BPP401k.com Newsletter September 29

Benefit Plans Plus Promotes Carrie Patterson to Senior As part of the long-term plan to strategically manage the growth and success of the firm, Benefit Plans Plus has promoted Carrie Patterson to Senior Retirement Plan Installation Specialist. Carrie joined Benefit Plans Plus five years ago and is responsible for the set-up and installation of new retirement plan business. Carrie has been instrumental in the first impression that BPP has operationally with clients. She consistently receives rave reviews from our clients and vendors.

DOL's Borzi Lays Out EBSA's Agenda Phyllis Borzi, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employee Benefits Security Administration, told attendees at the annual DOL Speaks conference, that EBSA continued progress on its pension agenda -- which included target date funds, fee regulation and lifetime income options in retirement plans. Source: Investmentadvisor.com

Check It Out and Check It Off: 2010 and 2011 Group Health Plan Checklist Several new laws and regulations from 2010 require significant design changes to group health plans and impose new notice requirements on plan sponsors. This checklist includes many of these major changes which require implementation in 2010 or 2011 as well as a listing of enrollment and annual notices that group health plan sponsors should consider during open enrollment.Source: Bryan Cave

Get Ready for Mandatory Fee Disclosure New regulations give fiduciaries leverage and actually require them to obtain detailed information about direct and indirect fees. Although they are not effective until July of next year, the regulations will apply to all pension plans – not just to 401k plans – and to all arrangements in existence on the effective date. Source: Pensions & Benefits Law Blog.

Is Your Retirement Plan Due for a Tune-Up? An article that examines why retirement plan sponsors need to annually review their plan to determine whether it fits the plan sponsor's needs or whether it should be modified to save money, maximize benefits, or to minimize liability. Source: The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

2010 401k Safe Harbor Plan Design The Pension Protection Act provided new incentives for implementing automatic enrollment in 401k plans, including a safe harbor automatic enrollment program known as a "qualified automatic contribution arrangement" or QACA. Along with the usual benefits of safe harbor rules, the QACA options offer exemption from nondiscrimination testing and top heavy testing, and a two year vesting schedule for employer contributions. Source: Pentegra Retirement Services

Can I Correct a Plan Drafting Mistake? The complexity and frequency of U.S. qualified plan amendments makes occasional drafting errors hard to avoid, but correcting good faith errors without jeopardizing plan qualification has always been harder than you think. Source: Pensions & Benefits Law Blog.

The 401k Match's Big Role in Retirement Security Company 401k matching contributions can motivate people to save money for the future and a match that requires workers to save six percent or more of pay to get the full match may result in people saving more than they otherwise would. Source: U.S.News & World Report.

Required Minimum Distributions and Your Retirement Fund A Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) is a minimum withdrawal that a person with a retirement account must take when they reach 70 and 1/2 years of age. Think of it simply as a minimum amount you would have to withdraw from your retirement fund each year when you reach the retirement age. There are however, some rules you should be aware of. Source: Gobankingrates.com

Contradictory Federal Decisions on Annuities: Is There Duplicity at DOL? While the Obama administration with one hand is pushing employers to include annuities as options in 401k plans, with the other hand it wants to allow investment advisers to ignore those same annuities when offering individual advice to 401k plan participants. That at least is the view of the insurance industry. Source: Employee Benefit News.

Seven Answers for Employers With Questions About Annuitizing 401k This article, in a question-and-answer format, analyzes fixed-income annuities and Treasury inflation-protected securities as investments for providing income protections for workers in 401k plans. Source: Sibson Consulting

Is Free 401k Advice Worth the Money? That free, personalized investing advice isn't all it's cracked up to be, and it's often not delivered in a very appealing or accessible way. PowerPoint presentations, scripts and investment jargon are the norms at workplace seminars, and online sites often ignore outside investments and often feel impersonal. Source: SmartMoney.com

New Challenges for 401k Fiduciaries A close reading of the decisions in several recent court cases should set off alarm bells in the minds of 401k fiduciaries and their ERISA counsel. The judges' rationales suggest new approaches that skilled and ERISA-savvy class action attorneys can exploit in their cases against 401k fiduciaries involving excessive fees, actively managed (versus index) funds, target-date funds, and managed accounts. This paper will review some of the judges' comments. Source: Investmenthorizons.com

