John Iekel

Advisory Committee: Eliminating Periodic Determination Letters ‘Shortsighted’

By John Iekel 6/10/2016

The general elimination of periodic determination letters was “shortsighted,” the Employee Plans Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities says in its 2016 Report of Recommendations. In Announcement 2015-19, issued on July 21, 2015, the IRS outlined changes to the... READ MORE

5 Keys to a Successful Web Program

By John Iekel 5/20/2016

Increasingly, a plan’s digital platform — both website and mobile — is becoming participants’ main point of contact with the plan, upping the ante on the quality and efficiency of the user experience. What can consumer research tell us about doing a better job of fulfilling users’ digital... READ MORE

Educating Our Way Out of America’s Undersaving Problem

By John Iekel 5/13/2016

America faces “a huge undersaving problem that will catch up with us,” warned participants at a recent panel discussion of financial literacy and retirement readiness.The May 6 session at LIMRA’s 2016 Retirement Industry Conference included Angela Dicastri, Director, Retirement Market, at... READ MORE

EBRI-ERF Forum Traces Retirement Challenges and Solutions

By John Iekel 5/13/2016

How can we best address the challenges we face concerning retirement security? Speakers at the Employee Benefit Research Institute-Education Research Fund policy forum held May 12 in Washington, D.C. offered ideas from several perspectives.“It’s a crisis for you if you’re not prepared,” said G.... READ MORE

Retirement Readiness: Risks and Perceptions

By John Iekel 5/12/2016

How financially ready are most Americans for retirement? What threatens pre-retirees’ financial stability during the accumulation phase? A May 5 session at LIMRA’s 2016 Retirement Industry Conference offered some hard data on perceptions of — and risks to — retirement readiness.Andrew Peterson,... READ MORE

Whither Robo-Advisors?

By John Iekel 5/5/2016

*/ Has the future of robo-advisors arrived?Not just yet, according to Howard Schneider, president of the consulting and research firm Practical Perspectives, and Conor McGuinness, director of policy and compliance at Nyhart Actuary and Employee Benefits.Speaking at a May 4 session at the 2016... READ MORE

Congressional Research Service Issues In-Depth Report on Fiduciary Rule

By John Iekel 11/9/2015

No proposed regulation has generated more activity, discussion and controversy this year than the proposed fiduciary rule the Department of Labor (DOL) re-issued in April. As the DOL prepares the final iteration of the rule, it may be useful to look back on how this all came about and what it... READ MORE

Elevator Pitches — and Retaining a Client's Loyalty

By John Iekel 10/27/2015

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of Plan Consultant. Any elevator you’re on likely is library-quiet as the dictates of unspoken social etiquette demand. But it nonetheless does afford a unique opportunity for communication and that most ideal of audiences: a captive one. An... READ MORE

Remember the Nuances of Determining Lump Sum Benefits

By John Iekel 10/23/2015

Sometimes when one walks through the woods, they can be quite thick. In fact, one can get lost in them if one is not careful. In an Oct. 21 session at the ASPPA Annual Conference, James E. Holland, Chief Research Actuary for Cheiron and former manager of the Employee Plans Division of the IRS Tax-... READ MORE

Everything We Do Is Service

By John Iekel 10/22/2015

How do you manage client relationships and expectations? At an Oct. 20 session at the 2015 ASPPA Annual Conference, Norman Levinrad, President and Chief Actuary of Summit Benefit and Actuarial Services, offered practical tips and insights. The core of his message: It’s all about service.What does... READ MORE

Borzi: DOL Seeks Easier State Embrace of ERISA

By John Iekel 10/20/2015

The Department of Labor is seeking to make it easier for states to fit within the framework of ERISA in their efforts to establish state-run retirement plans, says Phyllis C. Borzi, head of the Employee Benefits Security Administration.Borzi spoke at an Oct. 20 session of the 2015 ASPPA Annual... READ MORE

IRS' Lough: Look to Web, Not Email, for Help

By John Iekel 10/20/2015

The IRS will not backtrack on its recent decision to stop answering questions by email and no longer forward questions sent to IRS Customer Account Services, Commissioner of the IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division Sunita Lough said at an Oct. 20 update on federal agency activity at the... READ MORE

Regulatory Update: Confusion, Conflict, Intransigence

By John Iekel 10/19/2015

Current regulatory issues facing the retirement industry, its professionals and participants were highlighted in a lively Oct. 19 general session at the 2015 ASPPA Annual Conference.American Retirement Association General Counsel Craig Hoffman, who headlined the session, noted at the outset the... READ MORE

Virtue Ethics: Integrating Your Private and Professional Lives

By John Iekel 10/19/2015

“Ethics is in our daily life,” says Michael P. Coyne, President of Waldheger Coyne, at “Professionalism and Ethics Case Studies: Going Beyond Circular 230,” a workshop session he presented at the 2015 ASPPA Annual Conference Oct. 19.Coyne observed that Circular 230 is central to government... READ MORE

Kaplan: Tread Carefully with Hardship Distributions

By John Iekel 10/19/2015

Hardship distributions are intended to serve as an emergency source of revenue to meet an immediate need. But they are not a panacea and are not to be taken lightly — by plan participants and their employers. Robert M. Kaplan, Vice President, National Training Consultant at Voya Financial, offered... READ MORE

Cats in an Open Field

By John Iekel 9/7/2015

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2015 issue of Plan Consultant. To view a PDF version, please click here.Put 50 cats in a field. They’ll head off in all directions except for areas denied them. But there will be certain things they’ll agree on, like the urgency of finding that field... READ MORE

What’s Next in Online Enrollment?

By John Iekel 9/4/2015

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2015 issue of Plan Consultant. To view a PDF version, please click here.When one is part of a huge assemblage pouring inexorably forward, it can be instructive to step to the side and take a look back at the advancing crowd to take stock of the... READ MORE

Retirement Crisis: Real, or Hype?

By John Iekel 7/16/2015

“Have we got a crisis, or merely a series of hard problems?” That question, posed by American Enterprise Institute Resident Fellow Alex Pollock at a July 15 discussion at AEI’s Washington, DC offices, captured the ultimate issue the expert panel addressed.Charles Ellis, founder of Greenwich... READ MORE

DOL's Perez in Lively Hill Discussion on Fiduciary Proposal

By John Iekel 6/18/2015

The June 17 Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee hearing provided ample illustration that the debate on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary proposal is far from over. DOL Secretary Thomas E. Perez appeared before the subcommittee of the House Education and the Workforce... READ MORE

State Population Not Sole Factor in PBGC Benefits

By John Iekel 6/5/2015

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) paid $5.4 billion in benefits to 842,000 retirees nationwide in 2014, it has reported. It also has broken down that data by state, but it would be a mistake to assume that just because a state has a high population, it will therefore have one of the... READ MORE

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