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[Official Guidance]

Text of PTEs for Asset Managers Affiliated with Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays or UBS
702 pages. "This document contains exemptions issued by the [DOL] from certain of the prohibited transaction restrictions of [ERISA] and/or the Internal Revenue Code ... This notice includes ... 2017-03, JPMorgan Chase & Co., D-11906; 2017-04, Deutsche Investment Management Americas Inc. (DIMA) and Certain Current and Future Asset Management Affiliates of Deutsche Bank AG, D-11908; 2017-05, Citigroup Inc., D-11909; 2017-06, Barclays Capital Inc., D-11910; 2017-07, UBS Assets Management (Americas) Inc.; UBS Realty Investors LLC; UBS Hedge Fund Solutions LLC; UBS O'Connor LLC; and Certain Future Affiliates in UBS's Asset Management and Wealth Management Americas Divisions, D-11907."
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor [DOL]

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[Guidance Overview]

Tax Reform Legislation Addresses UBIT and Segregation of UBTI Investments
"Adopting the Senate's approach, tax reform legislation will not require governmental pension plans to be subject to unrelated business income tax, and tax-exempt entities subject to tax on unrelated business taxable income will need to segregate taxable income and loss for each unrelated trade or business activity."
Morgan Lewis

DC In-Plan Retirement Income Solutions: Are We There Yet? (PDF)
"When plan sponsors were asked to identify the top nine concerns about adding a retirement income guarantee product to the plan, they expressed fiduciary exposure the highest at (38.3 percent) for all plans, however that number jumps to 56.9 percent for plans with more than 5,000 participants. Other concerns were high costs (33.3 percent), operational hurdles such as recordkeeping issues (32.9 percent), non-portability (28.9 percent) ... Still, the market and appetite for these options continues to evolve."
Portfolio Evaluations, Inc., via PSCA Defined Contribution Insights

Fake News Hits Fiduciary Fight
"A pair of investigative reporters from The Wall Street Journal took a closer look at comments posted to the DOL's website that are critical of the fiduciary rule.... 'A significant number of fake comments appear among thousands criticizing a proposed federal rule meant to prevent conflicts of interest in retirement advice,' the paper reported. 'Many of the comments weren't written by the people they were attributed to[.]' "
401K Specialist

KKR, Blackstone Sued Over Fund Sales to Kentucky Retirement System Pension Plan
"The plaintiffs, including a retired state trooper and a firefighter, allege that the big asset managers misrepresented expensive and risky 'black-box' bundles of hedge funds as safe ways to generate high returns. Instead, those investments contributed to the pension system's virtual insolvency, the plaintiffs said, while the managers pocketed excessive fees."
Pensions & Investments

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New York Proposes 'Best Interest' Standard for Sales of Life Insurance and Annuity Products
"If adopted, New York would become the second state to pass its own best-interest standard. Nevada passed a law that Gov. Brian Sandoval signed in June. Both states cited the lengthy delays of the [DOL] fiduciary rule."
InsuranceNewsNet.com

Investing for Retirement Jumped to the Top of the List of Resolutions for 2018
"Up six percentage points from last year, 40 percent of investors want to allocate more to their retirement plan in 2018.... 35 percent of investors surveyed want to learn more about investing, trading, and the markets, which is consistent with last year."
E*TRADE Financial Corporation

More Than Three Quarters of Americans Say They Are Likely to Set Financial Goals in 2018
"As 2017 comes to an end ... 77 percent of Americans are very likely or somewhat likely to set financial goals in 2018 -- more than double the 34 percent who set specific financial goals in 2017. Additionally, 83 percent of Americans who set a specific financial goal in 2017 feel better about their finances now than they did at the beginning of the year."
Lincoln Financial Group

It's Time to Perform Your Annual Actuarial Valuation
"The purposes of this exercise are to: [1] Review how well you did in 2017; [2] Develop 2018 spending budget 'data points'; [3] Finalize your 2018 calendar year spending budget (or spending/savings budget for pre-retirees); [4] Document the assumptions, data and adjustments used to determine your final 2018 spending budget; and [5] Collect and save information that may be useful for your future actuarial valuations."
Ken Steiner, FSA Retired

