That’s Bloc Party, a British indie rock block pictured above. And If it can be broken then it can be fixed is the opening line from Pioneers, one of the tracks on Silent Alarm, their 2005 debut album. The album was crafted by chief lyricist Kele Okereke to examine the feelings and hopes of young … Continue Reading
Classic rock bands never go away. They keep on touring, and are rediscovered by new generations of music fans. Kinda like, those classic tax planning techniques that are being rediscovered by new generations of business owners. One of those oldies, but goodies is buying life insurance through a profit sharing or 401(k) plan. In today’s … Continue Reading
If you’ve been around retirement plans for any length time, you’ll know that the acronym QDRO (one of many in the benefit business) stands for Qualified Domestic Relations Order. It’s a court order that creates a right for an alternative payee to receive some or all of a participant’s benefits in a qualified retirement … Continue Reading
Whether your preference is Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, or now Daniel Craig, the James Bond character has been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date. The Bond movies started in 1962 with Dr. No. For us ERISA people, our Bond originated … Continue Reading
It’s already the middle of July, and for many retirement plan sponsors Form 5500 will be due by the end of this month unless extended. And if you’re a plan sponsor whose 5500 must include an ERISA audit, selecting a plan auditor is a fiduciary function. Here is a link to my column in the July issue of … Continue Reading
You remember that classic labyrinth wooden maze game. It’s the toy that has captivated and challenged children and adults for generations. It takes concentration and dexterity to guide the steel ball through the maze to reach the winning position. Well, this is the 21st Century after all, and some folks from the Cowtown Computer Congress in Kansas … Continue Reading
There a lot of business myths out there. One of the most potentially dangerous is that there is a "7-Year Rule" and a "6-Year Rule" respectively for maintaining business and ERISA records. Both may be guidelines, but not the practical side of record retention. That’s the topic of my recent post over at my other … Continue Reading
You may be familiar with the PBS TV series, Antique Road Show. It’s that show that visits various cities in the U.S., and invites people to bring their unusual antiques and collectibles to be valued by appraisers. But sometimes, things go awry in these situations as shown in the video below – actually an advert … Continue Reading
This is the fourth in our EGTRRA Restatement Series, the purpose of which is to help retirement plan sponsors handle the required amendment and restatement of their retirement plans. Last week, I discussed plan document choices. Today’s post is about the Summary Plan Description ("SPD") and its distribution requirements – electronically speaking. For many retirement … Continue Reading
It’s the age-old story: worker classification, or rather misclassification. I wrote about it this past February, Independent Contractor or Employee? Employee Classification Still A High Priority Enforcement Matter.That was about the IRS auditing employers to determine whether those "independent contractors" were actually employees with required tax withholdings and possible inclusion in benefit plans. I cover … Continue Reading
See larger image. Inspired by today’s DOL-SEC Joint Hearing on Target Date Funds and Envestnet survey of employee understanding of target funds. … Continue Reading
Over at my other blog home, Slate’s Bizbox Blog today, I wrote about Staying Up-To-Date on Your Retirement Plan. Not up-to-date in terms of your plan document as I’m doing in our EGTRRA Restatement Series, but up-to-date in terms of the timely deposit of payroll taxes and employees’ 401(k) contributions. So an article by way … Continue Reading
If you provide retirement plan services, here’s a "must read" blog post by our fellow blogger, Bob Toth, Of Counsel to Giller and Calhoun. Bob writes about The SEC’s and DOL’s Cross Agency Retirement Plan "Compliance Waltz". Bob’s post also includes a link to his article of the same name that appears in the May-June … Continue Reading
Remember the classic “Greed is good” speech by Gordon Gekko as played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 Oliver Stone classic, Wall Street. Here’s Douglas in his 1988 Academy Award winning role telling us why "greed is good": Fast forward to today at a time when greed is viewed quite differently. It’s one those psychological elements behind … Continue Reading
Here is a link to my column in the May issue of Employee Benefit news about how automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans boosts 401(k) participation. (Free registration may be required). This is the first of the monthly columns I will be writing for Employee Benefit news – an employee benefit publication which provides free newsletters, seminars and podcasts … Continue Reading
Suppose you’re a plan sponsor that wants to increase 401(k) participation among your low income employees, what do you do? You know, of course, that employee financial education programs by themselves are not enough to influence a change in employee behavior. You might consider automatic enrollment. Automatic enrollment has been shown to raise 401(k) participation … Continue Reading
I’ve written about Solo-Ks before over at my other blog home, Slate’s BizBox. (See The Wonderful Solo-K). It’s a special retirement plan for the self-employed or small business owner with no employees (other than their spouse) to establish 401(k) plans and to max out their deductible retirement plan. But as we creep toward 5500 filing … Continue Reading
Hardship distribution provisions in 401(k) used to be one of those retirement plan matters on which plan sponsors didn’t spend a whole lot of time. Lately, however, that’s not the case. From our vantage point, we’re seeing more requests for hardship distributions than ever before. That being the case, I’m going to take a few … Continue Reading
The album cover pictured above is of The Times They Are a-Changin’, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s third studio album, released in January 1964. The title track is one of Dylan’s most famous. Many at the time felt that it captured the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960s. Now let’s fast forward some … Continue Reading
Much of what’s out there on blogs is pretty vanilla at best. Except for those individuals that combine their expertise with a definite point of view. It’s makes for interesting reading and provides context for what’s going on in their particular field – and sometimes in the larger picture of the economy and business environment. … Continue Reading
With so much going on in the retirement plan arena, I nearly missed the subhead in Pensions & Investments article, Borzi strong on DC fee disclosure issue. (Free registration may be required). "Borzi", as those of us in the benefit business know, is Phyllis C. Borzi, just nominated by President Obama to be Assistant Secretary of … Continue Reading
Making complex ideas easy to understand is a topic I’ve blogged about before. Last month, I blogged, I asked you what time it is, not how to make a watch, which included Jonathan Jarvis’ excellent video The Crisis of Credit Visualized. Here’s another example. It’s the video, Investing Money in Plain English. It was created by Common Craft, superbly talented producers … Continue Reading
Maybe the visual metaphor is an extreme answer to the question raised above. But asset allocation for participants investing their accounts in employer stock seems to be an investment strategy on the decline. Asset allocation is, of course, that strategy of a 401(k) participant distributing his or her investments among different asset classes so as to … Continue Reading
