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Porter Wright Launches Employee Benefits Law Blog

[The new blog, at http://www.employeebenefitslawreport.com/, has been] created as a resource to help guide employers of all sizes through the complex administrative and legal challenges facing their employee benefit plans.

Chicago Fed Blogs Public Pensions

Excerpt: [W]hat's cool is that the Chicago Fed used the occasion of its public plan forum to give birth: welcome a new blog to the benefits world!

Head of Employee Benefits Security Administration, Phyllis Borzi, on Health Care Reform and ERISA Remedies

Excerpt: [She talks] about the need for need for ERISA reform in the area of remedies as part of the push for health care reform. [In BNA's Pension and Benefits Daily, she says] Plan sponsors and employee benefit attorneys too often jump to the defense of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act for all the wrong reasons[.]

It May Be Becoming More Difficult to Exclude Part-Timers from Receiving Employee Benefits

"[I]t appears that the IRS is going to take a closer look at qualified employee benefit plan which seek through various methods to exclude part-time employees from employee benefit coverage."

Expected U.S. Supreme Court Decision on DOMA May Impact Status of Children of Same-Gender Spouses for Employee Benefits Purposes

"[B]ecause a child of a [same-gender] spouse is already considered to be an employee's stepchild for federal income tax purposes if the couple resides in a state that recognizes the employee as the stepparent, the employee can avoid having imputed income for federal tax purposes on the value of employer-sponsored health coverage provided to the child. If DOMA is struck down (and depending on the impact of the decision on state mini-DOMA laws), additional children of [same-gender] spouses may attain similar favorable tax status. This status may even extend to situations where a couple resides in a state that does not recognize the child as a stepchild or permit [same-gender] marriage depending on the specific definition of 'child' in the benefit plan."

Measurement Date Change for Pension Plans and Other Postemployment Benefits Pushed Back

Excerpt: [The] decision not only defers the measurement date change, but eliminates the need for an extra measurement date for measurement of cost. The issue of the cost measurement has been the source of some confusion, even among the FASB itself. Yesterday's discussion clarified that use of an early measurement date for cost merely shifts the cost measurement, rather than the cost itself.

Involuntary Transfer of Prisoners' Pension Benefits Violates Anti-Alienation Rules

Excerpt: ERISA's anti-alienation provision prohibits enforcement of a state law under which prison wardens were to notify pension plans to send prisoners' benefit payments to the inmate's institutional address, according to a 6th Circuit decision affirming a district court ruling. [DaimlerChrysler v. Cox, No. 05-1716]

Worklife Balance, Employee Benefits, and Google's Strange Choice Regarding Onsite Daycare

Excerpt: Earlier in the summer, Google announced to its employees that it was going to have to raise the employee contribution to the cost of onsite daycare 75%. The tuition for an infant would rise from from $1,425 per month to almost $2,500 per month and the tuition for preschoolers would rise from just over $1,000 per month to about $1,700 per month. This move would price many of the workers out of the benefit. The childcare didn't start much below market rates and would move to much above.

Comparing Public Employee Benefits to the Private Sector: The Welch Factor

"There may be nine fallacies used to defend public-sector pensions but Dr. Jason Richwine of the Heritage Foundation propagates one major fallacy used to attack them when he avers: 'Primarily because DB benefits are guaranteed to workers while DC benefits are not, public-sector retirement benefits are almost always more generous than those of comparable private-sector workers.' Nothing could be more misleading ... or dangerous."

Alvin Lurie's Recent Employee Benefits Articles

Excerpt: The first article, It's a PIP - Or Is It?, concerns 'an idea ... to make employers in small businesses set up a payroll deduction facility for their employees not covered by employer-sponsored retirement plans, for the purpose of easing the making of contributions to an IRA established by or on behalf of the employee.' The second one, All in the Family on Foley Square, Lurie discusses the 2nd Circuit's recent cash balance plan decision in Hirt v. The Equitable Retirement Plan .... [And the third article is: Triple Play: Stevens to Roberts to Thomas or A View of LaRue.]