21 pages. "The sole focus of DC plans has historically been to accumulate assets during the working years, with little support provided to participants in retirement.... The 'landing gear' of our DC system are solutions designed to help participants convert their accumulated retirement balances into lifetime income. This paper provides a review of product types available to do so."
Russell Investments
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"[An] alternative definition of compensation ... can be a powerful tool to enhance plan design and target your retirement plan dollars according to your overall goals. As with any plan design, it's important that you carefully consider any excluded compensation and review as compensation structures change over time. Likewise, it's worth remembering that there is no bright-line test to determine whether a plan passes compensation ratio testing each year. So, it's important to make sure that the definition of compensation is within reason both numerically and circumstantially."
DWC
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"Here's some things you, your clients, and their participants should check out ... [1] Find your account(s) ... [2] Make sure 'they' can find you, too ... [3] Change the 'locks' ... [4] Check your beneficiaries ... [5] Get a 'ready' read."
National Tax-Deferred Savings Association [NTSA]
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"From updating the plan with statutory amendments to filing the final Form 5500, there are many details to attend to when terminating a defined contribution plan."
PLANSPONSOR; free registration may be required
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"The biggest issue when it comes to access is cost. It's not just the plan sponsor's sensitivity to higher costs. It's the service provider's ability to keep those costs low.... [T]here's a disincentive for financial firms to invest the time necessary to help smaller plans grow to a critical mass size. This puts small plan sponsors at a further disadvantage.... Complicating matters is the fact that executives at smaller companies tend to have multiple responsibilities. This means they will often opt for the quickest solution."
Fiduciary News; free registration required
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"The purpose of the Sustainable Investment Policy Act [to be introduced in the House by Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), vice-chair of the House Education & Labor Committee] is to require retirement investors and fiduciaries to consider environmental, social, and governance -- or 'ESG' -- factors when making investments that are covered by [ERISA] and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.... The bill outlines six categories of ESG factors investors must consider and make clear to retirement plan beneficiaries."
Heartland Capital Strategies
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"The basic difference between a 3(21) vs. 3(38) fiduciary is that in a 3(21) arrangement the employer shares fiduciary responsibility for investment decisions with the adviser and in a 3(38) arrangement the employer has no fiduciary responsibility for investment decisions. However, the employer does retain the fiduciary responsibility to review the 3(38) fiduciary."
Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants
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"About 70% of all U.S. workers have access to employer-sponsored pensions, and about 55% of U.S. workers participate in employer-sponsored pensions. Access and participation rates vary with various worker attributes. These attributes include whether the workers are full-time or part-time, whether they work in the private or public sector, and whether or not they belong to a union. The data also classify access and participation rates by the average wages of workers' occupations and the number of employees at workers' places of employment. [R43439, updated Dec. 1, 2020]"
Congressional Research Service [CRS]
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"While the vast majority of organizations are not planning on changing their employer contribution levels this year, nearly a third of higher education institutions say they either have, or will by year-end, reduce or suspend contributions to their 403(b) plans. Ten percent of all respondents have suspended or reduced the matching contribution and 7.5% have suspended or reduced the non-matching contribution (some plans have both types of contributions)."
American Retirement Association [ARA]
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"[1] Determine employee eligibility ... [2] Determine ESOP vesting period ... [3] Determine annual contributions ... [4] Determine distribution standards ... [5] Ensure your plan meets regulatory guidelines."
Meaden & Moore
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"A report ... found that 2.9 million workers ages 55 to 70 have left the labor force since March.... Researchers note that if these exits continued at the same pace over the ensuing three months, an additional 1.1 million workers in this age group may leave the workforce. That would be a total of 4 million people potentially pushed into retirement due to the pandemic's related economic downturn."
U.S. News & World Report
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An unofficial monthly report of the Moody's Daily Long-term Corporate Bond Yield Averages and Moody's Daily Treasury Yield Averages (used as benchmarks by some corporate pension plans).
David Rigby, via BenefitsLink Message Boards
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Executive Compensation and Nonqualified Plans
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"COVID-19 has ... had an impact on executive compensation and employee benefits, and given rise to a number of new issues and considerations. These compensation issues present challenges for companies seeking to incentivize and retain key employees in the midst of the current economic conditions while balancing competing responsibilities to various stakeholders.... [1] Performance goals and metrics ... [2] Equity plan share reserves/annual equity grants ... [3] Compensation/benefits reductions/restructuring ... [4] Nonqualified deferred compensation ... [5] Variable hour employee benefits eligibility."
Akin Gump
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Selected Discussions on the BenefitsLink Message Boards
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"Imagine an individual-account (defined-contribution) retirement plan that does not provide participant-directed investment. Imagine the participants range from 18-year-olds to workers in their 90s. If you were the plan's trustee or investment manager with complete authority and responsibility to decide the plan's investment policy, what would you do?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards
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