Managing Your Practice
Most 403(b) non-ERISA plans do not include employer matching contributions, which may decrease motivation for employees to enroll. But are there other ways to increase participation in such plans? In this week’s MarketBeat, Ellie Lowder has good news — there are, and she discusses them.
READ MORE
Though markets averaged a 7.45% return from 2004-2012, unfunded liability of public pension funds tripled — to just under $2 trillion — over that same period, according to a recent Moody’s report. Along with trying to recover from the recent recession, public entities are simply not providing...
READ MORE
Though markets averaged a 7.45% return from 2004-2012, unfunded liability of public pension funds tripled — to just under $2 trillion — over that same period, according to a recent Moody’s report. Along with trying to recover from the recent recession, public entities are simply not providing...
READ MORE
Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced the Secure Annuities for Employee (SAFE) Retirement Act (S. 1270) last year to reform the public and private pension systems and, amid recent retirement reform hearings on Capitol Hill, his public pension reform idea is now getting noteworthy support...
READ MORE
You provided an employee with a 15-year catch-up last year, but you find out that the employee was not eligible for it. Do you just distribute it as 1099 2014 income? Is it considered an excess deferral under Code Section 402(g)? In this week's Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder provides the answers and...
READ MORE
Distinguishing who the fiduciary is within a 403(b) plan or other qualified plan is an important determination, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s an easy or clear determination. Quite the contrary: it is a highly confused, misinterpreted and somewhat gray area that many plan sponsors wish...
READ MORE
A school district decides to eliminate vendors and go to a single 403(b) plan provider. Can employees move the funds they have in the de-selected 403(b) plans to IRAs? Do the IRS regulations regarding this take into account that when an employer changes its pension plan, many times clients have the...
READ MORE
If you receive a request for a loan from a participant who finished paying off a previous loan from his 403(b) four months ago, can you permit a $50,000 loan from the account since he has no outstanding loans in any plans of the employer? In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder addresses what can be done in...
READ MORE
The SEC adopted new rules affecting the $2.6 trillion money market industry late in July. The purpose of the rules is to alert investors about the risk of investments that were thought to be guaranteed, and they impose floating net asset value like other mutual funds rather than a fixed $1 value....
READ MORE
A plan sponsor has many investment options it can make available to plan participants. Should the plan offer funds that are invested in stable value or mid cap growth funds? Emerging markets? Real estate investment funds? Target date funds? But there is something else a plan sponsor can keep in...
READ MORE
Defined benefit plans’ decline and a proportional rise of future retirees’ need for expert help in establishing and managing retirement accounts spelled growth for the financial services industry. But the market may be saturated — there are many advisors, but the universe of clients is flat or...
READ MORE
Are graft and fraud the next big thing for state pension plans? An industry segment already beset by massive underfunding, bankruptcy court proceedings and other litigation, politics and pension envy doesn’t need any more bad news. But that may be exactly what it gets. The former chief executive...
READ MORE
When the IRS writes its essay about how it spent its summer vacation, it will report about how it rolled out a new compliance initiative project focusing on whether non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements are operating in accordance with Internal Revenue Code Section 409A. So says Linda...
READ MORE
The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has announced that its ERISA Advisory Council will be examining issues and considerations related to facilitating lifetime retirement plan participation. In explaining its rationale for doing so, it cites the recent movement of...
READ MORE
In nearly half of the states, state pension benefits have changed — often in a way that reduces them. This not only hurts retirement accounts and income, it also heightens a sense of urgency in boosting participation in 403(b)s and 457(b)s in order to bolster employees’ savings. One of the ways to...
READ MORE
Cash and securities holdings of the 100 largest public employee pension systems in the United States — which account for 89.4 percent of domestic public pension financial activity — grew during the first quarter of 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Quarterly Survey of Public Pensions....
READ MORE
The federal government, a purveyor of regulations and legislation, has set before the 403(b) community a veritable blue plate special — and one with a long shelf life to boot. NTSA President Susan Diehl of PenServ Services, Inc., outlined what’s on that plate at NTSA’s 403(b) Summit in Washington,...
READ MORE
That’s the specific — and implied — message of three experts offering their take on how to increase plan participation. TSA Consulting VP Steve Banks, Hendershot Financial Group’s Tom Hendershot and Teresa Ward, Retirement Plans VP at OppenheimerFunds, made their remarks to attendees at a June 23...
READ MORE
In spring 2013, a nationwide wave of class action lawsuits were filed against five large hospital systems claiming affiliation with the Catholic Church. The claims were all the same: The defined benefit pension plans sponsored by the hospitals were not eligible for the church plan exemption under...
READ MORE
If the holder of a Roth 403(b) is over age 59½ and has held his account for more than five years, is the plan administrator required to withhold 20 percent for federal income tax since the distribution is eligible to be rolled over? In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder says yea or nay.
READ MORE
Pages
Most Popular
