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Can a public safety officer who retired at age 50 take withdrawals from his individual retirement account without a 10% penalty tax? He has been told that the 10% penalty tax is waived for public safe officers at age 50 or over. In this week’s Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us whether this is...
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The degree of fiduciary responsibility for non-ERISA plans, such as those sponsored by public education and religious organizations, continue to generate many questions from plan sponsors and the advisors that serve them. In this week’s MarketBeat, Mike Webb argues that this is understandable, and...
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The Land of Lincoln has earned a dubious distinction, according to a new report by Moody’s: It is without peer in how its state pension liability compares to its revenue. Moody’s says that Illinois’ pension debt amounts to a whopping 318% of its revenue in 2012. Its three-year average for the...
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The Federal Reserve’s 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) shows mixed results concerning 403(b) plans. The SCF finds that overall, while retirement plan participation remained relatively flat over the past three years, the median and average value of those retirement plan accounts rose “...
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Prospects for state and local employees’ financial security in retirement are better than that of their private-sector counterparts, according to a new paper from the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA). Nonetheless, the paper argues, steps still...
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Suppose an employer provides 100% vesting in its 403(b) plan. There is a 60-day wait for the employer match (100%, up to 4%), and an employee needs to work 20 hours per week to qualify for the match. The employer has no highly compensated employees. What type of plan setup could the employer...
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Public school employees can contribute to a 403(b) plan, or to a 457(b) plan. Sounds great, but doing so can have negative ramifications. In this week’s MarketBeat, David Blask notes that these plans differ in several important ways and observes that the determination regarding which plan is...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Fitch Ratings says a recent decision by the board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) will raise funding pressures on public employers. The Sacramento Bee reported that staff at CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension plan, recommended that the fund’s board...
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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...
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The 2014-15 budget that North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed into law does more than fund state functions: it also expands state control over state pension fund investments. PI Online reports that the budget provides for 10 new investment staff positions. North Carolina Treasurer Janet...
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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...
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Low participation rates in 403(b) plans — in particular plans in the public education K-12 market segment — is generating concern among employers. Recent studies have not provided specifics of current participation rates in that sector, but individual employers are reporting that it is not uncommon...
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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Aug. 11 announced securities fraud charges against the state of Kansas, claiming that the state failed to disclose that the state’s pension system was significantly underfunded, and the unfunded pension liability created a repayment risk for...
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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...
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It’s hurricane season, which brings handling emergencies into sharper relief. Under a 457(b) plan, a hardship distribution can only occur when the participant is faced with an unforeseeable emergency. An unforeseeable emergency is a severe financial hardship resulting from an illness or...
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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...
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently that an inherited IRA is part of a bankruptcy estate and subject to creditors’ claims. This raises questions: if that is the case with IRAs, does that then have implications for retirement plan assets belonging to those who declare bankruptcy? In this week's...
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