Employee Benefits Jobs
|
Webcasts and Conferences
Health Plan Due Diligence for Mergers & Acquisitions
August 29, 2017 in TX
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Dallas Chapter
Structuring and Negotiating Executive Compensation Packages: Addressing Pay, Severance, Restrictive Covenants
September 19, 2017 WEBCAST
Strafford
Regional Employee Benefits Forum
September 27, 2017 in GA
Southeast Benefits Education Network [SBEN]
New Trustees Institute—Level II: Concepts in Practice
October 21, 2017 in NV
International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP]
28th Annual Benefits Compliance Conference
November 2, 2017 in TX
SouthWest Benefits Association
Ultimate Cash Balance Seminar
November 2, 2017 in IL
DATAIR Employee Benefit Systems, Inc.
Certificate Program for Non-Professional Fiduciaries
February 11, 2018 in CA
Beyster Institute
View All Webcasts and Conferences
Post Your Event
|
Discussions
|
Subscribe Now to This Newsletter (free)
We also
publish the BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter (free):
Subscribe Now
|
|
|
[Guidance Overview]
The Final Rule: DOL Issues Fourth Set of FAQs
"The FAQs leave open the possibility that, if service providers update 408b-2 disclosures currently to describe service or other changes, they may need to update those disclosures again after January 1 to expressly use the 'fiduciary' term ... The FAQs do not appear to address the case of a service provider that was an unintended 'functional' fiduciary under prior law."
Eversheds Sutherland, via Lexology
|
[Guidance Overview]
DOL Issues FAQs Clarifying Required Fiduciary Status Disclosures Under ERISA Section 408(b)(2)
"The FAQs provide examples of communications that would not be considered fiduciary investment advice, including: [1] A plan enrollment brochure stating that participants should consider saving a certain percentage of their pay. [2] A targeted email suggesting that a participant increase his or her contributions by a certain percentage to reach a specific savings goal. [3] A targeted email sent during a participant's birth month suggesting that a participant contribute a certain amount based on the amount that the participant has already saved in the plan."
Thomson Reuters Practical Law
|
Dalbar Puts a Sellers' Exemption to Fiduciary Rule on DOL's Desk
"In comment letters to the DOL, Empower Retirement and attorneys at Davis & Harmon are among those calling for a so-called sellers' exemption, which would distinguish one-time sales of investments by brokers and insurance agents from fiduciary advice. In its comment letter, Dalbar goes further, and actually submits a proposed sales professional exemption. At its heart, the proposed exemption ... would prohibit brokers and insurance agents from marketing themselves as fiduciaries, something many fiduciary proponents say the [SEC] should have been doing all along."
ThinkAdvisor
|
[Advert.]
Reforms, Regulations & Retirement Realities

This October the nation's retirement industry elite will converge at ASPPA Annual, in our nation's capital, with insights from industry insiders, regulators, pundits and the nation's leading voices. Join us!
|
Robo-Advisers: More Complex Than They May Appear (PDF)
"What is a robo-adviser? ... How are robo-advisers regulated? ... What special challenges do robo-advisers confront in satisfying their disclosure obligations? ... Can robo-advisers satisfy their fiduciary duties to their clients? ... Are robo-advisers operating unregistered investment companies? ... Can robo-advisers satisfy their compliance responsibilities?"
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, via Bloomberg Law Securities Regulation & Law Report
|
Income for Life: Using Deferred Income Annuities in Retirement
"Deferred income annuities (DIAs) can help you insure against the possibility of outliving your assets in retirement. DIAs can offer the same level of benefits after the deferral period as immediate annuities for a much smaller up-front payment. DIAs generally aren't liquid so you can't withdraw their value as cash, but knowing that you'll get a guaranteed income for life could free you to keep more of your other savings invested."
Charles Schwab
|
Corporate Pension Funded Status Improves in July (PDF)
"The funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans increased by $4 billion during July ... The funded status deficit declined to $282 billion from $286 billion at the end of June due to strong July investment gains.... As of July 31, the funded ratio rose to 83.7%, up from 83.5% at the end of June. The funded ratio has been teetering between 83% and 84% over the first seven months of the year."
Milliman
|
[Opinion]
SIFMA Submits Comments and New Evidence of the DOL Fiduciary Rule's Negative Impact on Retirement Savers
"SIFMA provides the following to assist in the DOL's review of the Rule: [1] data detailing the negative impact to investors as firms move to implement the Rule and Exemptions; [2] An explanation of why it is unnecessary to create a new private right of action to change the standard of conduct in the financial services sector; [3] Changes to the regulatory language needed to help make this Rule work for retirement savers; [4] Comments regarding the Exemptions; and [5] A proposed new principles-based exemption that protects investors and provides certainty to service providers seeking to comply with the Rule's intent." [See full text of comment letter and Deloitte study commissioned by SIFMA.]
Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association [SIFMA]
|
Executive Compensation and Nonqualified Plans
|
Preference for Annual Say-on-Pay Votes Grows -- For Now
"2017 data indicate a growing preference for annual say-on-pay frequency recommendations and adoptions, although possible future legislation could alter the course of this trend.... [In] 2011, companies that recommended annual and triennial frequencies each represented sizeable portions of all public companies queried. In 2017 ... far more companies are recommending an annual frequency compared with 2011."
Willis Towers Watson
|
Discussions on the BenefitsLink Message Boards
|
Staffing of TPA Firms: What Duties Do Your Employees Perform?
"How are your firms structuring your staffing roles? Are you operating with administrators that correspond with their assigned clients and also perform all of the annual valuation work from census scrubbing, to contribution calculations, applicable testing and tax return filings? Or are you structuring your organization with staff assigned solely to client communication and others to day-to-day plan administration functions only? Do you operate with staff that only perform distribution and loan processing functions?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards
|
Delayed Receipt of QDRO Qualification
"Are there any impacts under ERISA if the QDRO qualification notice was sent to the Alternate Payee using an address on file and not the address on the QDRO, and the AP now says it took several weeks to receive it (because it needed to be forwarded to the new address)?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards
|
Press Releases
|
|
|
|
|
|
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park, Florida 32789
(407) 644-4146
Lois Baker, J.D., President
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager
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.
Links to web sites other than BenefitsLink.com and EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com are offered as a service to our readers; we were not involved in their production and are not responsible for their content.
Unsubscribe |
Privacy Policy
|