Cash Balance plans continue their impressive growth rate. Accordingly to the 2016 Cash Balance Research Report recently published by Kravitz, Inc., the number of new Cash Balance plans increased by 19% with assets increasing to $1 Trillion. Historical Background The actual number of Cash Balance Plan, 15,178, may not sound like much in the universe … 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
Every once in a while I’ll start to wander off into “Pensionspeak” when I’m talking to a client. And when I do, I’ll catch myself by remembering what one of our important business partners once told me when I started to get too technical. Or even technical at all depending on the audience. He told … Continue Reading
We welcome a new blog to the employee benefit blogging community. It’s the Business of Benefits, the focus of which is issues facing insurance companies, financial service providers, and plan sponsors. It’s being published by the law firm of Giller & Calhoun. The named partners are Evan Giller in New York City and Monica Dunn Calhoun, Denver. Bob Toth in Ft. Wayne, Indiana … Continue Reading
I was one of those commentators who ended last year on a “glass half empty” note when I characterized the 2008 retirement plan year as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Some commentators like Mark Miller were much more direct. Mr. Miller ended the year in his column that appears on his website, RetirementRevised, … Continue Reading
ERISA, of course, requires adherence to a host of deadlines, and the failure to meet some of them can have serious consequences for a retirement plan sponsor. Here’s a new batch of such deadlines added by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) that could affect defined benefit pension plans for 2008 calendar year plans. … Continue Reading
Fran Hawthorne is an accomplished journalist who over the last 20 years has specialized in finding and writing about the intersection of corporate America and timely and sometimes contentious social issues. She’s written articles for publications such as Fortune, Business Week, and Institutional Investor and has authored books on such issues as the dangers of … Continue Reading
I am honored to be a guest speaker at the 2008 Trust Forum sponsored by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) in San Antonio on April 14-16, 2008. The CSBS is the national organization for state bank supervisors, and the nations leading advocate for the state banking system. The Trust Forum is the annual … Continue Reading
See full-size image. If you’re confused about the various types of designations in the financial service marketplace, you’re not alone. Even the financial service industry and the regulators are having a hard time making sense of the alphabet soup of designations. The American College, a non-profit institution that provides financial services education, has been tracking … Continue Reading
Last year, I wrote that IRAs are becoming increasingly important, but rules can be confusing. And even more so when considering the rollover possibilities in moving benefits from one plan to another. Portability of benefits between IRAs, SEPs, SIMPLE IRAs, Roth IRAs, 401(k) plans, profit sharing plans, defined benefit plans, 457 plans, and 403(b) plans … Continue Reading
While cash balance litigation continues to wind its way through the courts, the long-term implications of these types of retirement plans have been generally ignored. That is until now. Richard W. Johnson and Cori E. Uccello have just authored a study, "Cash Balance Plans: What Do They Mean for Retirement Security?", published by the Urban … Continue Reading
Baseball fans and particularly Cub fans will recognize this picture of Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, “Mr. Cub”. Banks became well known for his catch phrase of, “It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame… Let’s play two!” In retirement plan terms, it’s the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) telling business owners that two retirement … Continue Reading
It’s the New Year, and it’s prediction time. So what’s ahead for employers in 2008? Paul Secunda in his post in The Workplace Prof Blog, 2008 Workplace Trends, points us to Diane Stafford’s predictions in the on-line edition of the Kansas City Star. Paul comments that These all sound right to me, and I would … Continue Reading
Click to make bigger. Inertia, in classical physics, is defined by Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary as: “a property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force.” In 401(k) plans, inertia can be defined as many eligible employees never signing up … Continue Reading
ABC7 Eyewitness News in New York has been reporting the story of planes at New York area airports landing low on fuel. On Thursday, the station reported they were given a memo by a Continental Airlines pilot that was sent by Continental’s senior flight operations director to the airlines 4,500 pilots. According to ABC7, while … Continue Reading
With much of the attention focused on the major provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA), there is a tax benefit available to low to moderate-income taxpayers that shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s the Saver’s Credit slated to expire after 2006 which the PPA made permanent., and it provides an added bonus to the increasing number of employees that … Continue Reading
The other day I wrote that the ERISA agencies have a full regulatory plate with the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Now here is the 2007-2008 Priority Guidance Plan that the IRS has just issued for retirement plans courtesy of McKay Hochman with a hat tip to Steve Brooks of our firm for bringing it … Continue Reading
I started to think about that question after reading Jonah Leher’s post, Don’t Read the Business Page, on The Frontal Lobe Blog. Mr. Leher tells us to ignore the mass media coverage about the stock market and the growing liquidity coverage because it’s too much information. He writes about the experiment that Harvard psychologist Paul … Continue Reading
That’s the metaphorical objective of any regulatory agency whose responsibility is to interpret and administer laws passed by Congress- to translate those laws into regulations, rules, and produres. Mitchell Port on his California Tax Attorney Blog gives us an initiation to understanding IRS guidance, excellent background for anyone who is involved with retirement plans, and especially the Pension … Continue Reading
If dealing with pension and fiduciary issues are getting you down, then you’ve got the Pension Tension Blues. Dr. Susan Mangiero, founder and President of Pension Governance, and Steve Zelin, the Singing CPA, have co-written a satirical song on the current state of affairs for retirement plan sponsors and participants. I’ll never see them on … Continue Reading
Earlier this month in my article, It ain’t over till it’s over, I discussed the insurance industry’s objection to stable value funds not being part of the Department of Labor (DOL) regulation for default funds. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 directed the DOL to designate “default” investment elections that employers could select to meet … Continue Reading
The quotation above is one of the best-known Yogiisms, and it neatly describes the battle that is shaping up before the Department of Labor (DoL) finalizes its proposed regulation on default funds. On one side are the mutual fund companies and on the other are the insurance companies. And here’s what it’s all about. The … Continue Reading
