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Defined Contribution Plans
At the upcoming 2024 ASPPA Spring National Conference, I look forward to learning from many top industry experts and ERISA attorneys during the conference, as well as receive updates on SECURE 2.0 and developments in Washington D.C.
Highlights. To highlight only a few sessions, TPA plan...
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The effects of the SECURE 2.0 Act cover the gamut from profound and far-reaching to the more mundane yet still important—and that includes reporting about certain retirement plans and saving arrangements.
In FS-2024-18, a fact sheet issued May 2, the IRS reminds businesses that beginning with tax...
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Don’t Be Bashful! Sign up for the 2024 ASPPA Spring National Conference.
Why Attend?
Here are some reasons to attend the 2024 ASPPA Spring National Conference.
Learn and earn. On this virtual journey, you will hear from a bevy of industry experts and ERISA attorneys, while earning 10 CE...
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It’s proverbial that with age comes wisdom. Recent research doesn’t vouch for that, but does suggest that at the very least, confidence in a financially secure retirement is more likely among generations that have been around longer.
Confidence Goes Boom
“Over the past several years, there has...
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Overall, private-sector employees are more than four times as likely to have access to a defined contribution plan than a defined benefit plan, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The BLS in “TED: The Economics Daily” reports that in its most recent National Compensation Survey...
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For the IRS, fiscal year (FY) 2023 “was a transitional year,” largely due to funding provided under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and application of technology, according to Commissioner of Internal Revenue Danny Werfel. His made his remarks in the agency’s most recent data book, an annual...
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Vanguard and Ascensus have announced a major deal that could potentially shake up the small-business retirement plan market.
According to the April 16 announcement, Ascensus has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Vanguard's Individual 401(k), Multiple Participant SEP (Multi-SEP), and...
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Spring cleaning is well underway. But that need not be limited to closets, kitchens, and garages—it can serve retirement plans and their administrators too. And one such prime function is addressing missing participants.
Missing participants—former employees whose benefits remain in the plan but...
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The IRS on April 16 issued guidance on certain specified required minimum distributions (RMDs) for 2024. It adds that the final regulations it plans to issue related to RMDs will apply for purposes of determining RMDs for calendar years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2025.
The guidance is...
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Collective investment trusts (CITs) are a greater focus of attention and activity in the wake of SECURE 2.0, as a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report highlights.
In “Pensions and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs): Investment Issues,” the CRS provides an overview of pension...
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Longevity and greater spending are "putting the U.S. retirement system under immense strain," BlackRock CEO Larry Fink wrote in his annual shareholder letter.
In the letter, bluntly titled “Time to Rethink Retirement,” Fink argued that capital markets will be critical in addressing what he called...
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A recent “news” post about a blog post finds some curious “faults” with the 401(k).
The news item carried the provocative title “‘Rich Dad’ Robert Kiyosaki Reveals Why the 401(k) Is a ‘Horrible’ Retirement Plan.” It originally ran on GoBankingRates.com, but was subsequently picked up in...
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What's in the episode?
Defined contribution plans, and 401(k)s specifically, are increasingly under attack, criticized by think tanks and academics for perceived (yet easily refuted) flaws. What—and who—is behind the effort? Are the criticisms resonating and why are they happening now? Does the...
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The Illinois Senate may vote soon on a bill that would require school districts in the Land of Lincoln that offer their employees a 403(b) plan to enter into a contract with only one vendor in the plan.
On Feb. 14, 2024, Sen. Karina Villa (D-West Chicago) introduced language for SB2568 stating...
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Harkening back to the early days of the administration, President Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget, once again, proposes significant tax increases on corporations and upper-income taxpayers, including a proposal to limit how much taxpayers are allowed to accumulate in their retirement plans. ...
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I’m not sure how old I was when I first saw “Night of the Living Dead”—but I have long been intrigued by stories of a zombie apocalypse—where mindless beings inexplicably rise from the dead, with no memory of their past, just a relentless (and apparently insatiable) hunger for…well, “us.”
That is...
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It wasn’t high costs or 401(k)s—necessarily—that ended the corporate pension plan’s reign, but rather ERISA itself.
A recent paper from John Langbein, Yale Law School’s Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Legal History, argued that the 1974 landmark law’s structure made defined benefit (DB)...
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[Updated: On Friday morning, the House passed H.R. 2799, Expanding Access to Capital Act of 2023, the larger bill that included the CITs in 403(b)s amendment, on a party line vote of 212 - 205. The bill will now go to the Senate. A quote from ARA CEO Brian Graff is added below.]
On March 7, the...
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The ink was barely dry on the denial of a motion to dismiss the suit, when American Airlines filed a motion of summary judgment, claiming that “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the [movant] is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”
Where We’ve Been
Participant-plaintiff (...
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What's in the episode?
‘Retirement provocateur’ Kathleen Kennedy Townsend played an instrumental role in the debate over retirement issues, resulting in significant policy ideas. A founder of the Georgetown University Center for Retirement Initiatives, the 40-year political veteran and former...
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