John Iekel
By John Iekel 11/11/2021
Colorado and neighboring New Mexico plan to form a partnership regarding the state-run retirement saving programs each operates.
The Colorado Department of the Treasury announced in Nov. 9 that the Colorado Secure Savings Program and the New Mexico Work and $ave programs signed a Memorandum of...
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By John Iekel 11/9/2021
The IRS has updated the instructions for Form 8955-SSA, Annual Registration Statement Identifying Separated Participants with Deferred Vested Benefits. While these instructions, and the form itself, may not be relevant to all 403(b) plans, they are relevant to those to which ERISA Section 203...
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By John Iekel 11/9/2021
The budget reconciliation bill wending its way through the House of Representatives includes provisions that would affect rollovers and conversions to Roth IRAs and designated Roth accounts.
In “Rollovers and Conversions to Roth IRAs and Designated Roth Accounts: Proposed Changes in Budget...
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By John Iekel 11/8/2021
It’s no secret that the Social Security system needs help, and some suggest even life support. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has released a report on a novel approach: removing the taxable earnings base.
Social Security payroll taxes are imposed on covered earnings up to an annual...
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By John Iekel 11/5/2021
October may be the month of ghosts and hobgoblins, but in 2021 it was anything but scary—at least for CalSavers. The program the state of California provides for employees whose employers do not offer a retirement plan showed strong growth in some respects during the month.
The CalSavers...
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By John Iekel 11/4/2021
The IRS has announced cost-of-living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for tax year 2022. The 2022 limits are contained in Notice 2021-61, released Nov. 4. Most rates have increased; a few are unchanged.
The limits for 2022 are as...
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By John Iekel 11/1/2021
An Oct. 18 session of the 2021 ASPPA Annual conference included a discussion of 403(b) plan terminations.
Addressing the SECURE Act, Stephen Forbes, President of Forbes Retirement Plan Consulting, and Melissa Terito, a Partner at Sentinel Pension, discussed plan terminations and upcoming IRS...
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By John Iekel 10/28/2021
The CalSavers Retirement Savings Board has issued a Notification of Proposed Emergency Regulation Action to readopt regulations that took effect earlier in 2021.
The Board adopted those emergency regulations to:
amend the default investment option;
reduce the minimum contribution amounts for...
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By John Iekel 10/26/2021
The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) has released a report that shows that retirement plans are growing by all measures: number of plans, participants, assets, contributions and disbursements.
The data is drawn from Form 5500 Series reports for plan years...
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By John Iekel 10/25/2021
A recent SPARK Institute webinar discussed the importance of being aware of the risks cyber criminals pose as well as how their nefarious work can be thwarted.
There have been many breaches in the last decade, observed Mark Strosahl, Business Information Security Officer at the Principal. But...
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By John Iekel 10/25/2021
The IRS has updated the questions and answers in which it provides information regarding COVID-related relief for retirement plans and IRAs.
The IRS makes the Q&A available in accordance with relief contained in Section 2202 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act...
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By John Iekel 10/20/2021
Employer involvement looms large in the overall retirement readiness picture. And current trends regarding financial preparation for retirement buttress the importance of employers acting on how influential they are.
How large? According to the Secure Retirement Institute® (SRI), actions by...
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By John Iekel 10/20/2021
A paucity of financial assets among members of the middle class, and some saving behaviors, threaten many with retirement instability, two recent studies warn.
Middle Class Assets
The National Institute for Retirement Security (NIRS) has analyzed data from the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of...
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By John Iekel 10/20/2021
When compliance errors happen in plan administration, there are ways to fix them. Speakers at an Oct. 19 ASPPA Annual conference workshop session explained some of those ways.
“It’s telling how much time is spent in this area fixing errors,” remarked Robert M. Richter, Retirement Education...
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By John Iekel 10/20/2021
The retirement industry currently faces challenges—but there is opportunity and good news as well, Brian Graff pointed out in the Oct. 17 Washington Update session at the 2021 ASPPA Annual conference.
Work to Do
There is plenty of work to do, Graff suggested. The ASPPA Executive Director/ARA CEO...
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By John Iekel 10/19/2021
The American Retirement Association has suggested numerous improvements to the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS).
In an Oct. 14, 2021 comment letter responding to an IRS request (in Revenue Procedure 2021-30) for comments on improving the EPCRS program, the ARA thanked the IRS...
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By John Iekel 10/11/2021
A plan administrator can be required to produce a recording or a transcript of a conversation between a claimant and plan representative, the Department of Labor has indicated in a recent Information Letter.
In the letter, Eric Berger, Acting Chief of the Division of Coverage, Reporting and...
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By John Iekel 10/8/2021
Retirement plans are in cyber criminals’ sights, and it takes positive action to head off the threat, said experts in an Oct. 7 Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA) webinar.
“The retirement plan community is a very attractive target” for cyber criminals, warned Tom Briggs, Divisional Sales...
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By John Iekel 10/6/2021
The American Retirement Association in an Oct. 4, 2021 letter to the IRS has recommended that the IRS continue its efforts to promote plan sponsor compliance and reduce the burden of plan sponsorship by modifying the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) to permit a sponsor that...
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By John Iekel 10/4/2021
While there is broad agreement that it is necessary to boost retirement savings, there is less uniformity of thought regarding how exactly to accomplish that. A panel of experts recently shared some ideas.
“Building a Better Retirement System for all Americans,” a Brookings Institution webinar,...
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