Technical Competence
If you’re like me, when I hear the word “networking,” I get a little nervous.
It brings up visions of women frantically sticking their business cards in my face and giving me their elevator pitches at some organized luncheon. I prefer the terms, “connecting and collaborating”, because that is what...
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Since enactment of the Pension Protection Act in 2006, automaticity has been highly successful in improving retirement readiness. In MarketBeat, Ted Godbout writes about a new white paper that holds that new, highly personalized fintech advances may help drive retirement readiness to the next level...
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There are many pieces to the puzzle that is retirement security. In MarketBeat, John Iekel discusses the suggestion of a benefits institute that one of them is the behavior of plan participants and that working with, and influencing, that can help put pieces in place.
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Editor’s Note: This is an occasional feature in the NTSA Advisor. It is drawn from The Source, a book that covers technical, compliance, administrative and marketing aspects of the 403(b) and 457(b) markets. More information about The Source is available here.
It is important to note that ERISA...
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Two key members of Congress are interested in learning more about potential threats cyberattacks pose to the U.S. retirement system and what industry stakeholders are doing to address them.
In a Feb. 12 letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking...
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Consumers tend to worry about “high-touch” products, such as credit cards and bank accounts, more than they worry about long-term savings accounts, such as their workplace retirement plans and IRAs, a new study warns.
Nearly 80% of American consumers are concerned about financial fraud, according...
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IRS has issued a draft of the instructions for the Form 5500-EZ to be used in reporting concerning 2018. The IRS has done so in order to provide information to filers; the draft instructions are not to be used for actual filing.
What’s New
The IRS notes that there are two changes in the form...
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Some things are inexorable. Seasons. Tides. And, argues a recent blog entry, plan litigation. But as with natural phenomena whose effects can be mitigated, the analysis suggests that lessons from the litigation that has taken place can benefit 401(k) and 403(b) plan fiduciaries in 2019.
Litigation...
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Plan sponsors continue to add design features to increase participation and savings rates, such as the availability of Roth contributions, says a recent study.
According to the 61st Annual Survey of Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plans from the Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA), part of the...
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The IRS on Nov. 29 issued a reminder in IR-2018-236 that the hardship withdrawal regulations that it issued earlier in November contain provisions that allow 401(k) plans and similar employer-sponsored retirement plans to make loans and hardship distributions to victims of Hurricane Michael and...
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House Republicans have released a wide-ranging tax package – including a number of retirement savings provisions – setting the stage for negotiations on a year-end tax package as the 115th Congress comes to a close.
The main components of the package (the Retirement, Savings, and Other Tax Relief...
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The IRS has issued a draft of the Form 5500-EZ to be used in reporting concerning 2018.
The IRS notes that there are two changes in the form since last year:
The title of Form 5500-EZ has been changed to match the purpose of the form to include both a one-participant retirement plan and a...
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Years ago, the watchword was that the IRS was making an effort to be kinder and gentler. Many may want to debate that, but the IRS does perform functions intended to be helpful — and a Nov. 14 NTSA webcast discussed one of them.
In “IRS Audits: A Necessary Evil,” Ed Salyers, who was a longtime...
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The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the IRS and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Nov. 14 released advance copies of the Form 5500 Series forms to be used for 2018 reporting, as well as the related instructions.
EBSA reports that the 2018...
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The 2018-2019 Treasury Priority Guidance Plan includes more than 60 regulatory projects relating to implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that the agency intends to address in the coming year.
Overall, the plan contains 239 guidance projects that will be the focus of efforts through June 30...
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The IRS has announced that it has granted tax relief certain victims of Hurricane Michael in Alabama. The IRS action includes relief from penalties on payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after Oct. 10, 2018, and before Oct. 25, 2018, which it says will be abated as long as the deposits are...
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UPDATED NOV. 8, 2018
As expected, the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in the congressional midterm elections, portending a major shift in focus for retirement policy issues.
Currently the party affiliation in the House stands at 219 Democrats and 193 Republicans. In the...
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Compliance can be a challenge for any employee benefit plan, but it can be even more complex if the arrangement in question is a church or governmental plan. In MarketBeat, Susan Diehl looks at just such complications.
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The Department of Labor announced Oct. 29 that it has published employee benefit plan compliance guidance and relief for victims of recent Hurricanes Florence and Michael.
The relief includes easing of enforcement concerning the rules governing plan loans and distributions, as well as relief...
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How do you measure success? There are as many answers as there are answerers. Nonetheless, some objective criteria can be helpful in gauging it; in MarketBeat, we present the suggestions of an industry expert.
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