Retirement Plans Newsletter

September 11, 2018

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Jobs

Defined Contribution Pension Plan Administrator
The Angell Pension Group, Inc.
Telecommute

Benefits Analyst
University of Maryland Medical System
in MD

Document Operations Plan Specialist
Transamerica
in NY

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Webcasts, Conferences

Cash Balance Plans: Past, Present and Future
September 20, 2018 in FL
ASPPA Benefits Council [ABC] of Central Florida

Fall 2018 Compliance Conference
November 5, 2018 in CA
National Regulatory Services [NRS]

►See 115 Upcoming Webcasts and Conferences

►See 1374 Recorded Webcasts


Discussions

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New Comments and Topics

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[Official Guidance]

Draft 2019 Form 1099-R: Distributions from Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, Etc. (PDF)

11 pages. "Generally, distributions from retirement plans (IRAs, qualified plans, section 403(b) plans, and governmental section 457(b) plans), insurance contracts, etc., are reported to recipients on Form 1099-R."
Internal Revenue Service [IRS]

[Advert.]

P&I DC West Conference | San Diego | Oct 21 - 23

Sponsored by Pensions & Investments

Join leading executives who manage 401(k), 403(b), 457 and TSP plans at DC WEST. You'll learn how other plan sponsors analyze, develop, implement and measure programs for their participants, so you can improve your own plan.


Sixth Circuit Applies Categorical Test to Determine If Leasing Entity Was a Trade or Business Under ERISA

"In the court's view, the federal common law of successor liability was necessary to promote ERISA's fundamental policy of enforcing employers' promises to their employees[.]" [PBGC v. Findlay Industries, Inc., No. 17-3520 (6th Cir. Sept. 4, 2018)]
Thomson Reuters Practical Law

Understanding and Achieving Participant Financial Wellness (PDF)

12 pages. "Participants 50 or older, participants with high household income and participants with high retirement account balances are more likely to indicate having enough money to retire is their closest definition of financial wellness. Participants 49 and younger, participants with household income under $100,000 and participants with retirement account balances under $100,000 are more likely to indicate that being able to meet day-to- day expenses aligns with their definition of financial wellness."
OneAmerica

Personality Influences Path to Retirement

"Only about a third of the older people who are working full-time will go straight into retirement.... [Some] paths include gradually reducing their hours, occasional consulting, or finding a new job or an Uber stint that is only part-time. Other people 'unretire,' meaning that they retire temporarily from a full-time job only to decide to return to work for a while. A new study finds that the paths older workers choose are influenced by their personality and by how well they're able to hold the line against the natural cognitive decline that accompanies aging."
Squared Away Blog, by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

Considerations When Adding Participant Loans to a Taft-Hartley Defined Contribution Plan (PDF)

"In a corporate DC plan, loan payments are predominantly made through payroll deductions. Taft-Hartley plans normally do not offer this repayment option due to employers of the plan not being involved in the loan process.... As a result of leaving the option to make payments in the participant's hands, potential for the loan to default in a Taft-Hartley plan can be much higher than in a corporate plan."
Milliman

[Advert.]

SPARK Forum - November 4-6, 2018 -- The Breakers, Palm Beach, FL

Sponsored by SPARK

Join us at the retirement services industry's leading event for top marketing, sales, administration and record keeping professionals. Comprehensive agenda includes topics of interest to Record Keepers, 401(k) Plan Providers, Financial Advisors and Cyber Security Professionals.


Treatment of the Annual Compensation in Defined Contribution Plans in a Short Plan Year

"The compensation limit for a short year is determined by multiplying the applicable annual compensation dollar limit for the calendar year in which the short year begins by a fraction, the numerator of which is the number of months in the short plan year, and the denominator of which is 12 months. [Examples:] Plan amendment creating a short plan year ... Initial short plan year ... Initial short plan year -- 12-month measurement period ... Plan termination."
EisnerAmper

Sanders Bill Would Create Financial Transaction Tax

"The Inclusive Prosperity Act of 2017 [sponsored by Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.)] ... includes a financial transaction tax (FTT).... [T]he FTT would be applied to every stock traded, including a 0.5% rate on equity, a 0.1% rate on debt and a 0.005% rate on derivatives.... [T]he tax [would] affect all defined benefit plans, [IRAs], defined contribution plans and individual investors."
PLANSPONSOR

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: Assessing Fiscal Risks and Improving Workforce Management

"[T]he amount WMATA was required to contribute to its pension plans increased by an annual average of about 19 percent during [2006 through 2017]. Due to their relative size, proportion of retirees compared to active members, and investment decisions, these pension plans pose significant risk to WMATA's financial operations ... to an extent that might jeopardize its ability to provide some transit service." [GAO-18-643, Sept. 10, 2018]
U.S. Government Accountability Office [GAO]

[Opinion]

What Will the Fiduciary Standard Look Like in Five Years?

