Mercer has hired Jean Moore as North America
Health and Benefits Specialty Practice Leader. In this role, Moore will be
responsible for leading growth and driving differentiated intellectual capital
across a broad set of Mercer’s specialty practices as well as supporting
intellectual capital development for Mercer’s Health and Benefits Business
overall.Read more > |
Independent registered investment adviser (RIA)
Financial Engines said in a statement it would incorporate the Social Security
Administration’s newly announced Social Security data file in its Financial
Engines Social Security planner. The data file program was announced during
Monday’s White House Conference on Aging.Read more > |
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Sponsored message from MassMutual |
Eric Weitsma, SVP of Retirement Services, Sales and Worksite Education with MassMutual discusses Plan Health, Financial Wellness and the Convergence of Benefits with Alison Cooke Mintzer, Editor-in-Chief of PLANSPONSOR.Read more > |
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Economic Events |
The U.S.
Census Bureau announced that the combined value of distributive trade sales and
manufacturers’ shipments for May, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day
differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,323.6 billion, up
0.4% from April, but down 2.2% from May 2014. Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for
seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an
end-of-month level of $1,797.8 billion, up 0.3% from April and up 2.4% from May
2014.
Advance estimates of U.S.
retail and food services sales for June, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday
and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $442.0 billion, a
decrease of 0.3% from the previous month, but an increase of 1.4% from June
2014. Total sales for the April through June period were up 1.7% from the same period
a year ago.
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Market Mirror |
The Dow was
up 75.90 points (0.42%) at 18,053.58, the NASDAQ rose 33.38 points (0.66%) to
5,104.89, and the S&P 500 gained 9.35 points (0.45%) to finish at 2,108.95.
The Russell 2000 rose 7.98 points (0.63%) to 1,273.33, and the Wilshire 5000
closed 106.01 points (0.48%) higher at 22,300.63.
On the NYSE,
3.2 billion shares traded, and on the NASDAQ, 2.9 billion shares changed hands,
with a 1.7 to 1 ratio of advancers to decliners on both exchanges.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note increased 14/32,
bringing its yield down to 2.404%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond
climbed 25/32, decreasing its yield to 3.195%.
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Compliance |
IRS Provides Summary of Form 5500 Changes |
The Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) has issued a reminder that the deadline for calendar year-end
retirement plans is looming, and has posted on its website a summary of changes
to this year’s form. The
Form 5500 filing deadline is July 31 for calendar year-end retirement plans.Read more > |
Guidance Coming About State-Run Retirement Plans |
At the White House
Conference on Aging, President Obama noted that, in every budget since taking
office, he has put forth proposals to provide access for 30 million Americans
to workplace-based retirement savings by requiring employers not currently
offering a retirement plan to automatically enroll their workers in an IRA.Read more > |
ERISA Plans Not Safe from Government-Owed Restitution |
The U.S. District Court for the Western District
of North Carolina has ruled that neither the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act’s (ERISA’s) anti-alienation provision nor the anti-alienation
provision in the Internal Revenue Code provides a bar to the garnishment of
government-owed restitution from a qualified pension plan.Read more > |
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Small Talk |
While
the vast majority of workers (94%) feel their office is a secure place to work,
nearly one-quarter (23%) say they would not know what to do to protect
themselves if there was an emergency in their office that posed a physical
threat, according to a survey from CareerBuilder. When asked about their
feelings of security in regards to specific forms of threat, three in ten
employees (30%) do not feel their workplace is well-protected from a physical
threat from another person, and the same percentage (30%) feel their workplace
is not well-protected from a digital hacking threat.Read more > |
ON THIS DATE: In 1876, George Washington Bradley of St.
Louis pitched the first no-hitter in baseball in a 2–0 win over Hartford. In
1916, in Seattle, Washington, Pacific Aero Products was incorporated by
William Boeing. The company was later renamed Boeing Co. In 1922, the
duck-billed platypus arrived in America, direct from Australia. It was
exhibited at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. In 1965, the spacecraft Mariner IV sent back the
first close-up pictures of the planet Mars. In 1973, Nolan Ryan (California Angels) became the first pitcher in
two decades to win two no-hitters in a season. In 1985, baseball players voted to strike on August 6th if no contract
was reached with baseball owners. The strike turned out to be just a one-day
interruption. In 2006, the
social networking service Twitter was launched.
WEDNESDAY WISDOM: “Just remember, once you’re over the hill
you begin to pick up speed.”—Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher and author
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Share the good news with a friend! Pass the Dash along – and tell your
friends/associates they can sign up for their own copy.Read more > |
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