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7/11 - News from the Pension Rights Center (no Web site yet):
Senators Grassley and Breaux introduced on June 20 the Pension Assistance and Counseling Act of 1997, S. 948. The bill followed the Special Committee on Aging hearing of June 16. The bill contains two key provisions: it updates the Older Americans Act to enourage the creation of pension counseling projects, ideally enough projects to provide regionally comprehensive assistance; and, it provides for the creation of an 800 number for people to call for one-stop advice on where to get assistance. In addition Senators Grassley and Breaux have written to Senator Specter, chairman of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations subcommittee, recommending $3 to $5 million in funding for pension counseling projects.

7/11 - 457 Legislative Update is a page that summarizes SBJPA changes to Code section 457. From the ICMA Retirement Corporation.

7/11 - Governmental employers and employees should enjoy the ICMA Retirement Corporation home page, called RCOnline.

7/11 - The Mercer Report for 6/6/97, from William M. Mercer. Includes:
-Physician recruitment by tax-exempt organizations
-Hospital ordered to recognize union, halt reengineering plans
-Section 204(h) notice may be required for early retirement benefit reductions

7/11 - Planning Your Expenses Is As Important As Investing, says columnist Scott Burns of the Dallas Morning News.

7/10: Eight Ways to Minimize Your Health FSA Risks, from the Institute on Management and Administration (IOMA)'s Managing Flexible Benefits Plans.
Excerpt:
Despite their effectiveness as a benefits cost-saver and their popularity with employees, some employers still resist offering health flexible spending accounts (FSAs) because of their perceived risk.
If you're having trouble selling FSAs to management, here's some ammunition from Jim Miller of Southern Administrators and Benefit Consultants, Inc. (Ridgeland, Miss.) and Sharon Alt of Employer Resource Network, Inc. (Fort Worth, Texas). Their tips were presented at last year's Employers' Council on Flexible Compensation/Cafeteria Plan Advisory Committee (ECFC/CPAC) conference in San Francisco:

7/10: Submitted by an overworked BenefitsLink reader:
You can't be cool if you're using outdated lingo. Here's the latest from the corporate jungles.

"prairie dogging"
in companies where everyone has a cubicle--something happens and everyone pops up to look
"blowing your buffer"
losing your train of thought
"yuppie food coupons"
twenty dollar bills from an ATM
"square headed girlfriend" (or boyfriend)
computer
"treeware"
manuals and documentation
"betamaxed"
when a technology is overtaken in the market by inferior but better marketed competition, as in "Microsoft betamaxed Apple right out of the market"
"cobweb"
a WWW site that never changes
"going postal"
totally stressed out and losing it like postal employees who go on shooting rampages
"elvis year"
the peak year of popularity, as in "1993 was Barney the dinosaur's elvis year"
"generica"
fast food joints, strip malls, sub-divisions, as in "we were so lost in generica that I couldn't remember what city it was"
"irritainment"
annoying but you can't stop watching, e.g. the O.J. trial
"salmon day"
swimming upstream all day to get screwed in the end

7/9: News from ERIC:
The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) has made available a portion of its World Wide Web site (http://www.eric.org/) to the public. While the the principal site is available only to ERIC's members, a wide variety of the organization's public documents are being posted to the public page.
The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) is a non-profit association committed to the advancement of employee retirement, health, and welfare benefit plans of America's largest employers and is the only organization representing exclusively the employee benefits interests of major employers. ERIC's members provide comprehensive retirement, health care coverage and other economic security benefits directly to some 25 million active and retired workers and their families. The association has a strong interest in proposals affecting its members' ability to deliver those benefits, their cost and their effectiveness, as well as the role of those benefits in the American economy.

7/9: Issue briefs and White Papers from ERIC:
- 01-01-97 The Success of Health Care Reform Depends On Nationally Uniform Health Care Standards
- 01-01-97 Costly, Overlapping & Inconsistent Regulation Is Reduced By Nationally Uniform Standards
- 01-01-97 Needs of Local Medical Markets Are Best Served By Nationally Uniform Health Care Standards
- 01-01-97 Creating an Environment That Fosters Innovation and Experimentation Requires Nationally Uniform Standards
- 01-01-97 Successful Employer-Provided Health Plans Depend on Nationally Uniform Standards
- 01-01-97 Needs of Both Rural and Urban Consumers are Best Serve by Nationally Uniform Health Standards
- 01-01-97 Major Costs Imposed on Individuals, Providers and Employers By State Control of Health Care System
- 08-08-96 Getting the Job Done: A White Paper on Emerging Pension Issues (Executive Summary & Downloadable File)

7/9: How to Gauge What Employees Really Think Of Your 401(k) Plan, from the Institute on Management and Administration (IOMA)'s Managing 401(k) Plans.

