What’s Coming Up: ASPPA Webcasts and Events

ASPPA is always providing information and insights that will be valuable to its members! Following is a summary of upcoming webcasts and events.

Live Webcasts

ASPPA Webcast: Win New Clients Using Point-of-Sale Plan Design

Wednesday, August 16, 2017
2:00 - 3:40 p.m. ET
Speaker: Pete Swisher, CPC, QPA, TGPC, Senior VP and National Sales Director, Pentegra Retirement Services

Clients want great ideas with simple explanations, not spreadsheets. The art of retirement plan design is not in the details but in the client interaction. This webcast reduces key concepts to plan design simplifiers and “back-of-the napkin” conversations that lead to client action.

ACOPA Webcast: Retiree Medical Valuations for Pension Actuaries

Thursday, August 17, 2017
2:00 - 3:40 p.m. ET
Speaker: Steven L. Diess, EA, MAAA, President, Independents Actuaries, Inc..; and Alan J. Stonewall, FSPA, Principal Consultant and Owner, Northwest Actuarial Consulting, LLC

What’s a pension actuary to do in a world with a shrinking client base? How about retiree medical valuation work? There are well over 100,000 public sector agencies in the U.S., and most of them have retiree medical benefits to value. This webcast points out that it doesn’t take a complete reinvention of yourself, just an understanding of how to apply the skills you already have in a slightly different way.

ASPPA Webcast: CB and DB Plans: Who, When and Why, Plus a Bit of What and How

Tuesday, August 29, 2017
2:00 - 3:40 p.m. ET
Speaker: Lorraine Dorsa, MSPA, Actuary, Aegis Pension Services, Inc.

Cash balance plans are quite the trendy option; for the right client, they are powerful ways to boost tax-qualified retirement savings and accumulate significant amounts at retirement. Cash balance plans also offer easy customization and coordination with the client’s existing defined contribution plans. This webcast is for anyone with an interest in how cash balance and defined benefit plans can work for closely held businesses in today’s environment and when and how to present them. It will be real-world and practical, not actuarial nor techie.

ASPPA Webcast: Ethics: Doing the Right Thing in Difficult Situations

Thursday, August 31, 2017
2:00 - 3:40 p.m. ET
Speaker: David Schultz, JD, APM, FIS Relius

Retirement plan professionals often find themselves in the middle of the competing financial interests of plan sponsors and participants, and determining right from wrong is not always an easy task. Personal and professional relationships and good intentions can make it difficult to choose the right path in difficult situations. This webcast will review the ethical standards the IRS and ARA/ASPPA established and present real-life examples to highlight good ethical decision making.

ASPPA Webcast: ESOPS and Business Transitions: Structuring a Win-Win-Win Succession Plan

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017
2:00 - 3:40 p.m. ET
Speakers: Kelly Finnell, Howard Kaplan, Carla Klingler, Michael McGinley, and Lee Swerdlin

In this webcast a panel of experienced ESOP consultants will seek to demystify some of the elements of ESOPs, from both technical and operational perspectives. Topics to be covered include transition strategies, tax implications, business valuation, fiduciary responsibilities, comparative ERISA plan administration and compliance, and growing a more productive “ownership culture.”

ASPPA Webcast: The Complex World of RMDs: A Case-Study Approach

Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017
2:00 - 3:40 p.m. ET
Speaker: William C. Grossman, ERPA, QPA

This webcast will address the very complex rules of required minimum distributions (RMDs) and the diverse circumstances a plan administrator faces in dealing with a variety of participant scenarios. It will offer real-life situations and solutions based on the guidance where it exists and best practice options for the gray areas we often encounter in the administration of plans. While this webcast will be devoted to DC plan RMDs, it also will briefly discuss DB RMDs as well aggregation of RMDs and participants with multiple plans over their lifetime.

ASPPA Webcast: Cybersecurity and Benefit Plans: What Service Providers and Employers Need to Know

Employers-Need-to-Know
Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017
2:00 - 3:40 p.m. ET
Speaker: Joseph J. Lazzarotti, CIPP, Attorney at Law, Jackson Lewis, PC

Businesses are slowly discovering the range of cyber risks facing them, including spear-phishing, ransomware, even their own employees. But many are not doing what they need to do and are woefully out of compliance. Just calling the “IT Guy” is not a good strategy. This webcast will get businesses started on a comprehensive approach to combating cyber risk and minimizing legal compliance risk.

ASPPA Webcast: Understanding and Addressing 403(b) Plan Operational Issues

Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017
2:00 - 3:40 p.m. ET
Speaker: Kelsey Mayo, Poyner Spruill LLP, Partner with Employee Benefits Group

403(b) plans have unique rules and therefore have unique problems. As with 401(a) plans, undiscovered errors can result in hefty sanctions, government audits, claims for benefits, and expensive remediation. This webcast will take an in-depth look at common operational errors that occur in 403(b) plans, how they often happen, how to avoid them, and (once discovered) how to correct them.