Borrowing from Yourself: The Determinants of 401k Loans This paper explores the determinants of people's decisions to take 401k loans. It argues that 401k plans do not simply represent retirement saving, but they provide a means of saving for precautionary purposes. It model factors that rationally would induce people to borrow from their pension plans, and explains why people do not often use 401k loans to replace their more expensive credit card debt. Source: Michigan Retirement Research Center

The Economics of Providing 401k Plans: Services, Fees, and Expenses 401k plans are now the most common private-sector employer-sponsored retirement plan in the United States. Employers choose whether to offer these plans to employees as part of their total compensation packages; employees choose whether or not to participate. The creation and maintenance of a 401k plan involve a variety of services, and the costs of these services are generally shared by the plan sponsor and the plan participants. Source: Investment Company Institute

Retirement Readiness: Can Employers Do More? Despite the growth in 401k plans, nearly half of Americans ages 56 to 62 haven't saved enough for retirement, according to a recent Employee Benefit Research Institute analysis. Defined-contribution plans don't reach some employees, including those working in small businesses. Even BrightScope, the relatively young defined-contribution ranking company, is only now establishing a plan. Source: Workforce.com

House Approves Bill to Allow In-Plan Roth Conversions The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill which includes provisions allowing retirement plan participants to roll over their assets into in-plan Roth accounts. Source: Plansponsor.com

Roth Provisions in The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 The "Small Business Jobs Act of 2010" contains two provisions affecting Roth accounts within retirement plans. This is an 11 page review in Q&A format. Source: American Benefits Counsel

401k Fee Litigation Update Over the past several years, more than two dozen lawsuits have been filed relating to 401k plan fees and, more specifically, "revenue sharing" arrangements with plan service providers. This is an updated overview of current litigation and background information. Source: Groom Law Group.

Court Dismisses CitiStreet ERISA Breach Claims A federal judge in New York has tossed out allegations CitiStreet violated its fiduciary duties by misrepresenting the State Street Daily Bond Market Fund as a safe, conservative investment. Source: Plansponsor.com

For more information about custom retirement plan design and how Benefit Plans Plus can help make your business more successful visit www.bpp401k.com

BPP401k.com Newsletter September 22

The Myth of Free 401k Administration People believe in crazy things like conspiracy theories and urban legends. When it comes to 401k plans, the biggest myth out there is that plan administration costs nothing according to some plan sponsors. Just because you don't see the fees, doesn't mean it's not there. Source: The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Investors are “Clueless” as to Who Operates Under “Fiduciary Standards” A recent survey found that the vast majority of investors do not know which financial professionals are held to official “fiduciary standards.” Source: Plan Adviser

The Pros and Cons of 401(k) Annuities The prominence of the witnesses testified to the significance of the DoL/Treasury Department hearings this week on so-called "401k annuities" and other tools that can help plan participants turn their savings into income--either while they save, when they reach retirement, or in retirement. Source: Retirement Income Journal

The Role of Roth 401k in Retirement Savings After sitting on the back burner for the past few years, the Roth feature is gaining momentum in defined contribution plans and emerging as one of the strongest trends for 2010 and 2011. Since the Pension Protection Act of 2006 established it as a viable, long-term savings option, participant use has been significant, especially among newly enrolled employees. Because of this demand, more plan sponsors are adopting the Roth feature. Source: Hewitt Associates

Advice Is Critical To 401(k) Investing A recent Charles Schwab survey shows that investors aren’t using their access to advice about their 401(k). In a study of 401(k) plans serviced by Schwab and another 1,000 401(k) plan participants, Schwab found that 74% of Schwab’s plan sponsors currently offer 401(k) participants access to professional, third-party advice, but less than 10% of people with access to investment advice for their 401(k)s use it. Source: Forbes

How to Design a Retirement Education Program That Reduces Your Company's Legal Liability Outlined in this article a program you can put into place that is sufficiently protective given the current legal environment. This does not guarantee you will never face a legal issue, but it offers a high degree of protection should you face legal challenges surrounding the information you provided employees to help them make investment decisions. Source: 401khelpcenter.com.

Some 401k Plans Are Adding an Annuity Option Burdened with a reputation for being inflexible and expensive, annuities have never been popular in retirement plans. But insurance companies and Wall Street investment firms have produced a new crop of products that fiddle with the standard structure. However, they are still having trouble breaking through the A-barrier. Source: New York Times.

August Hewitt 401k Index In reaction to large market losses, 401k asset transfers were strongly fixed income-oriented in August, according to the results of the Hewitt 401k Index™. A total of $347 million moved from equities into fixed income investments during the month, which represented 0.31% of total assets. Seventy-three percent of days during the month saw fixed income-oriented transfers. Source: Hewitt Associates.

