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News Archive
In observance of Presidents Day on Monday, Feb. 18, the ASPPA offices will be closed. Accordingly, ASPPA Connect will not be published on Feb. 18. ASPPA Connect will reappear on Wednesday, Feb. 20.
Everyone is familiar with the pantheon of U.S. presidents, but there is more to them than that they...
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In his First Quarter 2019 Washington Update, Robert Kaplan, the American Retirement Association’s Director of Technical Education, provided an overview of the new climate on Capitol Hill as well as recent regulatory developments affecting retirement plans.
On the Hill
With the changes that took...
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Retirees’ concerns about not having enough money to last through retirement may not be as grim as they had feared before retiring, according to a new study.
In fact, more than two-thirds of retirees say they live as well or better in retirement as they did when they were working, according to the...
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Consumers tend to worry about “high-touch” products, such as credit cards and bank accounts, more than they worry about long-term savings accounts, such as their workplace retirement plans and IRAs, a new study warns.
Nearly 80% of American consumers are concerned about financial fraud, according...
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The IRS has issued a new version of Publication 575, “Pension and Annuity Income” for use in 2018 reporting.
Publication 575 discusses the tax treatment of distributions received from pension and annuity plans and also shows how to report the income on a federal income tax return. How these...
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The IRS has updated the content in its 401(k) Plan Fix-It Guide that addresses what to do when hardship distributions were not made properly.
The IRS makes recommendations regarding how to find and correct a mistake in providing hardship distributions.
How to Find the Mistake
Review your plan...
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The 100 largest corporate pension plans’ funded status improved in the first month of 2019, Milliman reports.
In a recent analysis, Milliman says that its Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index shows that the funding of the 100 largest corporate pension plans improved by $19 billion in January. That...
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The IRS has issued a new version of Publication 560, “Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans)" for use in 2018 reporting.
In addition to information about filing, Publication 560 contains information on the following:
what type of plan to set up;
how to set up a...
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Fee litigation trends and disclosure requirements have compelled plan sponsors to focus on how recordkeeping fees are allocated to participants, but beyond ERISA’s general fiduciary requirements, there is limited legal guidance, explains a new white paper.
Under the Department of Labor’s fee...
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The 2019 Eastern Regional Conference will be held at the Doubletree Center City Hotel in Philadelphia on Thursday, May 9 and Friday, May 10. One of only two live regional conferences to be sponsored by ASPPA in 2019, the Eastern Regional Conference has been designed to educate retirement plan...
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Having a retirement plan and a commitment to facilitating employees’ saving for their retirement is important. But the good that accomplishes can be blunted if the employer and the plan administrators don’t communicate about the plan effectively.
In “Effectively Communicating Your Retirement Plan...
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It is customary when sharing (or reading) the portents of a survey to focus on the actions that respondents say they have, or will undertake. But what about the things they say they will not do?
Human beings gravitate toward “norms,” of course. Plan sponsors, certainly those conscious of the...
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Clients’ expectations have changed. And that is in part explained, and fueled by, technology. In a Jan. 29 session of the NTSA 30th Anniversary Summit in Tampa, FL, Lincoln Investment Vice President of Branch Development Tom Lakatos offered his insights on this development.
Lakatos was definitive...
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Another state has moved to impose its own fiduciary standard with no ERISA exemption.
The Maryland legislature aims to implement a state level fiduciary standard through a comprehensive consumer protection bill introduced this week by State Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Prince George’s).
The bill grants...
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Health savings accounts (HSAs) have become a significant and growing part of American workers’ benefit programs, and, increasingly a significant component of their retirement savings strategy.
To better understand how these programs are designed and administered, the Plan Sponsor Council of...
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The American Retirement Association (ARA) on Feb. 4 submitted a comment letter to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on the agency’s proposed form and instructions that would enable it to obtain information it needs in order to make coverage determinations.
The PBGC had announced Dec...
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At the first hearing on retirement security issues in the 116th Congress on Feb. 6, enactment of the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act (RESA) again took center stage as a vital step in expanding access and addressing the coverage gap.
Featuring a single panel of witnesses, the four-hour...
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The Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act (RESA) has been reintroduced in the new Congress.
The bill introduced on Feb. 6 is bipartisan – sponsored by Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Mike Kelly (R-PA) – as was the one introduced nearly a year ago by the same duo.
The bill, which is a replica of last...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has issued proposed amendments to its regulations on allocating unfunded vested benefits to withdrawing employers and notice, collection, and redetermination of withdrawal liability.
The PBGC says that these amendments are needed in order to...
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Retirement security has received some much-needed attention in bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate.
The Retirement Security Act of 2019 was introduced by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), the Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), with a goal of helping small...
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