Technical Competence

The U.S. District Court of the District of Minnesota in its ruling in The City of Farmington Hills Employees Retirement System v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Civil No. 10-4372 DWF/JJG (U.S. District Court of the District of Minnesota) has granted final approval of a $62.5 million settlement in a... READ MORE

There is great variation among the states regarding their ability to meet their obligations to current and future retirees from their state and local work forces. The U.S. Census Bureau in its recently released 2013 Survey of Public Pensions: State-Administered Defined Benefit Data highlights... READ MORE

With the official report not due until September, a draft report released by the Oregon legislature's Task Force on Oregon Retirement Savings offers a blueprint of a proposed new mandatory auto IRA program for the state.  According to a report in the Oregon Statesman-Journal, the proposal calls... READ MORE

What if a public safety employee rolled his distribution from a governmental defined benefit plan into a 457(b) plan and subsequently took a distribution of these dollars — would this distribution be subject to the 10% additional tax? In this week’s Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us whether it would... READ MORE

Gov. Chris Christie (R) seems to have read the tea leaves correctly in setting up a commission to make recommendations on how to reform New Jersey’s public pension system. And that’s not just regarding the needs of the system — it also appears to be prescient regarding the views of his... 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

  New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Aug. 8 appointed nine members to a non-partisan commission to make recommendations regarding how to reform New Jersey’s public pension and health benefit systems. Never averse to taking bold action on a tough issue, Christie said in a press release that he... READ MORE

State and local pension plans’ investments showed robust growth for the 12-month period that ended June 30, Wilshire Associates reports. These plans’ investments showed median growth of almost 17%, the strongest growth since fiscal year 2011.  The growth was fueled in large part by the... READ MORE

NTSA has established the Task Force on Retirement Savings Plans, a new committee designed to help lead and guide the discussion and development of policy regarding the automatic enrollment of employees in non-ERISA retirement savings plans. Among the functions the new task force will perform is to... READ MORE