Survey: Challenges Facing Organizations and HR in the Next 10 Years Almost one-half of organizations reported that the biggest investment challenge facing organizations over the next 10 years is obtaining human capital and optimizing human capital investments (47%). According to HR professionals, one of the most effective tactic of meeting the identified challenges of retaining and rewarding the best people and attracting the best people to the organization is providing flexibility for employees to balance their life and work responsibilities. Source: Society for Human Resource Management.

Study Demonstrates Positive Impact of Advice on 401k Investor Behavior Charles Schwab released the findings of a new research study which reveals that professional advice has a direct and positive impact on the behavior of 401k plan participants. Source: 401khelpcenter.com.

Retirement Attitudes — Part I: Confidence in Retirement Last year, the financial crisis had a deep impact not only on employees' savings, but also on the confidence they had in their ability to retire comfortably. A Towers Watson survey finds that this impact may be more long term than previously thought and, despite the onset of a gradual economic recovery, employees continue to be apprehensive about securing their retirement. Source: Towers Watson

Senate Passes Roth Conversion Within 401k Plans This is a statement from Brian H. Graff, executive director/CEO of ASPPA in response to the United State Senate's passage of H.R. 5297 that allows distributable 401k account balances to be converted to Roth accounts within a 401k plan. Source: ASPPA.

The DOL's 408(b)(2) Regulation: Impact on Broker-Dealers and Registered Representatives This firm has been advising a significant number of broker-dealers about their disclosure obligations under the new DOL 408(b)(2) regulation. This article reflects some of their observations from that process, both legal and practical. Even though this article is relatively long (7 pages), they have not included discussion of some of the more complex issues, including the use of individual brokerage accounts by pooled plans and for participant-directed accounts. Source: Reish & Reicher

High-Balance Retirement Plan Participants Looking Elsewhere for Rollover IRAs High-balance retirement plan participants aren't showing much loyalty to their plan providers at rollover time. Just 25% of plan participants who performed a rollover of $200,000 or more since mid-2008 rolled all or some of the funds into an account held by their existing plan provider according to the Spectrem Group. Source: 401khelpcenter.com.

At DOL Hearing, Retirement Leaders Push for Lifetime-Income Options in 401ks Insurers and other retirement advocates are pushing for the government to consider annuities safe-harbor investments, which would limit or eliminate the liability of plan sponsors and advisers when recommending such options. Source: Investmentnews.com.

PSCA's Comments at DOL's Lifetime Income Hearing In general, because participant interest is so low, defined contribution plan sponsors increasingly see no reason to accept the additional fiduciary exposure that comes with an in-plan annuity option. As a result, the availability of annuity options in employer sponsored defined contribution plans has been declining. Source: Profit Sharing/401k Council of America

ASPPA's Comments at DOL's Lifetime Income Hearing ASPPA and it members are particularly interested and concerned about the issues that are the subject of this hearing. The primary hindrance to the availability of lifetime income options in DC plans results from the prospect of fiduciary liability attendant to selection and monitoring of lifetime income options. Source: ASPPA

ERIC's Comments at DOL's Lifetime Income Hearing Allison Klausner testified today on behalf of The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) before the Departments of Labor and Treasury joint hearing on issues regarding lifetime-income options for participants and beneficiaries in retirement plans. Klausner urged them to embark on an educational initiative to help employees and retirees understand the potential benefits and risks of investing in annuity contracts, as well as address employers' fiduciary concerns. Source: ERISA Industry Committee.

SPARK Institute's Comments at DOL's Lifetime Income Hearing There are several outstanding issues that will need to be addressed as this market matures. However, all of these are dependent on the level of comfort plan sponsors and participants feel about offering and using lifetime income solutions. Until this general level of comfort increases, many of the other issues – such as alternative designs and disclosure – are likely to be inconsequential. Source: The SPARK Institute

For more information about custom retirement plan design and how Benefit Plans Plus can help make your business more successful visit www.bpp401k.com

BPP401k.com Newsletter September 15

Consider a Solo 401k One of the major issues facing the self-employed is how to save for their retirement. If you work for a company you likely have a 401k plan or other retirement savings vehicle available to you. If you are a self-employed you will need to establish your own retirement savings program. One option to consider is the Solo 401k. Source: Chicago Financial Planner. BPP's SBO401k

Six Reasons Roth 401ks Are Catching On The attraction of a Roth 401k is simple. You contribute after-tax dollars to the account, which will accrue tax-free earnings and allow for tax-free withdrawals in retirement after age 59½ . Here’s a look at why Roth 401ks are catching on, especially among young retirement savers. Source: U.S.News & World Report.

