|
Retirement Plans Newsletter August 8, 2019 |
|
|
|
|
Webcasts, Conferences Public Pension Plan Solvency: Crisis or Myth?
Capital Perspective: An Analysis of Hot Topics in Benefits and Compensation
Data Driven Decisions: Using Data to Help Your 401(k) Clients Make Better Decisions
ERISA Litigation Update
Retirement Plan Update
S Corporation ESOPs: Valuation Issues
Employment, Benefits and Compensation Forum
|
|
Discussions |
|
This Newsletter:
BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter:
Message Boards Digest:
|
|
[Guidance Overview]
DOL Finalizes Retirement Clearinghouse PTE "[The Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH)] program ... is an attempt to provide a private sector, clearinghouse-based solution to the problem of money 'leaking' from the retirement system when an employee changes jobs. ... [As] part of its program RCH is providing a fairly robust missing participant search service. The result ... (on paper at least) is a solution to many of the problems intended to be solved by 'Retirement Savings Lost and Found' legislation that has been introduced in Congress." October Three Consulting |
|
[Advert.]
ERISApedia.com -- Outstanding Content -- Affordable Pricing
Find out why we are the fastest-growing ERISA Compliance Service in the industry. Outstanding authors, customer satisfaction & support. Contact us to see what we can do for you. sales@erisapedia.com or 612-605-2266 |
|
"A New York federal district court concluded that a defined benefit plan participant lacked standing to seek relief on behalf of plans other than the one in which he was a participant. ... [P]laintiff claimed that defendants breached ERISA fiduciary duties and engaged in prohibited transactions by charging undisclosed markups for securities trades." [Fletcher v. Convergex Group LLC, No. 13-9150 (S.D.N.Y. July 2, 2019)] Proskauer |
|
Hardship Distributions and Headaches Down the Road "Most plans do use the safe harbor guidelines for what qualifies as an immediate and heavy financial need. But plan administrators need to understand that the use of such safe harbors may require them to treat hardship differently than they would if the plan did not use the safe harbors." Employee Benefits Law Group |
|
Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pension Funds Act of 2019 and Its Potential Impact "[HR 397, also known as the 'Butch Lewis Act',] does not seem to provide for future eligibility if a plan is not eligible at the time of enactment.... [S]ome plans that would benefit from provisions to help them get out of a stagnant situation may be ineligible because of plan demographics. Some plans may find it advantageous to significantly shift their mortality, investment return, or industry level assumption in order to be in critical and declining status to be eligible for the loan program." Cowden Associates, Inc. |
|
Companies Are Racing to Dump Their Pension Plans "Deal volume in the 'pension risk transfer' business ... was the biggest ever in 2018, and is on track to be bigger still this year.... Among Fortune 500 companies, only 81 sponsored a pension plan in 2017, down from 288 in 1998 ... At the same time, the number of pension risk transfer deals rose to 493 in 2018 from 203 in 2012[.]" Axios |
|
Disability and Death Probability Tables for Insured Workers Born in 1999 (PDF) "The projected probabilities of death before NRA have decreased between the 1966 and 1999 birth cohorts, reflecting in part the actual improvement in mortality experience between 1986 and 2019. The projected probability of becoming disabled before NRA has decreased for insured men between the 1966 and 1999 birth cohorts, but has increased for insured women. For the 1999 birth cohort, we project that the probability of surviving from age 20 to NRA without ever being disabled is 65 percent for males and 69 percent for females. Comparable probabilities projected for the 1966 birth cohort are 58 percent for males and 70 percent for females." Office of the Chief Actuary, U.S. Social Security Administration [SSA] |
|
"[1] Material conflict of interest ... [2] Managing conflicts of interests ... [3] Inclusion of prudence ... [4] Inclusion of 'ordinary producer' as a measure of the standard ... [5] Disclosure of the basis for recommendation to consumers ... [6] Care and reasonable basis ... [7] Failure to obtain the consumer's profile information ... [8] Duty to supervise only extends to own products." Carlton Fields |
|
Benefits in General |
|
Benefits That Engaged Employees Want and Need "[1] Employees want their employers to do more to support their financial health; [2] Access to quality behavioral health services at convenient locations correlates with employee wellbeing; and [3] Employees would like more opportunities for paid time off to volunteer in the community." Grooms Benefit Solutions |
|
Selected Discussions |
|
Must Allow Multiple Trustee/Custodians Under a SIMPLE Plan? A small business has a SIMPLE, and all participants have signed on to have their SIMPLE accounts through one financial firm (let's say Merrill Lynch). Now one participant brings in paperwork that says he wants to open his SIMPLE account somewhere else instead. Does the plan sponsor have the authority to limit where the accounts are? From what I can see, I don't think so, unless maybe the SIMPLE document is specifically a SIMPLE document from ML that specifies that all accounts will be held there... and even then, I'm not sure that would hold up. BenefitsLink Message Boards |
|
HCEs Voluntarily Take a Reduced ESOP Allocation A company is owned 100% by an ESOP. The only contributions are made by the company. The company executives voluntarily decide they want to reduce the executives' compensation contribution percentage to a much lower percentage than is being contributed for other employees. Am I correct in assuming that to do so without a plan amendment to that effect creates a plan failure that needs to be corrected? BenefitsLink Message Boards |
|
Cost of Annual Plan Audit: Plan Sponsor Can Be Reimbursed from Plan's Trust? If a plan sponsor has already paid the CPA for their 401K Plan audit, can the plan reimburse the plan sponsor for those costs from the forfeiture account? Or must the fees be paid from the plan's forfeiture account directly to the CPA firm that audited the plan? BenefitsLink Message Boards |
|
Catch-Up Contributions for Short Plan Year I am running an ADP test for a short plan year 1/1 to 5/31. Can I use $6,000 for catch-up to offset my ADP refunds? BenefitsLink Message Boards |
|
► Subscribe to the BenefitsLink Message Boards Digest— a free daily email of all new discussions (not just the selected few shown above). View a sample issue. |
|
Press Releases |
|
Most Popular Items in the Previous Issue |
|
Text of PBGC FY 2018 Projections Report (PDF)
|
|
401(k) Fee Study: What Does a Fiduciary-Grade Advisor Cost?
|
|
Settlement in Johns Hopkins 403(b) Plan Lawsuit Includes Recordkeeper Bid
|
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 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.
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.