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| Benefit Briefs |
| How Employee Benefits Are Evolving |
| A report from the Employee Benefit Research
Institute (EBRI) takes a look at how employee benefits have evolved in the past
30-plus years. |
|
| Buyer's Market |
| As demand for private health care exchanges
grows, SelectQuote Benefit Solutions is offering its own exchange targeted at
senior citizens. SelectQuote Senior addresses Medicare Supplement, Medicare
Advantage and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Coverage for retirees.
Partnerships with employers also allow for integrated enrollment in traditional
health care plans for individuals who are younger than age 65. |
| ABG, Hueler Partner for Lifetime Income Products |
| Alliance Benefit Group (ABG) has launched a new
partnership with Hueler Income Solutions to expand participant access to
institutionally priced lifetime income products. |
| A new partnership between PlanSource and
Transamerica Employee Benefits brings more advanced cloud-based benefits
administration, exchange, payroll, and human resources information system
(HRIS) solutions to employers. As part of the collaboration, Transamerica’s
TransApp enrollment system will now offer complete integration with PlanSource
technology, and employers will be able to utilize PlanSource tools to deliver
insurance products from Transamerica Life Insurance Company and its affiliates
to employees. |
|
| Industry Voices |
| Industry Voice: Enhancing Senior Management Retirement Benefits |
| There are a number of savings and compensation
plans companies can use to both attract and retain members of senior
management; two in particular are cash balance and non-qualified deferred
compensation plans. One
option for providing enhanced benefits for selected participants only is to
“layer” a cash balance plan on top of the 401(k) plan. When a company adds a
cash balance component, it can provide additional tax deferrals to senior
management. |
|
| Economic Events |
| New orders
for manufactured durable goods in June increased $1.8 billion or 0.7% to $239.9
billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced. This increase, up four of the last
five months, followed a 1.0% May decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders
increased 0.8%. Excluding defense, new orders increased 0.7%. Machinery, up
following two consecutive monthly decreases, led the increase, $0.9 billion or
2.4% to $37.3 billion.
THE
ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: Tomorrow,
The Conference Board will release its Consumer Confidence Index for July. Thursday, the Labor Department will
issue its initial claims report. Friday,
we’ll see a report about nonfarm payrolls from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
and learn the unemployment rate for June, and the Census Bureau will report
about construction spending for June.
|
|
| Market Mirror |
| Friday, the Dow closed 123.23 points
(0.72%) lower at 16,960.57, the NASDAQ decreased 22.54 points (0.50%) to
4,449.56, and the S&P 500 was down 9.64 points (0.48%) at 1,978.34. The
Russell 2000 fell 11.54 points (1.00%) to 1,144.72, and the Wilshire 5000 lost
113.89 points (0.54%) to finish at 20,907.17.
On the NYSE, 3.2 billion shares traded,
with a nearly 2 to 1 lead for decliners. On the NASDAQ, 2.7 billion shares
changed hands, with declining issues outnumbering advancing issues more than 2
to 1.
The yields for the 10-year Treasury note
and 30-year Treasury bond were 2.468% and 3.240%, respectively.
WEEK’S
WORTH: For the week ending July 25, the Dow fell
0.82%, the NASDAQ was up 0.39%, and the S&P 500 eked out a 0.01% gain. The
Russell 2000 lost 0.60%, and the Wilshire 5000 decreased 0.03%.
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|
| Rules & Regulators |
| Court Grants Summary Judgment in Church Plan Case |
| A federal district court in California has
granted a motion for partial summary judgment against an employer in a widely
followed “church plan” case. In finding for the plaintiffs in Rollins vs. Dignity Health on this particular motion, the court
took a step towards granting plaintiff Starla Rollins’ ultimate appeal for
declaratory and injunctive relief directing Dignity Health to bring its pension
plan into compliance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)—including
its reporting, vesting and funding requirements. |
| Two court cases filed this week by retirement
plan participants claim their employers’ retirement benefits programs have been
inappropriately exempted from Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
rules based on religious affiliations. The complaints in Owens v. St. Anthony Medical Center and Lann v. Trinity Health both draw similar arguments to other
so-called “church plan” challenges moving through the federal courts. |
|
| The World at Large |
| The UK government finally delivered greater
clarity on a promise first made by the chancellor at the March Budget. As well
as giving people greater freedoms for how they take their retirement income, in
the budget, George Osborne also made the promise of at retirement guidance. |
|
| Small Talk |
| ON THIS DATE: In 1868,
following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the
14th Amendment, guaranteeing to African Americans citizenship and all its
privileges, was officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution. In 1914, one month to the day after Archduke
Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in
Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, effectively beginning the
First World War. In 1945, the U.S.
Senate approved the charter establishing the United Nations. In 1951, the Walt Disney film “Alice
in Wonderland” was released. |
| SURVEY SAYS REWIND: Life “Do Overs” |
| Five years ago, we asked NewsDash readers what
they would change if they had a life “do over.” |
| 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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