How to create a succession plan to secure your wealth and your company’s future The time will inevitably come — whether by choice or not — when you are no longer able to run your business. So what can you do now to ensure the business and the wealth that you’ve grown will go on without you? Create and execute a succession plan, says Bill Willbrand, a tax and accounting member at Brown Smith Wallace LLC in St. Louis, Mo. Source: Smart Business

How to Drive Retirement Plan Participation at Small Businesses Selling retirement plans to small businesses can be an effective way to generate new business and an ongoing revenue stream. Yet, many advisers underestimate the need their clients’ employees have for ongoing support and guidance to make informed investment decisions that will ensure they maximize their plan’s benefits. Source: Planadviser.com.

Expanding Automatic Enrollment and Making Saver's Credit a Match Will Help to Improve Retirement Security Recent recommendations by the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board that would make the saver's credit a match to individual savings by moderate income workers and further increase the use of automatic enrollment in retirement savings plans are the latest indication that policymakers recognize the need to improve opportunities to save. However, while these recommendations are welcome news, additional steps are needed. Source: Brookings Institution.

Pros and Cons of Cashing Out Your 401k to Start a Business The combination of a bad lending environment, the economy, and the uptick in people starting businesses have made tapping retirement funds a very tempting business financing option. Is it right for you? Source: Blogher.com.

FASB Proposes Change in Participant Loan Classification FASB has issued a Proposed Accounting Standards Update to clarify how loans to participants should be classified and measured by defined contribution plans. Source: CCH.

Employers on the Hook for 401k Fees In a batch of class-action lawsuits, employees are holding their employers liable for high fees and poor disclosure in 401k plans. While the suits have produced mixed results, experts warn that companies may be more vulnerable to lawsuits than they realize. Source: Philadelphia Business Journal.

Training Small-Market 401k Plan Sponsors Results in Greater Client Satisfaction According to a new survey by Anova Consulting Group, new small-market 401k plan sponsors who have been trained by their plan providers are more than twice as satisfied. Source: 401khelpcenter.com.

Most 401k Participants Ignore 2Q Volatility Retirement plan participants are calming down, according to a Mass Mutual analysis of its plans. Only 4% of participants made changes to their 401k allocations in the second quarter, despite volatile a S&P 500 Index, which fell 11.4% over that time period. Source: Employee Benefit News.

Ford Settles 401k Retirement Stock Suit Ford Motor Co. will provide free financial advice to more than 150,000 retirees and employees whose retirement accounts lost billions of dollars when the bottom dropped out of the auto industry. Source: Saint Louis Post-Dispatch.

Will Roth Conversions be Allowed in 401k/403(b) Plans? Currently, the conversion to Roth cannot be done within a qualified retirement plan. However, a pending small business tax bill in Congress would change that. The legislation allows the conversion of a pretax account in a 401k or 403(b) to a post-tax Roth account within the same plan. Source: TRI-AD.

Northern Trust 401k SecLending Suit Plaintiffs Survive First Challenge Participants of two 401k plans have gotten the go-ahead from a federal judge to press on with their lawsuit that claims Northern Trust breached its fiduciary duty by mishandling its securities lending program. Source: Plansponsor.com.

Best Practices for 403(b) Plans Working with Non-Compliant Vendors Plan sponsors generally depend on their 403(b) plan service providers to collect, maintain and manage participant information, and to suggest ways to address certain compliance issues. The purpose of these Best Practices are to identify options for plan sponsors when an investment provider is not able or is unwilling to share participant data. Source: SPARK Institute (PDF File).

IRS Phone Forum on Basics of Roth Conversions/Retirement Planning Greg Nix, EP Customer Education and Outreach Area Analyst, will be joined by Kathleen Herrmann, Tax Law Specialist, EP Technical Guidance and Quality Assurance, for an hour presentation on the impact of life events on retirement planning. The basic rules applicable to Roth conversions, loans, cash-outs, rollovers and required minimum distributions will be discussed. Source: IRS.

