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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Citing a need to ensure sustainability of public pensions, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Aug. 1 announced the formation of a commission that will include study of the state pension system and how to reform it. This is necessary, Christie said, to ensure that the system is sustainable....
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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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...
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Is the Form 5500 worth filling out and filing in the first place? Not everyone is convinced, reports Benefitspro. But file they must, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has come to the rescue, offering suggestions in its recent report, “Private Pensions:Targeted Revisions Could Improve...
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Suppose you have a client who is a pastor and receives total income of $87,000, $42,000 of which has been designated as housing allowance. Can the church contribute $52,000 for him in 2014? In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us whether it can — and if it can’t, how much it can contribute beyond the...
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Is Washington obsessed with rollovers? ASPPA Executive Director and CEO Brian Graff thinks so. “There’s no one who doesn’t care about this issue. There is an obsession with the rollover issue in DC,” said Graff in the July 22 webinar, “Washington Update: Rollovers, Rollovers, Rollovers — it’s All...
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Retirement-sector veteran Nevin Adams will join ASPPA next month to head its rapidly expanding media and marketing businesses, including NTSA Net. Adams, who was most recently Director of Education and External Relations at the Employee Benefit Research Institute and co-director of EBRI’s Center...
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California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) Board members are required to receive 24 hours of financial training every two years under a law just enacted. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on July 18 signed into law AB1163, a measure Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) introduced to enhance...
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Suppose a 62 year-old who is drawing a reduced Social Security benefit understands that he can earn up to $15,480 before beginning to lose Social Security benefits. He calculates that he will be about $3,000 above the $15,480 from substitute teaching income; can he contribute the $3,000 to his 403(...
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The IRS and the Department of Labor are actively encouraging lifetime income and enhancing retirement security. The most recent part of that effort is a final regulation the IRS released that permits longevity annuities in retirement plans and IRAs. But will this guidance actually change...
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Seventeen states have, or are, considering measures that would allow employers to automatically enroll employees in IRAs. While these measures concern private-sector employers, their consideration reflects state governments’ interest in measures that address retirement plan participation in some...
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Detroit may well be the poster child for municipal pension irresponsibility (though if there were an award for that, it would be extremely competitive). But give credit where it’s due: the Motor City has also been a model for how to dig out of the public pension hole. Kevyn Orr, the city’s...
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