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- Excerpt: "A coalition of leaders from the business, health care and education sectors said yesterday that they will examine how factors such as income, housing, education and stress -- not medical insurance -- shape the health choices people make and cause poor and middle-class people on average to live shorter lives than wealthier Americans." (authored by The Washington Times) |
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- Excerpt: "Individuals who actively invest their retirement accounts should consider the impact of the ruling on their individual investment decisions and would be advised to avoid transactions where a purchase and sale of similar securities will occur within the 60-day period beginning 30 days before a sale and ending 30 days after a sale." (authored by Employee Benefit News; free registration required) |
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- Excerpt: "A study published in late 2007 shows that even a small amount of money can encourage people to make healthier choices and lose weight." (authored by Employee Benefit News; free registration required) |
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- Excerpt: "Among the employers that are focusing on diversification, Pepsi Bottling Group emphasizes the topic in targeted mailings, onsite workshops and articles in the company's quarterly benefits newsletter. It sends targeted communications at key times: when the employee reaches one, three, five or 10 years of service, hits their mid-40s or has two years until retirement eligibility. A few years ago, the company lifted restrictions on eliminating investments in company stock. |
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- Excerpt: "Corporate boards of directors and institutional investors disagree over whether the executive pay model has helped improve corporate performance, but they agree it has led to excessive levels of compensation, according to a Watson Wyatt Worldwide study released today." (authored by Pensions & Investments) |
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- 32 pages. Excerpt: "[T]he GAO was asked to examine: 1) the key measures of the funded status of retiree benefits and 2) the current funded status of retiree benefits. GAO analyzed data on public pensions, reviewed current literature, and interviewed a range of experts on public retiree benefits, actuarial science, and accounting. |
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- Excerpt: "Humana last month launched a program, called 'Healthy Returns,' that provides its Medicare plan beneficiaries with gift cards to Macy's, CVS, Lowe's and Borders as an incentive to adopt healthier lifestyles, Florida Health News reports." (authored by Kaiser Family Foundation) |
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- Excerpt: "Financial Research Corp., based in Boston, reports that record keepers are 'expressing significant interest in income-guaranteed products and are actively conducting due diligence on the various products to determine whether or not they will be added to their platforms.' o gain ground within DC plans, annuities should be delivered in a manner that participants can easily understand, according to the FRC report." (authored by Financial Week; |
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- Excerpt: "Average fees paid by pension plans worldwide have jumped 50% over the past five years, with active managers making up the bulk of the increase, according to a new report by Watson Wyatt Worldwide." (authored by Financial Week; free registration required) |
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- Excerpt: "Bowing to critics who contended it was putting profits before patients, Aetna said Wednesday that it had suspended -- at least temporarily -- a plan to stop paying for routine use of a powerful anesthetic in a procedure to screen for colon cancer." (authored by The New York Times; free registration required) |
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- Excerpt: "Schmidt described the service as helping doctors and the increasing numbers of patients who use the Internet for their own medical research. He said surveys show more people trust what they find online than what they hear from physicians, and the service will give people control over their own health. For example, they will be able to store X-rays taken at any number of facilities all on one online account, accessible from any computer." (authored by AP via The New York Times; |
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- Excerpt: "California could become the first state in the nation to require paid sick leave for all workers under a bill introduced last week by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco." (authored by San Jose Mercury News) |
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- Excerpt: "While it was no surprise when GM, an ailing enterprise that lost $8.6 billion in 2005, decided to freeze its pensions, the new wave of freezes among healthy companies like IBM, Verizon and Lockheed-Martin has retirement experts predicting the era of the pension soon will be over for up to three-quarters of roughly 21 million workers enrolled in such plans." (authored by IndyStar.com. |
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- 83 pages. Excerpt: "Harris Interactive was commissioned to conduct the 9th Annual Retirement Survey for Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. . . |
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- 160 pages. Excerpt: "Since 1998 Transamerica has conducted a national phone survey of U.S. business employers and employees regarding their attitudes toward retirement. |
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- 30 pages. Excerpt: "For the past eights years, the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies has conducted a national survey of U.S. business employers and workers regarding their attitudes toward retirement. |
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- Excerpt: "Today, most states are actively promoting the use of information technology as a way to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health care. 'E-health' describes any health care practice supported by electronic processes and communication; state e-health initiatives include health information exchanges and use of technology such as telehealth, e-prescribing, electronic medical records, and decision support tools. States are encouraging e-health activities in the private sector and in a wide variety of public programs, from public health agencies, Medicaid, and state employee health benefits plans to state-run mental health hospitals and prison systems. |
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- Excerpt: "Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ('PBGC') is waiving certain penalties and extending certain deadlines in response to the severe storms and flooding that occurred on January 7, 2008, in Indiana." (authored by Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) |
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- Excerpt: " Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ('PBGC') is waiving certain penalties and extending certain deadlines in response to the severe storms, tornadoes and flooding that occurred on February 5, 2008, in Tennessee." (authored by Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) |
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- Excerpt: "Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ('PBGC') is waiving certain penalties and extending certain deadlines in response to the severe storms, tornadoes and flooding that occurred on February 5, 2008, in Arkansas." (authored by Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) |
