

DOL Describes Retirement Plan Expansion Proposals, Including Open MEPs
"[The administration is] proposing legislation to allow multiple unrelated employers to come together and form pooled 401(k)s, resulting in lower costs and less burden for each employer. Through these 'open multiple employer plans' (open MEPs), more small businesses should be able to offer cost-effective plans to their employees, while certain nonprofits and other intermediaries could create pooled plans for contractors and other self-employed workers. As an added benefit, employees moving between employers participating in the same open MEP can continue contributing to the same plan -- and receiving employer contributions -- even if they switch jobs. And independent contractors participating in a pooled plan using that structure can contribute no matter which client is paying them." (U.S. Department of Labor [DOL] Blog)  

Obama to Propose Expanding Retirement Plans
"Obama's plan consists of a number of legislative proposals, which he'll outline in the 2017 budget he'll submit to Congress next month. They include: [1] Offering tax credits to small businesses that automatically enroll employees in a 401(k)-style retirement plan; [2] Requiring companies with existing plans to offer them to long-term, part-time workers who work 500 hours a year for three years; and [3] Making it easier for companies to pool their retirement plans to bring down expenses through multiple employer plans. The White House previewed the proposals for reporters Monday but did not immediately reveal their budgetary impact." (USA TODAY)  

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Independent Contractor or Employee? Six Factors to Consider in Making the Classification (PDF)
"The determination of whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor is complex.... [M]any factors can be used to determine the classification and no one 'bright-line rule' exists. Extreme care must be taken by employers and workers to closely examine their relationships." (Ascensus)  

2016 May Bring Changes, from Fiduciary Status to Plan Design
"DOL's proposal includes a much broader definition of fiduciary advice -- or investment advice that would lead to fiduciary status.... [E]ven if you say you aren't a fiduciary, but you make individualized recommendations or generic recommendations specifically directed to a person, then you'll be considered a fiduciary under this new definition." (Vanguard)  

De-Risking and Rescue Plan Petitions Expected to Rise (PDF)
"The continuing demise of single-employer plans may get an even greater push in 2016 as plan sponsors consider the benefits of de-risking in the face of rising plan premiums combined with the realization that participant lump-sum payouts won't be quite the bargain once required mortality-table life expectancy changes take hold in 2017. The year is also likely to include a relative flood of financially struggling multiemployer plans filing petitions with the Treasury Department -- up from the two known filings in 2015 -- saying they needed to cut participants' accrued pension benefits to save their plans from future insolvency." (Keightley & Ashner LLP)  

The Big Bang Theory and Pension Plan Terminations
"Nuclear fission can happen bit by bit over time or can be speeded up with sudden and dramatic results. Working a series of fractional terminations, perhaps leading up to a total termination, allows greater flexibility of timing and financial control for a plan sponsor." (Milliman Retirement Town Hall)  

Supreme Court Reinforces Plaintiffs' High Bar in Employer Stock Drop Cases After Fifth Third v. Dudenhoeffer
"Providing good news to employer stock fund fiduciaries, this case reinforces the high bar the Supreme Court requires under [Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer] for employee stockholders to successfully allege a breach of fiduciary duty by employer fiduciaries due to a failure to remove an employer stock fund from a plan in light of inside information. It also provides clear guidance to lower courts evaluating these cases on how to properly evaluate an employer stock drop complaint in light of standards set out in Fifth Third." [Amgen Inc. v. Harris, No. 15-278 (U.S. Jan. 25, 2016; per curiam)] (Practical Law Company)  

Supreme Court Issues Summary Decision Limiting Claims Against ERISA-Governed ESOPs
"Agreeing that the fiduciary duties applied, the Court nevertheless cautioned that trial courts should be skeptical of claims involving publicly traded stock, doubting that ERISA fiduciary duties should be construed to require fiduciaries to violate the securities laws. Specifically, for claims that involve the failure to respond to inside (that is, non-public) information, the Court explained that 'a plaintiff must plausibly allege an alternative action that the defendant could have taken that would have been consistent with the securities laws and that a prudent fiduciary in the same circumstances would not have viewed as more likely to harm the fund than to help it'. " [Amgen Inc. v. Harris, No. 15-278 (U.S. Jan. 25, 2016; per curiam)] (SCOTUSblog)  

