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The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has proposed updates to accounting standards for defined benefit and defined contribution plans. The FASB Emerging Issues Task Force put together the proposals, which are contained in an FASB Exposure Draft issued on April 23.The topics the exposure...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) has filed a lawsuit alleging that a profit-sharing plan lost more than $4 million when fiduciaries engaged in self-dealing and conflicted transactions involving plan assets when they caused the plan to pay excessive fees.Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central...
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The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has updated its treatment of the measurement date of an employer’s defined benefit obligation and plan assets. The FASB issued the update in Accounting Standards Update 2015-04, “Compensation — Retirement Benefits” (Topic 715). The proposals apply to...
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The headlines are all about the impact of the Department of Labor’s new fiduciary proposal on financial advisors — but the effects could be widespread, extending to third-party administrators (TPAs) and recordkeepers as well.On May 5, an ASPPA webcast will bring you up to speed on the historical...
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Available through June 23, 2016Speakers: Raymond D. Berry, MSPA, ASA, MAAA, EA, Grant Thornton LLP and John R. Markley, FSPA, ASA, MAAA, EA, Markley Actuarial Services, Inc. Access the webcast outline here!The Society of Actuaries issued updated mortality...
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Target-date funds continued to receive the majority of new contributions into individuals’ accounts in March, according to the AonHewitt 401(k) Index.In March that meant that $498 million, or 36% of the total contributions, went into TDFs, followed by large U.S. equity funds, which drew 20% of the...
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A new legislative proposal wouldn’t just require employers to offer a retirement plan — it would mandate employer contributions too.The proposal, unveiled by Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, would direct employers with 10 or more employees to open individualized...
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Recent reports have suggested that the IRS may soon be placing strict limitations on the ability of plan sponsors to obtain a determination letter for individually designed plans.At this year’s ASPPA Chicago Regional Conference, Sunita Lough, Commissioner of the IRS Tax Exempt and Governmental...
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The Department of Labor will not extend the 75-day comment period for its conflict-of-interest rule, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said April 23.Asked about his response to requests by industry groups to extend the comment period, ThinkAdvisor reports that Perez said: “The comment period is 75 days...
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The IRS in a recently released private letter ruling (PLR) said that transfers of surplus pension assets can be used to cover health benefits funded under a Code Section 401(h) account. The IRS issued PLR 201511044 on Dec. 19, 2014 to the company that requested it, but only recently made it public....
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Editor’s Note: Gail Lowney Alofsin will be among the featured speakers at the upcoming ASPPA Women Business Leaders Forum to be held June 8-11 at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, S.C. For more information on the Women Business Leaders Forum and to register, click here.From our earliest years...
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ASPPA is always providing information and insights that will be valuable to its members! Following is a summary of upcoming webcasts and events.Live WebcastsDeferral Election Trouble SpotsTuesday, April 28, 20152:00 p.m. - 3:40 p.m. ETSpeaker: Robert M. Richter, J.D., LL.M., APM; Vice President,...
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For an increasing number of Americans, work is not just the place where they go to earn money to support themselves, it’s where they also expect to learn how much of that income should be saved for retirement. And according to a new Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey, a growing number of...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has proposed a new requirement that multiemployer plans file certain forms electronically. If the PBGC issues the proposed requirement in final form, it would be applicable to filings made on or after Jan. 1, 2016.The PBGC proposes that the following...
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The ASPPA Membership Directory will be expanded to once again include member email addresses, effective May 1.As a member benefit, ASPPA provides an online ASPPA Membership Directory that allows members to connect with each other. That directory had included member email addresses until last fall...
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The 2015 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald & Associates finds that the nation’s retirement confidence continues to rebound from the record lows experienced between 2009 and 2013 — but exclusively among those who, directly or...
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On April 15, the American Retirement Association joined with other industry stakeholders in releasing a statement to the Senate Finance Committee working group on Savings and Investment. The statement highlights the significance of the employer-sponsored retirement plans and individual savings...
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“Don’t sweat the small stuff.” Not always good advice — in fact, in the case of the Form 5500, it’s bad advice. The IRS found in its 401(k) Nonqualified Plans Project that plan sponsors sometimes enter information on the form that indicate that their plan is not qualified. But they don’t mean to —...
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The funded status of certain private sector defined benefit plans lost ground in 2014, according to a recently released study. The aggregate funded status among the TW Pension 100 fell eight percentage points to 81%, Towers Watson reports. The TW Pension 100 is composed of sponsors of the 100...
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