| | Benefit Briefs | | Communicating with Employees About Health Care | | Having effective communication with employees
about health care is more important than ever, according to Jennifer Benz, CEO
of Benz Communications. In a webinar hosted by the San Francisco-based firm,
“Beyond a Two-Week Window: Ten Ways to Make Annual Enrollment a Success in an
Era of Health Reform,” Benz said, “Many people feel unequipped to make
decisions about health care coverage. Health care is complex and technical in
nature and is difficult enough for people to navigate. Health care reform makes
things even more difficult.” She said employers need to provide employees with
information that allows them to make good choices when it comes to health care.
She offered 10 steps by which this can be achieved. | | The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled retiree
health benefits for public employees are protected benefits under the Pension
Protection Clause of the state’s constitution. The court noted that Article
XIII, section 5 of the Illinois constitution provides that “[m]embership in any
pension or retirement system of the State … shall be an enforceable contractual
relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.” The
court concluded that since eligibility for all of the benefits at issue in the
case is conditioned on membership in one of the State’s various public pension
systems, they are within that section’s protections. | | Financial literacy programs can help employers
get employees more engaged in smart decision-making and planning for their
retirement. People have a great deal of information competing for their
attention; they are subject to ever-increasing bombardment, Bellaria Jimenez,
managing director of MetLife Solutions Group, tells PLANSPONSOR, noting that
the Internet is a special contributor. “The more accessible information is, the
more complicated our world is,” she says. “People are confused.” Plan sponsors
have a chance to make a difference by educating their workers so they can meet
their goals, and one way to provide education is through a financial literacy
program. | | | Buyer's Market | | Fidelity Offers Roadmap for Improving Retirement Outcomes | | Fidelity Investments has launched an initiative
to help employers evaluate and improve the retirement readiness of their
employees. Retirement Vision 2020 is a four-step approach to improving
retirement outcomes for employees and help them better prepare for retirement: Designing
the retirement plan for income, accounting for health care expenses, engaging
and empowering employees via guidance and access to resources, and helping
employees transition into retirement with confidence. | | | Industry Voices | | Industry Voice: A Serious Game of Retirement Readiness | | Preaching retirement readiness to motivate plan
participants has missed the target, but helping them “keep score” of their
success might be the answer. Clearly it’s time for a new approach. When it
comes to encouraging plan participants to make the most of their
employer-sponsored, voluntary retirement savings benefits, the retirement
services industry has, by and large, fallen short. | | | Economic Events | | THE ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: Tomorrow,
the Census Bureau will report about retail sales for June and business
inventories for May. Wednesday, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics will reveal the producer price index (PPI) for June.
Thursday, the Labor Department will
issue its initial claims report, and the Census Bureau will report about
housing starts for June. | | | Market Mirror | | Friday, the Dow was up 28.74 points
(0.17%) at 16,943.81, the NASDAQ closed 19.29 points (0.44%) higher at
4,415.49, and the S&P 500 ticked up 2.89 points (0.15%) to 1,967.57. The
Russell 2000 decreased 1.93 points (0.17%) to 1,159.93, and the Wilshire 5000
increased 23.19 points (0.11%) to 20,828.86.
On the NYSE, 3.2 billion shares changed
hands, with 1.2 advancing issues for every declining issue. On the NASDAQ, 2.7
billion shares traded, with a slight lead for decliners.
The yields of the 10-year Treasury note
and 30-year Treasury bond were 2.520% and 3.339%, respectively.
WEEK’S
WORTH: For the week ending July 11, the Dow was down
0.73%, the NASDAQ lost 1.57%, and the S&P 500 decreased 0.90%. The Russell
2000 fell 3.99%, and the Wilshire 5000 finished 1.32% lower.
| | | Rules & Regulators | | PBGC Director Josh Gotbaum Resigns | | After four years at the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corporation (PBGC)—the longest tenure of any PBGC executive director or
director—Josh Gotbaum will step down next month. Gotbaum said he has mixed emotions about leaving,
noting the accomplishments the agency has achieved under his direction, as well
as the additional work he feels needs to be done. | | Industry Responses Vary on TDF Disclosure Proposals | | About 30 investment firms and other parties
responded to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s latest call for comments
about a still-pending 2010 proposal to strengthen target-date fund disclosures.
As Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Jo White explained
during a brief address preceding a recent SEC Investor Advisory Committee
meeting, commenters have generally favored “appropriately tailored enhanced
disclosure requirements for target-date fund marketing materials.” However, a
number of commenters expressed concerns that standardized risk measures called
for in the proposal are likely to confuse or mislead investors—while still
others supported the proposal in full, citing the potential usefulness of a
standardized risk measure for use target-date fund (TDF) benchmarking. | | | Financial Sense | | A former CEO of the California Public Employees
Retirement System (CalPERS) has plead guilty to a charge of conspiracy to
commit bribery and fraud. Federico R. Buenrostro entered his plea to a federal
U.S. district court, admitting that he took $200,000 in cash and other bribes
from former CalPERS board member Alfred Villalobos to influence the pension
fund’s investment decisions, according to a news report in the Sacramento Bee.
While there has not yet been a sentencing recommendation, Buenrostro could get
up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. | | | Small Talk | | Many Americans have concerns about finances,
particularly whether they are saving enough for retirement, according to a new
survey from The Harris Poll. Almost three-quarters of preretiree workers (74%)
polled say they worry about having enough money to retire. One thing these
preretiree workers are not counting on, for post-retirement income, is Social
Security. The poll also finds Americans are having trouble for a number of
reasons, including living paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford to put money
in savings (cited by 46% of respondents). | | ON THIS DATE: In 1789,
the French Revolution began with Parisians stormed the Bastille prison and
released the seven prisoners inside. In 1798,
the U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act. The act made it a federal crime to
write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S.
government. In 1868, Alvin J.
Fellows patented the tape measure. In 1881,
Sheriff Pat Garrett shot Henry McCarty, popularly known as Billy the Kid, to
death at the Maxwell Ranch in New Mexico. In 1913, Gerald R. Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1946, Dr. Benjamin Spock’s “The
Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” was first published. In 1967, Houston Astros player Eddie
Mathews hit his 500th career home run. In 1968,
Atlanta Braves player Henry “Hank” Aaron hit the 500th home run of
his career. In 1987, Steve Miller of
The Steve Miller Band got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1995, released to the pubic one week
earlier, the brand-new MP3 format—known formally as
“MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3,” an efficient new format for the encoding of
high-quality digital audio using a highly efficient data-compression algorithm—was given its name and its familiar “.mp3”
file extension. | | SURVEY SAYS: Electronic Communications | | Last week, I asked NewsDash readers which
required communications they offer to retirement plan participants
electronically, and whether they think this makes participants more likely to
read them? The summary plan description (SPD) is the required communication
most offered electronically, selected by 75% of respondents, followed by the
summary annual report (67.9%), and participant statements and participant fee
disclosures (60.7% each). Fourteen percent of responding readers reported they
do not offer any of the required communications electronically, and none of the
respondents indicated they offer all the communications electronically. When
asked if offering communications electronically makes it more likely
participants will read them, only 6.9% said yes, while 48.3% indicated this is
true for some participants. The other 44.8% said no. In verbatim comments, some
respondents explained why they still provide paper. Most agreed that electronic
communications is not the answer to getting participants to pay attention to
them, with one reader offering a suggestion for that: “The participants would
read the notices if they were written in plain English and not the hybrid
Lawyerese that most are written in.” Several said the benefits of electronic
communications are they lower cost and “save a tree.” Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who said, “Participants will
never read communications… MAYBE if you told everyone JK Rowling wrote them.”
A big thank you to everyone who participate in our survey! | | Share the good news with a friend! Pass the Dash along – and tell your
friends/associates they can sign up for their own copy. | | News from PLANSPONSOR.com
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