Nevin Adams

Summary Judgment Moves (Mostly) Fall Short in Proprietary Fund Suit

By Nevin Adams 11/27/2018

Both parties in a proprietary fund suit lost most of their attempts to make their case without going to trial. The ruling from Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California involved two separate suits brought by participants in Franklin Templeton’s 401(k)... READ MORE

A Government ‘Bailout’ for Multiemployer Plans?

By Nevin Adams 11/26/2018

With time running out for the 115th Congress, a controversial solution to a looming pension crisis has emerged. The crisis involves the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) Multiemployer Program, which currently has a deficit of $53.9 billion, and while that is down from $65.0 billion at... READ MORE

A ‘Retirement Ready’ Thanksgiving List

By Nevin Adams 11/21/2018

Thanksgiving has been called a “uniquely American” holiday, and though that is perhaps something of an overstatement, it is unquestionably a special holiday, and one on which it seems appropriate to reflect on all for which we should be thankful. And so… I’m thankful that participants, by and... READ MORE

Plaintiffs Drop Claims Against Matrix in TPA Suit

By Nevin Adams 11/21/2018

Two plaintiffs in a class action suit against third-party administrator Vantage Benefits and custodian Matrix Trust company have voluntarily dismissed without prejudice their lawsuit against the latter. The two plaintiffs, who are Texas A&M University retirees, voluntarily dismissed their... READ MORE

Cali Comments on CalSavers ERISA Preemption Challenge

By Nevin Adams 11/20/2018

In response to a federal court request, Golden State officials have elaborated on why CalSavers – the state’s state-run automatic IRA program for private sector workers – isn’t preempted by ERISA. The comments came in a brief (Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Ass’n v. Calif. Secure Choice Ret. Savings... READ MORE

Better Than Average(s)

By Nevin Adams 11/19/2018

Nobody likes to be thought of as “average” – so why do people spend so much time worrying about the “average” 401(k) balance? These averages are reported with some regularity by any number of providers (based on the records for which they have access), and sometimes by academics drawn from... READ MORE

Senate Finance Democrats Unveil Bill to Boost Saver’s Credit, Resurrect MyRA

By Nevin Adams 11/19/2018

A group of Senate Democrats have introduced a bill “designed to help more working families and middle-class Americans save for retirement” – and it brings back MyRA. The legislation – the Encouraging Americans to Save Act (EASA) – enhances retirement savings incentives by: restructuring the... READ MORE

IRS Issues New Guidance on Hardship Distributions

By Nevin Adams 11/12/2018

With the impetus of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, the IRS has provided for comment some much-anticipated new proposed regulations on hardship distributions. Generally speaking, the changes will make it easier for participants to get, and to get more, when requesting a hardship distribution –... READ MORE

The Birth of a Notion

By Nevin Adams 11/9/2018

“Unintended consequences” are generally a bad thing. But not always. The 401(k), for example. We have just celebrated the birthday of the 401(k) – the anniversary of the day on which the Revenue Act of 1978 – which included a provision that became Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Sec. 401(k) – was... READ MORE

Settlement Struck in Proprietary Fund Suit

By Nevin Adams 11/8/2018

The parties in yet another proprietary fund suit have come to terms, rather than go to trial. The defendants here are Jackson National, sued by an employee/participant (Becky A. Matthews Pease) who had charged that 89% of the $608,784,892 in plan assets were “…invested in high cost and poorly... READ MORE

Multiplication ‘Fables’

By Nevin Adams 11/2/2018

Did you hear the one about loan defaults adding up to $2.5 trillion in potential retirement savings shortfalls over the next 10 years? How about the “$210 Billion Risk in Your 401(k)”? Those reports were based on an “analysis” by Deloitte that claims to find that “…more than $2 trillion in... READ MORE

5 Things That (Should) Scare Plan Fiduciaries

By Nevin Adams 11/2/2018

Halloween is the time of year when one’s thoughts turn to trick-or-treat, ghosts and goblins, and things that go bump in the night. But what are the things that keep – or should keep – plan fiduciaries up at night? Well, there are the things like… Getting Sued The headlines are (still) full of... READ MORE

Schlichter Appeals Tibble Fee Decision

By Nevin Adams 10/31/2018

The law firm of Schlichter, Bogard & Denton LLP is back in court – challenging a district court’s decision on awarding fees in an excessive fee case. The firm is looking to collect $964,212 in fees to consultants and expert witnesses in the case of Tibble v. Edison – a case that over the... READ MORE

Indictments Handed Down in TPA Embezzlement Case

By Nevin Adams 10/25/2018

A federal grand jury in Texas has indicted Jeffrey and Wendy Richie on claims that they stole $14.5 million from at least 1,000 plan participants in at least 20 retirement plans. The Richies – Jeffrey, the President and CEO of Vantage Benefits Administrators Inc., and Wendy, VP of Administration... READ MORE

OMB Completes Review of Proposed MEP Rules

By Nevin Adams 10/18/2018

The Office of Management and Budget has completed its review of the Labor Department’s proposal for expanding access to multiple employer retirement plans. It was less than a month ago that the Labor Department delivered its proposed rule to OMB, which in turn was less than a month after President... READ MORE

Welcome to the New ASPPA-Net.org!

By Nevin Adams 10/16/2018

As you can see, the ASPPA website looks different – cleaner, more modern, and certainly better when viewed on a mobile device, as a growing number of members do. While we have retained nearly all of the resources previously available on the old site, we have done some reorganizing, and retitled... READ MORE

The ‘Storm’ of Your Lifetime

By Nevin Adams 10/12/2018

The tail end of hurricane season — and more specifically the disastrous flooding of Hurricane Florence — brins to mind my last serious brush with nature’s fury. It was 2011, and we had just dropped our youngest off for his first semester of college in North Carolina, stopped off long enough in... READ MORE

‘Puzzle’ Pieces

By Nevin Adams 10/11/2018

Academics have long agonized over something they call the annuitization puzzle. Simply stated, the thing academics can’t quite understand is the reluctance of American workers to embrace annuities as a distribution option for their retirement savings. Some of that is because they assume workers... READ MORE

Ready for a Government-Run 401(k)?

By Nevin Adams 10/3/2018

Legislation has been introduced in the U. S. House of Representatives that would create a parallel government-run retirement savings program – and one that could undermine the 401(k), particularly for small business owners.The Portable Retirement and Investment Act of 2018 (H.R. 6990), just... READ MORE

Data ‘Minding’

By Nevin Adams 10/1/2018

Just when you thought retirement plan projections couldn’t get any worse… Last week the National Institute on Retirement Security released a report – “Retirement in America | Out of Reach for Most Americans?” that claimed that the median retirement account balance among all working individuals is... READ MORE

You are here

Nevin Adams

Pages

Most Popular