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ASEA Monthly
It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon. The first State of the Union address from President Trump was to take place that evening. No one expected any interesting government releases before the speech. At 3:30 p.m., I made my routine check of the Tax Court website for opinions that were issued.[1] There...
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Matt Rustige
For the longest time, it seemed an unwritten rule that the safe and wise path of a defined benefit plan termination should include an IRS Determination Letter request. However, this approach seems to have come under much more scrutiny in recent years by sponsors and advisors of plans...
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The ASPPA College of Pension Actuaries (ACOPA) has named longtime IRS executive Martin Pippins as its new Executive Director and Director of Regulatory Policy, effective May 1.
Pippins, a 30-year veteran of the IRS, served most recently as Director, Customer Service & Stakeholder Relations for...
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Roman Androsov, Director of Actuarial Services at PenSys, Inc., has written an article explaining how the new 20% qualified business income deduction under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act works and how it may affect incentives to set up plans. Click here to view the 16-page article in pdf...
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On Dec. 7, 2017, I attended an Actuarial Standards Board (ASB) meeting. I had never attended an ASB meeting and was curious. Revisions to pension ASOPs 27 and 35 were on the agenda. So, I notified the Academy office that I planned to attend, booked my airfare and I was off to DC!
As an observer,...
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For the 2017 ASPPA Annual Conference, I agreed to do the session on defined benefit topics that were not covered in other sessions. The description of the session indicated that one of the topics that I would cover was the accrual rules.
“Easy enough,” I thought, and did not give it much more...
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The IRS has finally issued an updated revenue procedure providing automatic approval for certain changes in funding method for single-employer plans that reflects the provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) and IRC § 430.
Rev. Proc. 2017-56 replaces Rev. Proc. 2000-40, and formally...
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It is quite common for defined benefit plans to define optional benefit forms based upon the actuarial equivalence (AE) definition in the plan document. While this is most common for smaller plans, it is not unheard of among medium sized and larger plans as well. A recent situation led me to ask a...
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I recently caught up with Judy Miller, ACOPA’s former Executive Director. Here are Judy’s reflections on her plans for retirement, ACOPA, the state of the industry and more.
Judy, your retirement has been announced. What are your retirement plans? Are there “bucket list” things you’re planning...
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On Oct. 3, 2017, the IRS released Notice 2017-60, which summarizes rules provided in regulations released Oct. 5, 2017 in regard to 2018 mortality and mortality improvement tables. The rules are to be used for the following:
Minimum funding calculations under IRC §430 for single employer...
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In the pension world, the word “disaster” is often applied to new laws, regulations or proposed tax or benefit reforms. We also refer to the usual weather-related events of hurricanes, floods and tornados as disasters. This article is concerned with impact of the weather-related disasters and the...
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Hi everyone. I hope those of you in the hurricane-affected areas are coping with the massive disruptions to your lives. Things like 9/15 deadlines become trivial when you’ve been evacuated from your home, your home is under water, or you have no power for an extended time. As I’m sitting here on 9/...
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It was a dark and stormy night when Snoopy the dog took a call from a potential client. The client quickly told Snoopy that he had just sold his business and his accountant advised him to contact an actuary about setting up a defined benefit plan that would be funded through the proceeds from the...
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The IRS issued Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2017-41 on June 30, 2017, which makes significant changes to the IRS pre-approved plan program. This Rev. Proc. will affect the submission of pre-approved defined contribution plans to the IRS with a new deadline of Oct. 1, 2018. Defined benefit plans...
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I thought that since we have just had our elections, it would be a good time to write about the importance of elections for ACOPA.Of all the actuarial and other professional organizations, ACOPA is the only one I know of that has so many of its leadership positions subject to a full, free and fair...
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Living in Jacksonville, FL, my wife Tiffany and I love to stay fit and take advantage of the great outdoors. She plays competitive tennis on a team at Deercreek Country Club; I alternate days with gym training (TRX, cross-fit, etc.) and cycling. I ride my hybrid bike about 15 miles before work on...
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Hi there, readers. I trust you are all enjoying summer and its long days, the gin and tonics, the BBQ’s, the camping, the 100 mosquito bites in one night… Okay, that was me last week camping at the foot of the Steens Mountains in eastern Oregon. No kidding, about 100 bites on me the first night...
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Preparing the Schedule SB is typically a basic task that pension actuaries must complete. However, while preparing the 2016 SB for a terminated plan, I questioned how to report certain transactions.This plan had a plan year ending December 31 and more than 300 participants, and terminated effective...
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All of us have them – plans that are underfunded and PBGC-covered. Each and every one of these plans is subject to required quarterly contributions, and like it or not, most small plans don’t make required quarterly contributions. According to the PBGC, each of these missed required contributions...
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Happy Summer, ACOPA friends! There are some exciting things happening with The Actuarial Foundation these days. First, TAF has a new website that not only organizes the information in a more modern format, but also shows off our new look. We have spent the last year working on a new branding...
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