Advertisement
Technical Resources
Critics of 401(k)s argue that they will not deliver on what they promised. But MSN Money reports that the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) has provided empirical evidence that their assessments may be very much off the mark. To illustrate, EBRI examines the way workers age 25-29 save for...
READ MORE
You were sure your filing with the IRS was accurate, but you double checked and found that you made a mistake. It’s tempting to stand pat and hope that the IRS won’t notice, but you know it could — and that could have negative ramifications. What to do? Remember that there is another option: the...
READ MORE
Defined benefit plans, DC plans and 403(b) annuity arrangements, take note: July 31 is right around the corner. That’s the day by which most plans must file the dreaded and onerous Form 5500. The clock is ticking on filing the form that reports on 2013. The form must be filed by the end of the...
READ MORE
The ink is barely dry on the legislation that raised the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) premiums, and already there is a proposal to hike them again. In an op-ed that appears in Roll Call, Judy Miller, ASPPA’s Director of Retirement Policy, writes about the prospect and what it means...
READ MORE
Generally, federal law requires employee benefit plans with 100 or more participants to have an audit as part of their obligation to file a Form 5500. Note that some pension plans with fewer than 100 participants also may be required to have an audit if they fail to meet certain conditions relating...
READ MORE
Adding fuel to the fire, an attack on the IRA rollover industry by Bloomberg cites numerous examples of advisors preying on retirees rolling their 401(k) money into IRAs. One expert claims that IRAs are the “Wild West,” with limited oversight and regulation. The report focuses on one advisor who...
READ MORE
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 412(d)(2) was originally enacted as part of ERISA over 40 years ago. (The language was moved to its current statutory location by the Pension Protection Act of 2006.) It provides that certain plan amendments adopted after the close of the plan year may be given...
READ MORE
Funds held in inherited IRAs are not retirement funds and must be included in a bankruptcy estate, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 12. The Court’s 9-0 ruling in Clark v. Rameker, No. 13-299 (U.S. 6/12/14), aff’d 714 F.3d 559 (7th Cir. 2013)) was definitive in drawing a distinction between...
READ MORE
ASPPA has suggested ways in which the Department of Labor could improve the proposed amendment to the Section 408(b)(2) fee disclosure regulations. Click here to view ASPPA’s letter to John Canary, director of the Office of Regulations and Interpretations at the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security...
READ MORE
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) has asked Labor Secretary Tom Perez to look at potential conflicts of interest among pension consultants that recommend their own investments to clients, The Wall Street Journal reports. The trend is for consultants, whose margins are getting squeezed, to manage money...
READ MORE
Many sobering reports have been issued regarding the degree to which U.S. workers are preparing — or not — for retirement. The Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Personal Savings Initiative (PSI) may not be the first effort that seeks to help turn the tide of poor savings rates, but it has heft and...
READ MORE
Plan sponsors are committed to helping plan participants prepare for their retirement, says a study Brightwork conducted for the Principal Financial Group. The study looked at the responses of 283 plan sponsors, all of whom offer a 401(k), have more than 50 eligible employees and use the services...
READ MORE
The federal government and U.S. workers agree that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — a.k.a. Obamacare — will affect the timing of retirements. However, IFAwebnews reports that there’s a wide gap between what the government and many workers expect that effect to be, according to a survey conducted for...
READ MORE
When it comes to having sufficient funds during retirement, expectations are low and fears rife everywhere, according to a recent study. In “The Changing Face of Retirement: The Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey 2014,” the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and Aegon polled 16,000 employees...
READ MORE
Employees who are terminated may be gone, but they’re not always forgotten — at least regarding the retirement plan. A growing number of plans allow terminated employees to live on as participants, notes Robert Leahy of Alliance Benefit Group. How many plans do this? According to Leahy, 12 percent...
READ MORE
Fear of running out of money during retirement is common, but it’s mitigated by interest in saving — the importance of which is not lost on younger employees, according to a new BoA Merrill Lynch report. The Spring 2014 Merrill Edge Report is based on a semi-annual study that looks at the concerns...
READ MORE
Relying on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision in Owens v. Auto Machinists Pension Trust, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in Boulds v. Nielsen that the benefits payable from an ERISA-covered defined benefit plan can be divided between domestic partners as “marital property” pursuant to...
READ MORE
The so-called DoL “conflict of interest rule for investment advice” — formerly known as the fiduciary redefinition rule — has been delayed until January 2015. The delay was revealed in a posting of the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which notes that...
READ MORE
More than 90 percent of the plan sponsors that filed their final Form 5500 filings the IRS Employee Plans Compliance Unit (EPCU) examined in its “Final Return With Assets Project” had at least one error, the IRS reports. Final Forms 5500 are required even if a plan has been exempt from filing a...
READ MORE
A May 21 Senate Finance subcommittee hearing that purported to be about strengthening Social Security morphed into a critical discussion of the merits of the defined contribution system and industry. Testifying at the hearing held by the committee’s Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and...
READ MORE