"While 'trust and confidence' are noble words, they also have specific definitions. For example, the advice would need to be of high quality; the costs should be reasonable; and the compensation of the advisor should be reasonable; and any conflicts of interest should be properly managed or mitigated.... [M]any investors, particularly in the world of 401k rollovers, are relatively unsophisticated and they're not in a position to evaluate conflicts of interest.... [T]he financial services sector should be required to manage and mitigate those conflicts for the benefit of the investor."
Fiduciary News

Benefits in General

[Guidance Overview]

Changes in Defined Benefit and OPEB Disclosure Requirements (PDF)

"[FASB] has issued a final Accounting Standards Update that affects pension and postretirement benefit accounting. The update adds, removes, and clarifies some current footnote disclosures. The final provisions vary somewhat from the proposed ASU issued in 2016 and take into account comments received on the utility of the information to financial statement users relative to the burden imposed on reporting entities. While some disclosure items were removed, some have been added, and the net effect could be an increase in the time required to complete disclosure information."
Buck

Leveraging Healthcare Costs to Drive 401(k) Contributions and Improve Health (PDF)

14 pages. "A 50-year-old man diagnosed with high blood pressure could save an average of $2,234 per year in out-of-pocket healthcare costs, and add three years to his life expectancy by properly managing his health.... By improving health and investing the savings, a 45-year-old woman with type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol could add more than $100,000 to her 401(k) retirement savings and eight years to her life expectancy through simple changes such as moderating alcohol intake and continuing to take medication as prescribed.... A self-insured company with 5,000 employees could save more than $2.5 million in healthcare costs."
Healthy Capital

Executive Compensation
and Nonqualified Plans

[Guidance Overview]

Editor's Pick New York Tax Update: New Rules for Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation (PDF)

"The [New York State and New York City] tax departments did not lose sight of Section 457A in the blitz of 2017's federal tax reform, and each published statements that concern deferred compensation. In both cases, the tax departments have advised that all of it must be recognized as business income -- eligible to be taxed as such, subject to statutory methods for attributing that income to the State and City."
Mayer Brown

Non-Qualified Retirement Plans & Divorce: You May Honor DROs, But Should You?

"[M]any nonqualified plans will include an anti-assignment clause that prohibits the plan participant from assigning his or her benefits to anyone else. If your plan includes this language without an exception for DROs, then you generally could not honor a DRO unless you first amended the plan.... [H]onoring a DRO that requires an immediate lump sum payment could require large cash outlays under the plan sooner than expected."
Foley & Lardner LLP

Selected Discussions
on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

Funds in Forfeiture Account Counted as Plan Assets for Top Heavy Determination?

Assume a plan provides that forfeitures are used in the plan year following the plan year in which the funds were forfeited, and allows the Plan Administrator to use the funds for any permissible purpose (reduce fees, contributions, or reallocate). A participant in 2018 terminates, takes a distribution and forfeits $1,000 which is now in the forfeiture account as of 12/31/2018. Do we include that $1,000 in the total plan assets when determining the top heavy ratio?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Compensation for Computing Profit Sharing Allocation

Basic Admin 101 question. Plan compensation is based the participant's date of entering the plan. For the purposes of allocating a profit sharing contribution, does one use compensation during the entire plan year, or only compensation received after the participant entered the plan?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Fee Disclosures for Plans Having Participant-Directed Accounts

Client wants to set up 3 pools of money: Conservative, Moderate and Aggressive. The underlying securities will be stocks and bonds. Has anyone figured out how to handle fee disclosures on this?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Does an Insurance Company Check Whether Its Fidelity Bond Covers Someone Already Convicted of a Crime?

ERISA Section 411 makes it at least improper for someone convicted of any of a long list of crimes from serving in any almost any role regarding an employee-benefit plan. Does an insurance company, before issuing an ERISA Section 412 fidelity-bond insurance contract, do anything to check whether a person whose dishonest act the contract would insure lacks a disqualifying conviction?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

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Press Releases

Evolution Revolution 2018
National Regulatory Services [NRS]

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David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
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BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9587. Copyright 2018 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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