House Approves Retirement Plan Tax Relief for California Wildfire Victims
"The Senate did not consider the legislation before adjourning for the year. In general, the legislation provides relief from the 10% early withdrawal penalty for qualified distributions up to $100,000 made on or after Oct. 8, 2017, and before Jan. 1, 2019. Distributions must be made by an individual whose principal place of residence was in a wildfire disaster area and who sustained an economic loss due to the wildfires."
National Association of Plan Advisors [NAPA]

Pension Rights Center: The Year in Review (PDF)
"On November 16, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Congress Richard Neal (D-MA) introduced comprehensive legislation to address the multiemployer pension crisis.... [T]he Pension Rights Center celebrated our 41st anniversary ... PRC staff fielded more than 1,600 calls from participants with pension and retirement savings plan problems in 49 states ... [PRC's] recoupment initiative ... is bringing together attorneys who represent plans and those who represent retirees to search for common ground on new rules to address this critically important problem.... [PRC] published fact sheets and blogs posts on the importance of pensions."
Pension Rights Center

[Guidance Overview]

Tax Reform Provisions Affecting Employer-Provided Compensation and Benefits (PDF)
"[1] Repeal of performance-based compensation exception to $1,000,000 deduction limit ... [2] Excessive compensation of non-profit covered employees subject to a 21% tax penalty ... [3] Limits and phase-out on deduction for employer-operated eating facilities ... [4] Elimination of employer deduction for certain transportation fringe benefits ... [5] Suspension of income exclusion for qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement fringe benefit ... [6] Suspension of income exclusion and employer deduction for qualified moving expense reimbursement ... [7] Extension of rollover period for plan loan offsets ... [8] Employer credit for paid family and medical leave."
Trucker Huss

Sixth Circuit Provides Lessons for What Constitutes a QDRO
"A federal appellate court has found that a divorce decree contains all the information required for a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) under [ERISA] and therefore determined that a deceased employee's life insurance proceeds go to his minor child rather than his named beneficiary. Although the case involves and employer-provided life insurance plan, it has lessons for what constitutes a QDRO for all ERISA plans." [Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada v. Jackson, No. 17-3120 (6th Cir. Dec. 13, 2017)]
planadviser

IRS Releases Standard Mileage Rates, FAVR Allowances for 2017
"For all miles of business use, the standard mileage rate for transportation or travel expenses is 54.5 cents per mile (up slightly from 53.5 cents in 2017).... For purposes of computing the allowance under a FAVR plan, the maximum allowable cost in 2018 is $27,300 for cars (down from $27,900 in 2017) and $31,000 for trucks and vans (down from $31,300)."
HR Daily Advisor

Outlook 2018: EBSA Awaits New Direction from Rutledge
"At the top of the list for [EBSA], as it has been for nearly a decade, is the fiduciary rule.... Years of DOL guidance could be reversed by [a] new regulation which will likely make it easier for individuals and small businesses to join association health plans.... When [Preston Rutledge] takes the helm at EBSA, it's a guessing game as to what retirement and benefits issues he may want tackled other than the fiduciary rule and association health plans."
Bloomberg BNA

Pay Ratio Disclosure Checklist
"While recent interpretative guidance from the [SEC] has provided additional flexibility in this process, public companies still need to consider appropriate disclosures regarding pay ratio calculations in addition to the disclosure of the pay ratio. [A] checklist of essential disclosure items to consider when drafting pay ratio disclosures is set forth [in this article]."
Dodd-Frank.com

Year-End Checklist of Items to Review, Know, and Consider About Your Stock Compensation
"As 2017 draws to its close, the new tax-reform law is getting a lot of attention, and it will certainly affect tax rates in the future ... [D]on't forget the fundamentals of year-end planning. [This checklist] summarizes what you need for comprehensive year-end financial and tax planning with stock compensation."
myStockOptions.com

Deadline for Force-Out Distribution of Less Than $1,000?
Participant was fully paid out November 2016. Received match in March of 2016 and Discretionary nonelective in Sept 2017. Because it's less than $1,000, we need to force out. Is anyone aware of a date this must be done by?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Continued Attribution of Former Spouse's Ownership in the Plan Sponsor?
I have a small company where the ex-spouse of the owner is still on the payroll. Would she would still be considered a Highly Compensated Employee due to attribution?
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