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Retirement Income
There have been significant changes to the IRS Pre-Approved Defined Contribution Plan Program, and two of the IRS officials involved in the thick of it recently provided a refresher on the program rules and recent developments.
Milo Atlas of the Retirement Plan Forms and Publications Office at...
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Washington—the state, not the city—is considering legislation that would establish a state-run retirement plan to cover those whose employers do not offer one.
If the legislation is enacted, the Evergreen State would join its Pacific Coast neighbors in providing such a plan. California was the...
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The benefits of delaying Social Security benefits are by now generally accepted. While not appropriate for everyone, waiting to age 70 (the maximum age allowed) means a 24% increase in benefits versus claiming at age 67 (full retirement age).
Add in the fact that benefits are inflation-linked and...
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The government should limit contributions or accumulations in tax-advantaged retirement plans—or tax the earnings each year—to address Social Security’s shortfall, a trio of high-profile industry academics argue in a new paper. It’s the latest in a string of controversial ideas that 401(k)...
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December’s Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) didn’t keep pace with inflation, but a new report says that Social Security beneficiaries could be riding an inflation rollercoaster this year, courtesy of 2023’s 8.7% COLA—alongside static income thresholds for taxation of benefits....
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Jan. 19 announced that it has chosen the firms that will participate in its Smaller Asset Managers Program (SAMP).
SAMP is intended to reduce barriers to competition and create opportunities for smaller asset investment management firms. SAMP...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) announced Jan. 18 that its Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) released a proposed regulation on automatic portability transactions under SECURE 2.0.
The DOL said automatic portability transactions aim to help workers keep track of their retirement...
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The IRS has issued final regulations updating the minimum present value requirements for pension plan distributions. The IRS issued the final regulations on Jan. 19.
The IRS had issued proposed regulations in 2016 that updated the minimum present value requirements for defined benefit plan...
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Plan professionals may find it useful to know that plan sponsors continue to make participants’ retirement security a priority, and are boosting their work to enhance it.
JP Morgan, in its fifth Defined Contribution Plan Sponsor Survey, which provides the results of an online survey of 788...
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Rhode Island is on the road to possibly becoming a member of the Secure Choice Club. A bill has been introduced in the state’s House of Representatives that would establish a state-run retirement program that would cover those whose employers do not offer one.
Rep. Evan P. Shanley (D-East...
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Often there can be confusion in more ways than one when trying to understand why actuaries report liabilities for defined benefit plans.
The reason actuaries report plan liabilities in different manners has to do with the interplay between interest rates, the economy, and the reporting purpose....
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The U.S. retirement system is a success—but we still can do better. That was the message from an expert panel that recently examined the gaps in that system and made suggestions regarding how to fill them.
Pete Swisher, Managing Partner at Group Plan Systems, and Annie Messer, President, Member...
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The IRS has issued initial guidance to help employers with implementation of pension-linked emergency savings accounts (PLESAs).
Authorized under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, PLESAs are individual accounts in defined contribution plans—designed to permit and encourage employees to save for...
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From New England to Key West, from the Atlantic to the Great Plains, there are bills before state legislatures that would expand retirement plan coverage for certain public-sector employees.
Rhode Island
Rep. Patricia Serpa (D-West Warwick) on Jan. 5 introduced HB 7026, a measure that would...
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“Best condition this century.” Or, “improved” but “fragile.” Both are characterizations of the state of pensions in 2023; which applies depends on which pension system one is talking about.
Better, But…
State and local pension plans saw improvement in 2023, but there is still plenty of room for...
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Like a snowflake dancing on the breeze uncertain where to land, how private-sector pension plans fared was a bit indeterminate in December, according to a variety of analysts.
This continues the neither-fish-no-fowl results reported in November and that have held sway since August, with some...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has updated the instructions for filing premiums as well as the portal through which they can be filed.
Rules Are Rules
Sections 4006 and 4007 of ERISA and the PBGC’s Premium Regulations require that premiums be paid to the PBGC; every plan covered...
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With an increase in longevity and the demise of corporate pension plans, it is hardly a surprise to note there are more “older” Americans in the workforce, at least when analyzing demographic trends in recent decades.
Pew Research Center recently did just that—quantifying how quickly the cohort is...
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A new study finds that two-thirds of people are confident they will be able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle in retirement, but diving deeper into the data shows that sentiment varies dramatically across demographic segments.
Overall, roughly 1 in 4 Americans (24%) strongly agree they are...
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There is a “common wisdom” in our business that suggests that all plan sponsors are, more or less, alike; that large plans are the inevitable early adopters of trends that, sooner or later, trickle down to plans of all sizes.
Consequently, those who make their living trying to discern trends and...
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