Retirement Plans Newsletter

July 11, 2017

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Employee Benefits Jobs

Retirement Plan Compliance Analyst QKA
Newport Group
in AL, AZ, CA, FL, IL, KS, MD, MN, NC, NY, TX, VA, WI, Telecommute

Manager, Client Reporting
Newport Group
in NC

Health & Wellness Consultant
International Paper
in TN

Retirement Benefits Consultant
International Paper
in TN

Client Service Analyst II
Bank of America
in NJ

Retirement Plan Consultant
Ascensus
in CA, FL, IN, NC

401(k) Plan Manager (Administration)
Ascensus
in CA

Retirement Plan Administrator
Estate & Pension Advisory Board
in NJ

Tax Law Editor - Employee Benefits Tax and ERISA
Bloomberg BNA
in VA

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Webcasts and Conferences

Leave of Absence and Paid Time Off Issues for Health and Section 125 Plans
RECORDED
Acrisure LLC

Open Enrollment Blueprint: Ways to Up the Game
RECORDED
ConnectYourCare

Documenting Your EBP Audit: What You Need to Know
July 17, 2017 WEBCAST
AICPA

Office of Professional Responsibility: What You Need to Know About Practicing Before the IRS
July 19, 2017 WEBCAST
IRS [Internal Revenue Service]

Paid Family Leave Benefits Are Coming to New York: What Employers Need to Know Now
July 20, 2017 in NY
Nixon Peabody LLP

DOL Informational and Outreach Forum: How to Do It Right the First Time Compliance -- We Can Help
July 26, 2017 in MA
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

College Retirement Plan Compliance in a New Era of Increased Litigation
August 10, 2017 WEBCAST
Williams Mullen

Legislative Update
August 16, 2017 in MO
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - St. Louis Chapter

Health and Welfare Benefit Plans National Institute
September 25, 2017 in VA
American Bar Association Joint Committee on Employee Benefits [JCEB]

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Discussions

New Topics on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

New Comments and Topics

All Topics, Grouped by Forum


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[Guidance Overview]

State-Level Legislation Imposes New Obligations on Financial Institutions, Investment Advisers and Service Providers to 403(b) Plans
"Nevada has enacted legislation that imposes a fiduciary duty on financial institutions and investment advisers rendering investment advice to Nevada-based clients.... [T]he Connecticut legislature has passed a bill requiring service providers for 403(b) plans not covered by ERISA to disclose conflicts-of-interest to a plan's fiduciaries.... Four states (California, Missouri, South Dakota and South Carolina) already impose a fiduciary duty on financial institutions, and the trend is for increased state involvement on this issue[.]"
The Wagner Law Group

[Advert.]

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Action Steps to Protect Your 403(b) Plan
"[I]dentify the written plan document.... What to look for (because the IRS is) ... Plan does not limit contributions ... Improper exclusion of part-time employees ... Wrong definition of compensation ... Failure to timely adopt required amendment[.]"
Ice Miller LLP

Employer Barriers to and Motivations for Offering Retirement Benefits (PDF)
20 pages. "Just over half of the small and midsize businesses surveyed offer a retirement plan; many are more likely to offer paid time off and health plans than retirement benefits.... The likelihood of adding a plan grows fastest in a firm's first few years or as it approaches 75 employees.... Relatively few employers use features known to boost participation and savings in retirement plans; just 32 percent use automatic enrollment, while only 14 percent use automatic escalation of contributions."
The Pew Charitable Trusts

A Primer: Why Financial Wellness? (PDF)
12 pages. "Today, financial wellness programs are increasingly viewed as a critical component of a competitive employer benefits offering ... Nonetheless, some employers continue to struggle with the issue of the programs' cost relative to their effectiveness.... [This paper will] suggest a working definition of financial wellness, survey the nascent body of research surrounding these programs, and highlight some demographic groups where financial wellness programs may be most likely to add significant value."
Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association [DCIIA]

The Folly of Risk and the 401(k) Fiduciary
"[F]inancial professionals are like engineers in the sense they cannot mislead when it comes to the mathematics of investment returns, cash flow analysis, and other material and measurable statistics. Yet this is precisely what the industry has been doing for decades -- and with both implicit academic and direct regulatory support.... What's the one thing 401k plan sponsors can do right now to make sure employee participants don't fall prey to the folly of risk? The easiest thing to do is to remove all reference to 'risk' in the most basic educational materials."
Fiduciary News

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MFS Investment Management Sued Over Claims of Self-Dealing in 401(k) Plans
"In 2015, ... 60 of the plan's 76 funds were proprietary MFS mutual funds, according to the complaint, which also alleges 98% of the plans' investible assets were held in MFS-affiliated investments throughout the relevant time period."
Pensions & Investments

Brown University Sued Over Alleged Breach of Fiduciary Duty in 403(b) Plans
"The university 'consistently selected and retained investment options for the plans that historically and consistently underperformed their benchmarks and charged excessive management fees,' said the lawsuit filed ... by four participants. They are seeking class-action status.... Among their criticisms of plan management, the participants argued the plans have too many investment options."
Pensions & Investments