7/9: The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans is pleased to announce the completion and availability of a research project on economically targeted investing. The 32-page report, The Feasibility of Economically Targeted Investing -- A Wisconsin Case Study, is authored by Dr. Marc Levine, Director of the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Center for Economic Development. While focusing on Wisconsin, the report is of general interest to the public and private pension fund communities both in the U.S. and Canada. To request a FREE copy, send your name and mailing address via e-mail to research@ifebp.org and ask for the ETI report. You may also phone (414) 786-6710 ext. 8445, FAX (414)-786-8670 Attn. Research, or write Research Dept., IFEBP, P.O. Box 69, Brookfield, WI 53008-0069.

7/9: U.S. News and World Report's 1997 Retirement Guide (6/2/97).

7/9: From U.S. News and World Report (6/9/97): Playing The 401(k) Game (You May Be Choosing The Wrong Funds And Saving Too Much). Excerpt:
What's not to love about 401(k) retirement plans? Fill out a few forms, the pre-tax dollars go pouring in, and the magic of compounding takes over. The only real decision is figuring out which funds to put inside the plan--and that's not hard. Then you relax, knowing that your beloved 401(k) and its tax-deferred halo will protect your savings from Uncle Sam's grasp and make sure your money gets the best return possible.
Don't get too comfortable. You may shortchange yourself by following the old rules of thumb. Recent studies show that the 401(k) is such a mighty investment vehicle that almost anyone can amass an impressive amount of savings, and that could mean a big tax bite when you cash in. What's more, you may be picking the wrong kind of mutual fund to put in your tax-deferred plan.

7/9: T. Rowe Price has a dandy retirement savings calculator online.

7/8: Kewl. Satellite photo of the eastern and middle portion of the U.S. mainland, updated twice a day from the GOES-8 weather satellite! And here's the west coast, Alaska and Hawaii, from the GOES-9 weather satellite.

7/8: Did you know that you can fetch the full text of IRS official News Releases from the IRS' fileserver, at http://www.fedworld.gov/ftp/irs-news/irs-news.htm?

7/8: Did you know that you can fetch the full text of many recently-issued Treasury regulations from the IRS' fileserver, at http://www.fedworld.gov/ftp/irs-regs/irs-regs.htm?

7/8: Did you know that you can fetch each week's Internal Revenue Bulletin from the IRS' fileserver, at http://www.fedworld.gov/ftp/irs-irbs/irs-irbs.htm? Note: these are in Portable Document (PDF) format. (Use the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view them.)

7/8: The following benefits-related item was added to the "Recently Issued Reports" page on the U.S. Government Accounting Office's World Wide Web site (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/newtitle.htm) in Portable Document (PDF) format. (Use the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view it.)
- Federal Workforce: Agencies' Policies and Views on Flexiplace in the Federal Government. GGD-97-116. 19 pp. plus 5 appendices (15 pp.) July 3, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/gg97116.pdf

7/8: Correcting Use of Incorrect Compensation Limit for a Profit Sharing Plan Contribution (Part 2). More answers in the popular Question and Answer column, Q&A for Plan Defects: Correction/VCR/CAP:
QUESTION 37: A reader asks: What is the "required" correction under the IRS' remedial programs for using incorrect compensation amounts when allocating a profit sharing contribution in a 401(k) plan?
ANSWER (click here)

On May 22, 1997, the Labor Department released two long-awaited advisory opinions addressing a number of ERISA issues raised where mutual funds pay administrative and other fees (including so-called "12b-1 fees") to banks, trust companies, pension consultants, recordkeepers and other service providers to 401(k) and other defined contribution plans. DOL Advisory Opinion 97-16A (May 22, 1997) (the "Aetna Opinion") and 97-15A (May 22, 1997) (the "Frost National Bank Opinion"). Together, these two advisory opinions favorably resolve the key question presented by "alliances" and other bundled services arrangements that combine trust and custodial services, administrative services, and mutual funds as plan investment options, by explaining that, so long as a fiduciary does not exercise any authority or control to "cause" a plan to invest in a mutual fund, the fiduciary will not violate the anti-kickback prohibition under ERISA §406(b)(3) by receiving fees from mutual funds in connection with plan investments.
Importantly, Labor Department staff has confirmed that the analysis applies to directed (or non-discretionary) trustees as well as to recordkeepers and other service providers. Therefore, as long as a directed trustee does not exercise any fiduciary authority or control to cause plan investments in mutual funds, or provide investment advice (of the type that results in fiduciary status) in connection with a plan's investment in mutual funds, the directed trustee would not violate ERISA §406(b)(3) by receiving fees from mutual funds in connection with plan investments.

7/7 - House and Senate Complete Work On Budget Reconciliation Bills (from the Web site of the Association of Private Pension and Welfare Plans, for the week ending 7/4/97)

7/7 - Planning Your Expenses Is As Important As Investing, says columnist Scott Burns of the Dallas Morning News.

7/7 - Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman, Chairman of the PBGC Board of Directors, has appointed David M. Strauss, a senior White House official, as Executive Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

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