Compliance May 17, 2004

Finance Committee Releases NESTEG Report

May 17, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The U.S. Senate Finance Committee has released a report and summary of the National Employee Savings and Trust Equity Guarantee (NESTEG) Bill of 2004.
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>NESTEG, sponsored by committee chairman Charles Grassley (R – Iowa) and co-sponsored by the committee’s ranking Democrat Max Baucus of Montana, is intended to improve protection of employee retirement funds with tighter regulations and stiffer penalties for mishandling corporate pension plans.   Included in these proposed reforms are restrictions on executives’ ability to defer payment of tax on compensation and new diversification rights for company stock in plans.

>The Finance Committee approved the measure by voice vote on September 17, 2003.   However, on October 1, 2003, the bill was recalled and amended it to make to modify the company-owned life insurance (COLI) provisions of the bill (See  Senate Finance Committee Ponders Competing COLI Bills ).   On February 2, 2004, the Committee marked up a modification to the bill and ordered the bill favorably reported by voice vote.

The report does not say when further action on the bill might take place.   The 174-page report is available at  http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/legislation.htm .

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