For more information about custom retirement plan design and how Benefit Plans Plus can help make your business more successful visit www.bpp401k.com

BPP401k.com Newsletter September 8

401k Day 9/10 PSCA's 2010 401(k) Day is an offer an education campaign to will help plan sponsors and participants learn more about the benefits of saving for retirement in a 401(k) plan. Tools for Plan Sponsors

The Top Ten Major Misconceptions Plan Sponsors Have About Retirement Plans While this list of major misconceptions about retirement plans is just a portion of the wrong advice that plan sponsors rely on, the list represents many misconceptions that have been seen when meetings with employers. Located at: JD Supra, LLC

Trends in Workplace Retirement Education Plan sponsors want to make sure they are ahead of the curve with their retirement education programs rather than responding too late to major industry changes. To do so, they need to know the key trends in workplace retirement education and financial education. Source: 401khelpcenter.com.

ASPPA Issues Comments on DOL Fee Disclosure Regulation This is a statement from Brian Graff, executive director/CEO of ASPPA in response to the U.S. Department of Labor's request for comments on the Interim Final Regulation §2550.408b-2(c) which imposes new fee disclosure requirements on retirement plan service providers. Source: 401khelpcenter.com.

A Conversation on 401k Advice vs. Guidance Companies sponsoring 401k plans often face confusion as to what is truly being offered to participants -- guidance or advice. Since guidance versus advice is easily confused, this mock conversation is designed to clarify what is and isn't, should and shouldn't, be taking place with participants. Source: 401k Fiduciary Advice Blog.

Cash Balance Plans Can Hold Hidden Risks for Plan Sponsors Plan sponsors who move to a cash balance plan from a traditional defined benefit plan may not always realize they are trading interest rate risk for investment risk. Source: Vanguard.

One Man's Story of the Origins of ERISA Many of us deal with qualified retirement plans in our profession every day. Some even become engrossed in the intricacies of the laws of ERISA, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Labor, and the regulations thereto. Very few of us, however, really know the story behind ERISA, and how and why it came into being. Source: Morningstar.com.

Avoid the Added Cost of Top-Heavy Retirement Plans The economy has had an impact on compensation for employees in many industries; and subsequently, benefit plan sponsors must be aware of the potential impact on their 401k plans. This article reviews the top-heavy rules and some steps employers may be able to take to avoid having their plans become top-heavy. Source: KraftCPAs PLLC.

Prudent Fiduciary Selection and Monitoring of Target-Date Funds This paper provides a practical fiduciary approach to analyzing target-date funds by suggesting that plan fiduciaries focus on four specific areas: risk; risk-adjusted returns and expenses; underlying funds; and reliability. It also includes a target-date fund perspective by the IFLC stating their significant concern with this fund. Source: Investment Fiduciary Leadership Council (PDF File).

The Fiduciary Reference The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard has created "The Fiduciary Reference: Selected Articles on Fiduciary Duties Applicable to Personalized Invest. Advice" to aid the SEC as it studies whether to extend the fiduciary standard to brokers who provide advice to investors. "The Fiduciary Reference" includes the work of the leading academics, researchers and practitioners, regarding fiduciary duty as it applies to investors. Source: Committee for the Fiduciary Standard

An Analysis of Investment Committee Hire/Fire Decisions Hiring investment managers is harder than firing them, according to Vanguard's second annual survey of investment committee members. At the same time, committees that find manager evaluation more difficult also have a significantly lower rate of manager turnover which, in turn, can reduce investment management costs. This paper explores several important factors and behaviors that can affect manager hiring decisions. Source: Vanguard

2010 Independent Advisor Outlook Study The Summer 2010 Independent Advisor Outlook Survey was completed by more than 1,200 advisors employed by independent investment advisor firms. Nearly 60 percent of advisors surveyed say a double-dip recession in the U.S. is unlikely over the next six months, and more than 60 percent expect the S&P to increase during the same time period. Source: Charles Schwab

The New Frontier in the Small- to Micro-Plan Market U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that 52% of U.S. employees working for private-sector small businesses with fewer than 100 employees had no access to an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan. This market, say experts, provides a great opportunity to boost the bottom line for those advisers willing to venture there. Source: Planadviser.com.

MassMutual Data Show Participants Exhibiting Stable Behavior MassMutual's Retirement Services Division has released data for the quarter ended June 30, 2010 indicating that participants in retirement plans administered by MassMutual showed no signs of panic despite the decline in the S&P 500 Index, with 96% of participants either maintaining or increasing their savings rates. Source: 401khelpcenter.com.

Survey Finds Relative Calm Amidst Boomers Approaching Retirement Charles Schwab released the findings of its quarterly retirement pulse survey which reveals that baby boomers approaching retirement in today's rocky economic conditions have maintained a surprisingly stable view about their retirement prospects. Source: 401khelpcenter.com.