Supreme Court Revisits the Employer Stock Dispute
"[T]he Supreme Court reminded lower courts that it meant what it said when it required plaintiffs to articulate why company stock was an imprudent investment option.... Although Dudenhoeffer and Amgen helpfully (and properly) emphasize the need for a court to carefully review a complaint's allegations to see if its 'plausibly' states a claim for relief, it seems that lower courts have yet to really absorb Dudenhoeffer's meaning." [Amgen Inc. v. Harris, No. 15-278 (S. Ct. Jan. 25, 2016; per curiam)] (Dorsey ERISA)  

DOL Sues ESOP Plan Sponsor Over Company Stock Valuation at Time of Purchase
"The complaint alleges that the ESOP 'overpaid for the company stock' as a result of the defendants' failure to obtain an accurate and current appraisal of the company stock. Defendants are also accused of 'failing to ensure that the independent appraiser of the company stock had accurate and complete financial information; perform a review of the valuation reports prepared by an independent appraiser; and not questioning assumptions underlying the valuation reports.' " (PLANSPONSOR)  

Retirement Plan Sponsors Unsure of Their Fiduciary Obligations
"[T]he larger the assets, the more employers are concerned about meeting fiduciary obligations. In the $25 million to $75 million asset category, 83 percent were a great deal or somewhat concerned; 63 percent were concerned in the $1 million to $25 million categories; and 54 percent in plans with less than $5 million in assets were concerned." (AccountingWEB.com)  

Rising Interest Rates: Weighing the Risk for Retirees Invested in Target Date Funds
11 pages. "TDF investors in or near retirement who begin to draw down their portfolios have a reasonable probability of funding their spending needs over both the short and long term. However, investors in retirement do face three key risks, regardless of the movement of interest rates: the risk of not saving enough; the risk that a large spending need will materialize and compromise their portfolios' viability; and the risk that an unexpected inflationary environment could seriously damage their portfolios." (Vanguard)  

Retirement Planning Using Return Assumptions vs. Return Requirements: A Fiduciary Perspective
"It is now clear that misuse and abuse of asset allocation can increase fiduciary liability ... Can it be that the very process used to generate this asset allocation advice is predicated on input assumptions that also have tenuous reliability? If that's the case, does it remain in the best interest of retirement savers to expose themselves to data output that may be framed -- whether by accident or not -- in a potentially misleading manner?" (Fiduciary News)  

Researchers Revisit Income Replacement Rate Calculation
"The standard calculations may have made sense in an era when preretirement income almost exclusively comprised earnings and when post-retirement income comprised Social Security and defined benefit (DB) pensions. The formula's simplicity and transparency of the concept have contributed to its use.... [D]efined contribution (DC) plans have supplanted most DB plans -- and DC values depend not just on the plan participant's contributions, but also on movements in the markets in which those plans are invested." (PLANSPONSOR)  

Feds Made Fewer Hardship Withdrawals From TSP in 2015
"The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board reported 111,694 hardship withdrawals in 2015, totaling $1.02 billion, compared to 121,389 such withdrawals totaling $1.12 billion by participants in 2014." (Government Executive)  

[Opinion]

State-Sponsored Retirement Programs Must Not Undermine Protections for Workers
"[T]he DOL proposed to exempt from ERISA ... state-sponsored plans for individual retirement accounts (IRAs). These state plans would require employers that do not already offer any retirement program to forward to the plan a state-specified percentage of their workers' salaries.... [T]he DOL proposal undermines a key purpose of ERISA: Congress did not want to impose different state requirements for retirement plans on private sector employers." (The Brookings Institution)  

Research Studies – Proposal Requests: Data Cleansing and Validation For Private Pension Plan Mortality Study and Tables
Society of Actuaries

New Xerox Solution Helps Global Employers Keep Benefits Uniform, Compliant, Cost Effective
Xerox Corporation

Nationally Recognized Pension Reformers Launch New Initiative
Retirement Security Initiative

Alegeus Announces Grand Opening of New, State-of-the-Art Innovation Center in the Orlando Metro Area
Alegeus Technologies, LLC

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