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Retirement Plans Newsletter May 16, 2019 |
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Webcasts, Conferences Definition of Compensation for Retirement Plans
Retirement Readiness, Financial Wellness, and the Bottom Line
Arbitration: Is There Anything Different About ERISA?
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Discussions |
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This Newsletter:
BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter:
Message Boards Digest:
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[Official Guidance]
Federal Employees' Retirement System: Present Value Factors "This notice is necessary to conform the present value factors to changes in the economic and demographic assumptions adopted by the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System.... The revised present value factors apply to survivor reductions or employee annuities that commence on or after October 1, 2019."
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[Official Guidance]
Civil Service Retirement System; Present Value Factors "This notice is necessary to conform the present value factors to changes in the economic and demographic assumptions adopted by the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System.... The revised present value factors apply to survivor reductions or employee annuities that commence on or after October 1, 2019."
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[Guidance Overview]
PBGC Issues Final Regs on Terminated and Insolvent Plans "Current regulations require multiemployer plans to send 'notices of insolvency' stating the plan year that the plan is, or is expected to be, insolvent to participants, beneficiaries, the PBGC and certain other interested parties, generally within 30 days after determining that the plan will become insolvent in the current, next following or, in some cases, next 5 plan years. The final regulations modify this rule by providing that multiemployer plans must send the notices of insolvency by the later of [1] 90 days before the beginning of the plan year of insolvency, or [2] 30 days after the date the insolvency determination is made."
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Notes from Meeting of Actuaries 'Intersector Group' with PBGC, March 7, 2019 (PDF) 6 pages. Topics include: [1] PBGC organizational changes and priorities; [2] Pilot Mediation Program; [3] ERISA Section 4044 assumptions; [4] Is PBGC now using the information collected on de-risking to inform solvency projections? [5] Missing participants: update on any joint efforts among DOL, IRS, and PBGC to standardize what constitutes a diligent search for various purposes; [6] PBGC Guidance Plan; [7] Forms and instructions update; [8] Actuarial equivalence lawsuits; and [9] Proposed guidance on simplified withdrawal liability.
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Money Manager-Sponsored 401(k) Plans Have Higher Balances, Contribution Rates "[A]sset managers embrace complexity in their plan design, offering substantially more investment options than typical plans. They are also partial to actively managed strategies and proprietary products and much less likely to offer target-date funds.... Participants in asset manager-sponsored plans had an average balance of $179,171, more than four times the average $42,394 balance in other plans ... [H]igh employer contributions were a strong predictor of high average balances, more so than employee contributions."
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Narrowing Retirement Savings Gaps "Twenty years ago, only 40 percent of companies let their employees join their 401(k) plans within three months of hire. Today, 60.1 percent allow employees to start contributing at hire ... Many plan sponsors made this change as part of their adoption of automatic enrollment features[.]"
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Life Insurance in Qualified Plans "Allowing for life insurance to be purchased within a qualified retirement plan may be valuable in certain circumstances. Offering this benefit within the plan requires additional administration by a company that understands the nature of the products."
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401(k) Financial Advisors: Core Responsibilities and Risks "What can an advisor do to actually help my business or retirement plan? What are the benefits? Who should I consider hiring for this? Is a 401(k) financial advisor even worth the money? And not all 401(k) financial advisors provide the same level of service or investment management responsibility."
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Pension Lump Sums: Thoughtful Considerations for Plan Sponsors and Retirees (PDF) "For Plan Sponsors: The savings vs. buying an annuity isn't as great as non-retiree lump sums.... There's a hidden adverse selection cost.... Unisex tables exacerbate the adverse selection problem.... Offering lump sums to some older annuitants may present consent/fiduciary issues.... Given press coverage, retiree lump sums may become an enforcement target ... For Participants: Realistically, how long do you expect to live? ... Should you spend the lump sum to delay Social Security? ... Do you have another source of retirement income? ... Do you have other personal objectives? ... Should you put your money in the market? ... Do you want spending flexibility?"
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Executive Compensation |
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Evolving and Expanding Demands on Compensation Committees (PDF) "What are the pros and cons of a combined compensation and governance committee? ... How should boards address managers whose behavior isn't so egregious that they warrant being fired but that nevertheless contribute to a toxic work environment? ... How should boards be thinking about attracting the new generation of talent? ... Should 'known unknowns' be incorporated into evaluating and compensating CEO performance, and if so, how?"
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New Code Section 83(i) Equity for Private Employers: More Headache Than Benefit? "A private corporation must grant either options or restricted stock to at least 80 percent of employees within the calendar year.... [If] the business has repurchased stock in the previous year, then they cannot offer the election.... 83(i) election plans are not compatible with other types of stock incentive plans such as incentive stock options (ISOs) and employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs).... At the end of the deferral period ... the employer must withhold income tax equivalent to the tax on the value of the stock at vesting in escrow ... even if the value of the stock has decreased over the deferral period."
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Selected Discussions |
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Did Not Send Required Disclosure When Funds Changed in Core Lineup A 401k plan converted from one investment product to another product with the same recordkeeper. A few, but not all, funds in the plan's core lineup changed and the account number changed. Discovered that the notice to the participants announcing the change was not delivered. Is the fix to forward the notice now to communicate the change? What other correction would/should be made?
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Correction of Failures to Provide RMDs; Request for Waiver of Excise Tax We have a client who is a 5% owner through attribution and still working. He turned 70-1/2 in 2015. It's a 401k self directed account. For reasons I can't explain, probably because the attribution wasn't coded correctly, he didn't receive RMDs. Based on actual account balances RMDs for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 have now been made without regard to earning or taking into account an offset for expected RMD. The client is leaning toward filing VCP to request waiver of the excise tax. Here are my questions: [1] How should I have calculated the RMD? [2] Should I have taken the expected RMD for the previous year into account when calculating the current RMD? [3] Is there any good examples or explanations on how to prepare the VCP filing? I think I can do it on 14568 and 14568-H but I'm not sure.
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Stop Required Minimum Distributions When IRA Rolled Into 401(k)? I have a plan participant who wants to roll his IRA into the 401(k) (allowed by the plan). He is over 70 and has taken his RMDs for a few years. Can he stop taking his RMD now that the funds are in a 401(k) plan? He's still working for the plan sponsor and making deferrals.
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Press Releases |
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Most Popular Items in the Previous Issue |
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A Top-Hat Plan Primer (PDF)
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New Address for DFVCP Submissions Effective May 15
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Stealing from Colleagues? Fraud and Embezzlement in 401(k) Plans
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Connect
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BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9587. Copyright 2019 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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