Catching Up on PSNC 2011 Coverage

August 7, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - In June we held the sixth annual PLANSPONSOR National Conference.    

We had a great turnout, marvelous panels, and a great location, all helping to facilitate a great exchange of information!  For those of you who weren’t able to participate (and those of you who were), here’s a summary, with links to expanded coverage.    

Mark your calendars NOW for next year’s event – June 4-6, Chicago, Illinois.  You won’t want to miss out!    

You can access recordings of the event HERE.

10 (More) Things You’re Probably (Still) Doing Wrong    

A panel at the PLANSPONSOR National Conference discussed 10 things retirement plan sponsors are probably doing wrong as fiduciaries.  Fred Reish, Chair, Financial Services ERISA Practice, Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP, says sponsors should focus on themselves instead of on what all mutual funds and investment experts are telling them. There are two steps to deciding what target-date fund is right for their plan. First, sponsors should understand their employees; if they are in an industry where if there is a recession older employees could get laid off or retired, then they need to have a conservative glidepath, if they are with a high tech industry where employees make a lot of money and are always going to be employable, that suggests they could have a more aggressive glidepath.  http://www.plansponsor.com/PSNC_2011_10_More_Things_Youre_Probably_Doing_Wrong.aspx     

Fixing 403(b) Plan Mistakes  

Michael J. DiCenso, National Practice Leader, Gallagher Retirement Services, told attendees at the PLANSPONSOR National Conference that 403(b) plan committees, whether governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) or not, are fiduciaries under federal, state and common laws, and should act in the best interest of participants and beneficiaries and should be free of conflicts of interest.  Speaking on common errors with 403(b) plan compliance the Internal Revenue Service is seeing, Colleen Shull, Revenue Agent, IRS, said self correction is not available for having no written plan document as of December 31, 2009. Sponsors need to use either the Voluntary Compliance Program or an Audit Closing Agreement.  Sponsors also seem to be having problems with implementing plan features unique to 403(b) plans, according to Shull.  http://www.plansponsor.com/PSNC_2011_Fixing_403b_Plan_Mistakes.aspx  

Misbehavioral Finance  

There’s always a lot of talk about how to improve participant behavior in a retirement plan, but sometimes it’s the plan sponsor that “misbehaves.”  At the PLANSPONSOR National Conference in Chicago last month, panelists discussed ways in which plan sponsors might struggle in fulfilling their fiduciary duties.  Tim Black, Senior Vice President at Mosse & Mosse Associates cited problems such as a “herd mentality,” “analysis paralysis,” or “recent-cy bias” influencing committee decisions, while Diane Gallagher, Vice President at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said that plan sponsors need to leverage the power of communications as much as possible “to make it hard for people to fail.” Jennifer Flodin, COO and Co-Founder of Plan Sponsor Advisors, told the audience “You need to take a step back and think about what this plan is intended to do; are you getting any [return on investment] on it?”  Kristi Mitchem, Head of Global Defined Contribution at State Street Global Advisors, said there is a consistent fear among investment committees of receiving a negative reaction from the participant base, and that we tend to “over-extrapolate” the power of the small percentage of participants that would care to vocalize their concerns.  http://www.plansponsor.com/PSNC_2011_Misbehavioral_Finance.aspx