American Airlines Inks $22M Deal in 401(k) Funds Challenge
"The proposed class action targeted the American Beacon funds in the airline's 401(k) plan, which participants said were overly expensive and 'complete failures in the marketplace.' These funds earned fees for the airline's corporate family and caused the plan to lose tens of millions of dollars in excessive fees and lost earnings, the lawsuit alleged... This $22 million deal ... dwarfs recent settlements in lawsuits against employers that include affiliated investment funds in their 401(k) plans."
Bloomberg BNA

Will New Smart-Beta Strategies Boost Target Date Funds' Performance?
"It's too early to tell whether smart beta will improve investor outcomes. But one thing is certain: No one has overlooked the steady growth in target-date assets, especially actively managed fund companies. Target-date funds often funnel assets to a company's active funds at a time when investors and advisers are fleeing them."
InvestmentNews

Roth 401(k) Contributions May Be Better Than Traditional Pre-Tax 401(k)
"Assume one participant makes 10% traditional pre-tax contributions and another makes 10% Roth 401k contributions for their entire careers. Also, assume that they invest in the same funds and have the same earnings experience. Let's say they both end up with $1 million at retirement. The Roth 401k plan participant truly has $1 million, however, the traditional 401k plan participant has $1 million minus state and federal taxes. A huge difference."
Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants

S&P 1500 Pension Funded Status Decreased by One Percent in June
"As of June 30, 2017, the estimated aggregate deficit of $416 billion represents an increase of $25 billion as compared to the deficit measured at the end of May 2017. The aggregate deficit is up $8 billion from the $408 billion measured at the end of 2016[.]"
Mercer

Retirement Calculators: Three Good Options
"Calculators aren't capable of providing a bullet-proof analysis of the complex factors and future unknowns that will determine whether someone has done the planning and saving required to ensure a financially secure retirement. With that caveat, Squared Away found three calculators ... that do a good job. They met our criteria of being reliable, free, and easy to use. Many other calculators were quickly eliminated, because they were indecipherable or created issues on the first try."
Squared Away Blog, by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

[Opinion]

Why We Need Guaranteed Retirement Income
"Thanks to unionized manufacturing jobs, 61 percent of near-retirees in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were covered by a retirement plan at work during Reagan's first term. The share of covered workers collapsed by 10 percentage points to 51 percent during Obama's second term ... In the rest of the U.S., the share declined by 7 percentage points, from 53 percent to 46 percent."
Teresa Ghilarducci,, via 401K Specialist

[Opinion]

Pension Investment Advisory Fees -- Once High, Now Getting Higher
"The national consulting firms ... indicated they generally maintained only 'published' fee databases, which are of limited utility.... Given the ease with which data regarding fees can be compiled, ... the lack of in-depth fee information might be due, in part, to conflicts of interest in the pension consulting industry. Consultants, eager to maintain favorable relations with money managers (to whom they also sell services) might not be motivated to negotiate with managers too vigorously on behalf of their clients. Client ignorance regarding investment advisory fees permitted greater consultant latitude in negotiating."
Edward Siedle, in Forbes

Benefits in General

The 'Gig Economy' Leaves Some Working Americans Financially Vulnerable
11 pages. "The most talked about benefit of of working part-time is flexibility ... Part-time work also allows people to try a few different jobs before deciding what career they want to pursue full-time ... The downside is that most part-time jobs in the U.S. come with no insurance or retirement savings benefits: Only 32% of part-timers say they receive such benefits compared to 87% of full-time workers."
Guardian

Discussions on
the BenefitsLink Message Boards

Use of Too-High Compensation Amounts in Calculating Profit Sharing Allocation
"Plan compensation is W-2 plus deferrals and excludes fringe. The Employer decided to do a profit sharing for 2016 and calculated the profit sharing on the gross compensation. Most of the 300 participants received the correct profit sharing because their W-2 pay plus deferrals was in fact their gross compensation. About 60 participants had fringe benefits that shouldn't have been counted, so they got a little more than they should have. Trouble? How to fix?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Timely 5500-EZ But Delinquent Schedule SB
"[The business owner in a 1-participant plan] timely filed a 5500-EZ, and the company funded the plan properly. The only problem is no schedule SB was prepared or filed for that year. I would think if the plan were audited, we would get charged the $1,000 for a late schedule SB. Do you think that because the schedule SB is part of the 5500-EZ that we would also be charged $25 per day for a delinquent filing of the 5500-EZ?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Late Corrective Distributions for ADP Failure
"We brought in a new plan in April 2016 and found out in March 2017 that the 2015 ADP refunds were not distributed. In lieu of QNEC, I think the one-to-one correction method (refunding excess contributions too) is going to be the cheapest route for fixing. I cannot find any language in EPCRS language or in the ERISA Outline Book that this is also a QNEC deposit. The EOB just says 'corrected with a contribution.' This correcting contribution is a QNEC, right?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards

DB Plan Terminations; How Are Responsibilities Divided Up?
"For DB plan terminations subject to PBGC requirements, other than for 'small' plans -- let's say 25 or more participants -- what is your experience on the division of responsibilities among the various service-providers?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Press Releases

Advisor Earns Certification in Behavioral Finance
ProCourse Fiduciary Advisors, LLC

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BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9587. Copyright 2017 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. All materials contained in this newsletter are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., or in the case of third party materials, the owner of those materials. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notices from copies of the content.

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