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- Excerpt: "Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ('PBGC') is waiving certain penalties and extending certain deadlines in response to the severe storms, tornadoes and flooding that occurred on February 5, 2008, in Kentucky." (authored by Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) |
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- Excerpt: "The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA ®) today announced an innovative new employee benefit designed to encourage home ownership, reduce commuting time and help the environment. The association will provide a $25,000 forgivable three- year loan to assist with the down payment of a home closer to its Arlington headquarters. While some local governments entice employees to live in their jurisdiction, CEA is to its knowledge the first non-governmental entity to make this type and level of benefit available." (authored by Business Wire via Human Resource Executive Online) |
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- Excerpt: "The Feb. 1 decision involved a lesbian couple who married in Ontario, Canada, in 2004, one year after the province legalized same-sex marriage. Patricia Martinez filed the case against her employer, Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y. |
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- Excerpt: "The local Public Agency Retirement Services (PARS) early retirement plan is in addition to what the teachers would get from the state retirement program. District school officials pointed out that the plan is not a bonus program, but a way to compensate teachers for what they would lose by retiring early. They also pointed out that the goal of offering early retirement is not to save the district money but to prevent laying-off younger teachers." (authored by The Lompoc Record) |
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- 2 pages. Excerpt: "The IRS, apparently recognizing the accounting and other implications of its earlier position, has stated that it will not apply the new ruling to disallow a deduction for compensation that otherwise satisfies the rules for performance-based compensation, provided that either (i) the performance period for such compensation begins on or before January 1, 2009, or (ii) the compensation is paid pursuant to an employment agreement that was in effect (without regard to future renewals or extensions, including automatic renewals or extensions) on February 21, 2008." (authored by Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP) |
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- Excerpt: "[A private letter] ruling was met with a firestorm of criticism, even outrage, by the pillars of our nation's legal community -- in excess of 90 law firms lodged protests with the I.R.S. in which they concluded that the agency's position was unwise and, as a matter of law, incorrect. |
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- Excerpt: "Under the proposed program, employers would make a predetermined contribution toward the cost of an insurance policy for their employees. For those employers, the exchange would perform administrative functions similar to a human resources department at a larger corporation, according to the governor's office. By designating the exchange as the employer's health plan, the employer's contribution becomes tax-free, and the health benefits are tax-free to the employee. Industry observers say such an exchange could have a big impact on the state's uninsured population. |
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- Excerpt: "The National Quality Forum (NQF) identified 27 medical events that are 'serious, largely preventable and of concern to both the public and health care providers.' Examples include an infant discharged to the wrong person, and death or serious disability resulting from a medication error." (authored by AISHealth.com) |
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- 4 pages. Excerpt: "This alert provides a brief summary of the LaRue case, as well as outlines the problems it may create for plan sponsors and fiduciaries and posits several actions that they may wish to take to help address those problems." (authored by Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC) |
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- 2007 blev ett rekordår för fastighetsmäklarna. Intäkterna bland landets 13 största mäklarkedjor ökade med drygt 17 procent till 4,9 miljarder kronor. "2008 blir förmodligen sämre", säger Lars Kilander, vd för Mäklarsamfundet. |
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- Bitflu is a BitTorrent client designed to run non-stop as a daemon. It does not provide a graphical interface, but offers a telnet interface and can handle multiple torrent downloads. License: Artistic License Changes: This release improves startup time and adds a simple 'grep' command to the telnet interface. |
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- 1 page. Excerpt: "Section 3701 of HR 3970, by Congressman Charles Rangel, is the ESOP S Corp provision . . . |
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- NCEO Executive Director Corey Rosen reports on the extension of the date for complying with the Section 409A deferred compensation rules; a proposal to tax synthetic equity in S corporation ESOPs; a survey finding 19% of fast-growing companies plan ESOPs as a business transition strategy; and a new study finding that large stock option grants to CEOs appear to hurt investors. (National Center for Employee Ownership) |
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- On October 18, the IRS issued News Release IR-2007-171, announcing the changes in pensions and benefits limits for 2008. That same day, the Social Security Administration announced the wage base (i.e., the maximum amount subject to social security taxes) for 2008. An updated chart, showing these limits for 1996 to 2008, is available at the above link. |
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- Excerpt: "The annual compensation limit under Sections 401(a)(17), 404(l), 408(k)(3)(C), and 408(k)(6)(D)(ii) is increased from $225,000 to $230,000. The dollar limitation under Section 416(i)(1)(A)(i) concerning the definition of key employee in a top-heavy plan is increased from $145,000 to $150,000. . . |
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- Are an attorney, accountant, actuary, consultant, third-party administrator, financial services provider, or other kind of retirement plan practitioner? Please help an official IRS advisory group supply the IRS with ideas for improving the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System, by completing this online survey or emailing your response to the group. The deadline is the end of next week (October 19). These recommendations will address, but not be limited to, the directive to the Secretary of the Treasury under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 to continue updating and improving EPCRS. (IRS Advisory Committee (ACT) on Tax Exempt and Government Entities) |
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- 24 pages. Originally published April 17, 2007. Excerpt: "This report describes the results of the first phase of a research project on the reasons companies terminate employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). It summarizes interviews with company leaders at former ESOP companies and suggests directions for the quantitative research planned for phase 2 of this project. |
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- NCEO Executive Director Corey Rosen discusses a new NCEO study of ESOP account balances, indicating that ESOP participants receive a much larger benefit from their employers than non-ESOP participants; proposed changes to SEC Rule 144; two recent surveys finding that employee ownership, while still comprising a small part of the European economy, is growing; and nominations for the NCEO's board. (National Center for Employee Ownership) |
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