Survey: Small Business Owners Delaying Retirement The latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, surveyed in July 2010, shows many business owners are looking at a later retirement with 69 percent of business owners not planning to retire or cut back on work until age 65 or older. This is a 17 percentage point increase in this category from December '07 and a 28 percentage point increase from September '05. Source: 401khelpcenter.com.

Older Workers' Confidence in Retirement Security Rebounds Older workers' confidence in their ability to retire comfortably has rebounded modestly in the past year, although confidence levels remain well below those prior to the financial crisis. Additionally, while concerns among older workers with defined benefit (DB) plans have eased, younger workers are growing increasingly worried over their DB benefits, according to a new survey conducted by global professional services company Towers Watson. Source: 401khelpcenter.com.

Target-Date Fund Proposals Miss the Mark The Securities and Exchange Commission gave the public about two months to comment on proposed rules designed to give people a better understanding of target-date funds. The comment period ended a few days ago, and it seems the public doesn't care. Source: Marketwatch.com.

Experts Square Off Over Target-Date Funds In the aftermath of the financial meltdown of 2008, target-date funds were lambasted for having higher risk profiles than retiring investors should have anticipated. A call for comments by the SEC on proposed regulatory changes netted fewer than 50 responses, but some were strongly worded critiques. Source: TheStreet.com.

General Growth Reaches Settlement Over 401k Plan Losses General Growth Properties Inc., the second-largest U.S. mall owner, reached a $5.75 million settlement resolving a lawsuit against the company over losses in its 401k savings plan. Source: Bloomberg.

401k Participant at Fault in Account Withdrawal Dispute A federal judge in Oklahoma has cleared a 401k plan administrator of wrongdoing in a dispute over whether the employer should be forced to repay the participant for funds his ex-wife took out of his account. Source: Planadviser.com.

New Retirement Plan Fee Disclosures – Getting Ahead of the 2011 Deadline The disclosure and reporting requirements imposed by the fee disclosure regulations place significant new burdens on service providers to disclose the fees they expect to receive from retirement plans. In addition, plan sponsors must confirm that proper disclosures are made. Accordingly, both retirement plan sponsors and retirement plan service providers need to be prepared to identify, track and properly disclose compensation paid for services provided to retirement plans. Source: Thompson Hine LLP.

Comment Letter to FASB on Proposed Accounting Standards Update for DC Plan Loans The SPARK Institute favors they change and encourages it to finalize it as soon as possible. Source: SPARK Institute

SPARK Institute Comments on DOL Regs on Disclosure of Fees by Service Providers "Although we generally believe that EBSA has done a good job with the Rule, this comment letter summarizes our new or remaining issues and concerns regarding the Rule, and provides responses to some of the questions raised by EBSA for industry feedback." Thirteen pages. Source: SPARK Institute

NAIRPA Issues Comments to SEC on Target-Date Funds The National Association of Independent Retirement Plan Advisors (NAIRPA) issued these comments on how to improve disclosure for plan fiduciaries and participants who choose target-date funds as designated investment options in their qualified plans. Source: ASPPA

Service Provider Fee Disclosure Regulations: Initial Disclosures This is the fourth in a series and begins the discussion of the initial disclosures requirements under the DOL's Service Provider Fee Disclosure regulations. Source: SunGard/Relius.

Service Provider Fee Disclosure Regulations: Service Provider Categories Covered service providers fall into three categories: (1) fiduciaries or registered investment advisers; (2) certain recordkeepers and brokerage service providers; and (3) certain recipients of indirect compensation. This article provides details regarding these covered service provider categories. Source: SunGard/Relius.

Fee Disclosure Regulation: DOL Provides Leverage for Plan Sponsors The Regulation thus shifts the balance of power between the plan fiduciary who is charged with understanding fees that its plans will pay and the service providers that generate those fees. Although a plan fiduciary retains responsibility if it uses plan assets to pay unreasonable fees, the Regulation enhances the fiduciary's ability to obtain the information it needs to determine reasonableness. Source: Jones Day.

SEC Proposes Revisions to Mutual Fund 12b-1 Fees and Disclosure The Proposal has widespread implications not only for mutual funds and their boards of directors and investment advisers, but also for broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries that sell fund shares or service fund shareholder accounts. Source: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

For more information about custom retirement plan design and how Benefit Plans Plus can help make your business more successful visit www.bpp401k.com