What's New on BenefitsLink - Week of 1/27/97

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1/29: Take look at these retirement savings estimators on the Web -- thanks to new poppa Chris Trapatsos for the suggestions!
- American Express
- Fidelity
- Vanguard
- Prudential

1/29: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation now has an online Pension Search Directory! By using a forms-capable Web browser (e.g., Netscape 2.0 or later or Internet Explorer 2.0 or later), readers are able to search to see if their name is included in a list of approximately 2,700 people on whose behalf the agency is holding money that came from terminated defined benefit pension plans.
When a pension plan closes down, there are usually some people who cannot be found. Many of the people owed benefits worked several years for a company, then moved on to other opportunities, never knowing they had earned a pension. Others may have forgotten they have a pension coming from a former job. Some of the missing may be survivors of former workers who have some benefits coming, or women who changed their names leaving no trace of their new identities.

1/27: Message Boards improved: faster, now searchable.
The BenefitsLink "message boards" have been improved in order to be more useful for pension and other benefits professionals who use them to trade questions and answers in a "bulletin board"-like fashion on the World Wide Web without charge.
Each message board now can be searched by keyword, in order to find messages containing information about a particular issue.
And each message board now displays faster, because the reader can configure BenefitsLink to skip older messages. For example, a regular reader might wish to see only messages posted within the past 30 days.
The latter feature is especially welcome relief to those readers who regularly use the "Retirement Plans" message board, which has accumulated almost 500 messages since its inception a few months ago!
1/27: Here's where to suggest a link for this site. Your suggestion should include the full "URL" (Web address) for the link to an existing site or document. Thanks very much!

1/27: The IRS voluntary correction program known as the "Standardized VCR Program", or SVP, is limited to seven types of operational plan defects. SVP mandates specified forms of correction for these seven defects. Q&A 13 described the correction required by SVP where the defect is the failure to obtain participant or spousal consent to a distribution subject to the joint and survivor annuity rules. Is an alternative form of correction available under VCR? Find out in the Q&A for Plan Defects, from Reish & Luftman!

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