…comply with these rules in operation, with differing effective dates. Sponsors of defined contribution plans were already required to formally adopt separate amendments (where applicable) over the last several years to demonstrate good faith compliance with some provisions of these rules. Plan sponsors have different…
…Income Statement, rigidly defined and almost impossible to stretch. Free Cash Flow, while still an accounting derivative, is reconciled on the Cash Flow statement, and must tie to cash – again, harder to manipulate for cosmetic appearances. So what are these measures telling us? On…
…noted that investment fiduciary outsourcing can be appropriate for defined benefit and defined contribution plans of all sizes.) In addition, the day-to-day management of a plan involves, among other things, making sure the plan is running as it should be; nuts and bolts record-keeping; and…
…be one of the most effective tools in plan design today. Such plans are being used more frequently as a way to reward longer tenured employees; reward and incent by job category; restore benefits lost due to a defined benefit (DB)/pension plan freeze or cutback;…
New years are often viewed as opportunities for new beginnings. And while that may be true, it is also the case that a new year can present new problems – or in some instances, the continuation of old problems. When it comes to defined contribution…
Infrastructure, as broadly defined, is the basic system of services that a country and a society needs to function properly. Infrastructure includes physical systems such as the roads, air and railway networks, utilities, sewage and water. Infrastructure also includes services such as law enforcement, emergency…
…an update of their 2011 study, “Delivering ERISA Disclosure for Defined Contribution Plans: Why the Time Has Come to Prefer Electronic Delivery.” The updated report, they wrote, shows that the need for a shift from paper to electronic delivery “has grown even more compelling and…
In my April 2015 blog, A Few Notes on Labor Productivity, I discussed how productivity is defined by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and its potential impact on employment, inflation and economic growth. The blog emphasized that it is important to distinguish between…
…Interim Final Rule on lifetime income disclosures under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE) Act. The Interim Final Rule outlines how defined contribution plan sponsors governed by The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) would provide participants…
…to just what an issue cybersecurity has become. Information security research firm Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that by 2025, cyberattacks will cost businesses worldwide $10.5 trillion annually. In the meantime, EBSA estimates that, as of 2018, there were 34 million defined benefit plan participants in private…
…their exposure to sudden market downturns-such as in 2008, late 2018 and the first quarter of 2020? A well-known form of adjustment is known as rebalancing. I first posted a blog on this subject in the 2017 Current Thinking. Rebalancing can be defined as reducing…
…of plans (GoP), which the new proposed rules instead call a defined contribution group (DCG). That approach allows employers — whether affiliated or not — to file a single 5500 for multiple defined contribution plans, as long as the plans have the same trustee, administrator,…