Fiduciary Rules and Practices
It may be grasping at straws, but two U.S. Senators have drawn an unfavorable connection between a planned research initiative by the Department of Labor (DOL) and the agency’s appreciation for the impact of its pending fiduciary rule. “The Labor Department’s request suggests it is blindly moving...
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) may have intended to help individuals understand the impact of their timing decision on Social Security, but a couple of Republican senators say it is providing “inaccurate and misleading” information.Last December, Sens. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.),...
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A new report asserts that today’s consumers do not want “communication,” they want personal guidance. They want to do things when, where and how they prefer. They want things easy and convenient. And they want the whole experience to be enjoyable. So, how are today’s retirement service providers...
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Even as the publication of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule nears, the GOP is gearing up to undermine the funding for its implementation. House Republican leaders are urging rank-and-file GOP lawmakers to back a budget resolution that provides $1.07 trillion in discretionary spending...
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Many employees of a school district client elected to make a Roth 403(b) salary deferral, but they were all set up as regular pre-tax deferrals and no one caught this for six months. In MarketBeat, Susan Diehl tells us if the employees can change their election to pre-tax as a way to correct the...
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You have a client who dies, and leaves two sons, ages 18 and 21, as the beneficiaries of her 401(k), pension and IRA. The plan does not offer life expectancy payouts to the sons, but they have the right to roll over the pension funds into the IRA. In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us what their...
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If you thought things were going to be quiet between now and the anticipated publication of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule next month — well, you’d be wrong.Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) has now weighed in on the issue, claiming that “the bureaucrats bullied it through.”...
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New Jersey’s public employee pension system has long been embroiled in financial difficulties. Challenges to steps the administration of Gov. Chris Christie (R) has taken to address them found their way into the dockets, and now are being bumped upstairs to the state — and federal — Supreme Courts...
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Increased longevity is good news! But for pension plans it’s another story. For them, it creates more stress — it spells greater drain and heightens the likelihood that plans will pay benefits for a longer period. The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of the Chief Actuary late in 2015...
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The Obama administration’s final budget wasn’t a complete retread of its prior retirement plan proposals, but there wasn’t much good news for employer-sponsored retirement plans.Small business owners and small business retirement plans were once again targeted by a proposal that would limit the...
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Wrapping up a first week of February with action on legislation designed to block, slow or thwart the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule, the U.S. Senate finally got into the act with two pieces of legislation. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and...
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For the second time in a week, an important committee in the U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that could undermine the Labor Department’s proposed fiduciary rule.The most recent step was a 26-12 vote by the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 3 to pass the Strengthening...
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Generation X — long overlooked as a generational “middle child” between Boomers and Millennials — is waking up to the realities of retirement savings, according to a new report.With the eldest members of Gen X turning 50, it’s little wonder that retirement finances are grabbing a larger share of...
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As the Department of Labor (DOL) moves forward with its new fiduciary standard, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are working on legislation to address concerns that the final DOL proposal will harm access to retirement savings advice.The House Committee on Education and the Workforce...
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The IRS on Jan. 29 issued guidance on mid-year changes to a safe harbor plan under Internal Revenue Code Sections 401(k) and 401(m). It provides that a mid-year change either to a safe harbor plan or to a plan's safe harbor notice does not violate the safe harbor rules just because it is a mid-year...
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Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night — could keep the Department of Labor (DOL) from getting the updated conflict-of-interest/fiduciary regulation to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. That’s right, despite the massive snowstorm that hit the Washington, D.C. area last week...
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In a Jan. 25 telephone interview with reporters, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said that the Department of Labor (DOL) hopes that work on the proposed fiduciary rule will be completed “in the coming months.”According to ThinkAdvisor, Perez also said that the DOL is reviewing the high number of...
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New Jersey’s retirement system could suffer even more if the state Supreme Court strikes down a 2011 law that froze pension benefits, Moody’s warned on Jan. 20. A group of state retirees have sued the state over the law. According to NJ.Com, the rating agency said that if the court invalidates the...
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The point has often been made that retirement plan tax “preferences” are a deferral of taxes, not a deduction — and now the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that impact on the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).The CBO’s “The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2016 to 2026” acknowledges...
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It’s going to take much of the East Coast a while to dig out from the blizzard of 2016, but they will. It will be much harder, however, for Illinois to dig out from its unfunded pension liability, which the office of Illinois Auditor General William G. Holland reports has worsened further.Another $...
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