Products June 26, 2008

TIAA-CREF Offers Help with 403(b) Plan Transaction Monitoring

June 26, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - TIAA-CREF, provider of retirement services in the academic, medical and cultural fields, has introduced a Web-based application that will allow 403(b) retirement plan sponsors to proactively manage participant transactions as required by the new 403(b) regulations that take effect on January 1, 2009.
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According to the announcement, TIAA-CREF’s Compliance Coordinator will aggregate data from multiple vendors to assist in preventing non-compliant transactions before they occur and help plan sponsors verify compliance with IRS loan limits and hardship withdrawal regulations through enhanced reporting.

All data will be transferred in accordance with standards created by the Society of Professional Asset-Managers and Record Keepers (SPARK) based on input from a number of leading 403(b) providers (See SPARK Releases Final Best Practices and Sample ISA for 403(b)s ).

In addition, each approved plan investment provider will have access to data for their participants and will be able to use the data to approve or decline requests as appropriate, the announcement said. For plan sponsors working solely with TIAA-CREF, the company will continue to ensure all loan limits and hardship withdrawal rules are met and provide an enhanced reporting package to better enable these clients to track their own plans’ activity.

The application will be developed in partnership with and hosted by Advent Software, Inc., provider of software and services to the investment management industry.

In April TIAA-CREF released a guide to new 403(b) regulations for TIAA-CREF clients (See TIAA-CREF Puts Out 403(b) Guide ).

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