| | Benefits & Administration | | SOA Pledges Faster Mortality Table Updates | | More
than a decade passed between the two most recent mortality table updates from
the Society of Actuaries (SOA), but retirement plan fiduciaries should expect
another update long before 2024. In a recent interview with PLANSPONSOR, Dale
Hall, managing director of research for the Society of Actuaries, says one of
the society’s goals is to significantly increase the frequency of mortality
table updates. Hall also says the SOA predicts between 4% and 8% liability
growth for a typical pension plan upon adoption of the new tables. Read more > | | The
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a reminder that employees can plan
now to get the benefit of the saver’s credit for retirement savings. The
saver’s credit helps offset part of the first $2,000 workers voluntarily
contribute to individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401(k) or similar
workplace retirement savings programs. Eligible workers still have time to make
qualifying retirement contributions and get the saver’s credit on their 2014
tax return, the IRS said. Read more > | | When Must Fee Disclosures Be Sent? | | “Now that the 5500
and Form-SSA filing has been completed, I am turning my attention to the
Summary Annual Report and the participant fee disclosures. However, when I
looked at the participant fee disclosure guidance from the Department of Labor
(DOL), I was a bit confused as to the deadline. My recordkeeper is telling me
that the distribution deadline is 12/31, but I don’t believe that is correct.
What is the correct date?” Read more > | | All
too often, a firm conducting a merger or acquisition (M&A) fails to weigh
the options for each organization’s retirement plan. Human resources (HR), the
chief financial officer (CFO) and an Employee Retirement Income Security Act
(ERISA) attorney need to assess the costs and benefits of the respective
retirement plans of both the buyer and the seller to determine if the plans
should remain separate, be combined or if one of the plans should be
terminated. Failure to do so until after the M&A deal closes results in
very few options, and typically forces the seller to foot the bill for both
plans. Read more > | | Enforcing Plan Limits for 403(b)s Not So Simple | | There
are unique rules for 403(b) plans that make enforcing contribution and benefit
limits less than straightforward. For one thing, according to Susan Diehl,
president of PenServ Plan Services, participants are also allowed a special
catch-up contribution in addition to the age-50 catch-up: the
15-years-of-service catch-up. Read more > | | Employees
provided with financial education programs are less stressed, more prepared for
retirement and have a better understanding of their finances, according to a
report from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. Of the 397
organizations surveyed for the foundation’s new report, “A Closer Look: What’s
Working in Workplace Financial Education,” 270 say they offer financial
education programs to employees. Of those offering financial education,
one-third report their work force is somewhat or very highly stressed about
financial issues, compared with 43% of those that do not offer financial
education. Read more > | | | Industry Voices | | Industry Voice: Exploring a TDF ‘Glide Range’ | | Since no single target-date
fund (TDF) glide path can meet participant needs in all environments, plan
fiduciaries would be better served to use a “glide range,” with flexibility to
manage risk along the different points of participants’ lives as market
environments change. Read more > | | | Economic Events | | New orders for manufactured goods in
September, down two consecutive months, decreased $2.8 billion or 0.6% to
$499.4 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. This followed a 10.0% August
decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased slightly. Shipments,
up three of the last four months, increased $0.7 billion or 0.1% to $503.4 billion. | | | Market Mirror | | Tuesday,
the Dow ticked up 17.60 points (0.10%) to 17,383.84, the NASDAQ was down 15.27
points (0.33%) at 4,623.64, and the S&P 500 closed 5.71 points (0.28%)
lower at 2,012.10. The Russell 2000 lost 4.79 points (0.41%) to finish at
1,165.42, and the Wilshire 5000 decreased 83.91 points (0.39%) to 21,176.35.
On
the NYSE, 3.2 billion shares changed hands, with 1.5 declining issues for every
advancing issue. On the NASDAQ, 2.7 billion shares traded, with a 1.3 to 1
ratio of decliners to advancers.
The
price of the 10-year Treasury note was up 3/32, bringing its yield down to
2.336%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond increased 9/32, decreasing its
yield to 3.051%.
| | | Compliance | | MassMutual Agrees to Settle Revenue Sharing Suit | | MassMutual has agreed to
pay $9,475,000 to 401(a) and 401(k) plan clients it serviced via group annuity
contracts to settle charges that it violated the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act (ERISA) when it received revenue-sharing payments from mutual funds
and investment advisers. Plaintiff Golden Star Inc. alleged these payments were
essentially “kickbacks” that constituted prohibited transactions under ERISA. MassMutual
had previously moved for summary judgment on the case, saying it was not an
ERISA fiduciary. However, U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris, of the U.S.
District Court for the District of Massachusetts, found MassMutual is a
“functional fiduciary.” Read more > | | The Department of Labor (DOL)
filed a lawsuit to restore $7 million to participants in two Wheeling, West
Virginia-based retirement plans, following alleged misconduct by plan
fiduciaries. The department seeks to correct fiduciary breaches by the plans’
investment manager and plan administrator. An investigation conducted by the
department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) found that from
November 3, 2008, through May 19, 2009, the plans’ assets were imprudently
invested by the plans’ fiduciaries. Read more > | | | Small Talk | | America’s
workers have either had some sitcom-worthy misadventures this year, or they
have gotten more creative with their sick day excuses. A CareerBuilder survey
found that over the past year, 28% of employees have called in to work sick when
they were feeling well, down from 32% last year. When asked for a reason, 30%
said they just didn’t feel like going in to work, and 29% said they wanted the
day to relax. One worker told an employer he or she woke up in a good mood and
didn’t want to ruin it. Read more > | | ON
THIS DATE: In 1895,
George B. Selden received the first U.S. patent for an automobile. He sold the
rights for $200,000 four years later. In 1912,
Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected the 28th president of the United States. In
1930, Sinclair Lewis was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Literature “for his vigorous and graphic art of description
and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters.”
Lewis was the first American to win the distinguished award. In 1935, the game “Monopoly” was
introduced by Parker Brothers Company. In 1940,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected for an unprecedented third term as
president of the United States. In 1968,
Richard Nixon was elected president of the United States. In 1994, George Foreman, at age 45, became
boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion when he defeated 26-year-old Michael Moorer
in the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas. In 2007, members of the Writers Guild of America, East, and Writers
Guild of America, West—labor organizations representing television, film and
radio writers—went on strike in Los Angeles and New York after negotiations broke
down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The
strike caused production to shut down on more than 60 TV shows. | | WEDNESDAY
WISDOM: “Time
is what we want most, but what we use worst.” —William Penn, founder
of Pennsylvania | | 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 > | | News from PLANSPONSOR.com
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Asset International, Inc., 2014.
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