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The Spencer’s Benefits Reports is a summary of the week's news items posted in the WHAT'S NEW pages of Spencer’s Benefits Reports Online. For questions regarding this email service, contact Customer Service at (800)449-9525.
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In Announcement 2009-82, the Internal Revenue Service provides relief for sponsors of hybrid retirement plans, such as cash balance plans that must amend the interest crediting rate in those plans. Plan sponsors may rely on the announcement pending publication of anticipated additional guidance…
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Noting that the regular order in Congress will not be able to deal with the increasing federal debt load, which is driven largely by entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad (N.D.) concluded in a committee hearing on November 10 that a “special process” is needed to compel legislators to fix the nation’s fiscal problems…
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An employer properly denied retirement benefits to a worker who was employed either as an independent contractor or was on the payroll of third-party companies. This was the decision of the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Scruggs v. ExxonMobil Pension Plan and ExxonMobil Savings Plan (No. 08-6145)…
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The percentage of aggregate income for persons aged 65 or older attributed to earnings has risen in nearly 30 years from 15.9% to 26.0%, while the percentage attributed to asset income has dropped from 22.4% to 12.8%. and the percentage attributed to pension income has dropped from 19.5% to 15.3%. Aggregate income from Social Security and pensions has remained steady at about 58% over the same period, according to statistics compiled by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) from the Current Population Survey collected by the U.S. Census Bureau…
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Health care reform’s proposed 5.4% surcharge on wealthy couples with $1 million or more in earnings would affect only a fraction of 1% of all taxpayers and fewer than 2% of small businesses, according to a recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). This surcharge, included in H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act (see News, Nov. 10, 2009, Abortion Coverage Would Be Restricted In Many Employer Plans Under House Health Reform), is “sound and well-targeted” as it would affect “a group whose incomes have soared and tax burdens have fallen in recent years, and would have only a modest impact on small businesses,” the report said…
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A company’s use of an 8% interest rate in calculating participants’ opening account balances under a cash balance plan did not reduce accrued benefits in violation of ERISA. This was the decision of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Sunder and Jarodsky v. U.S. Bancorp Pension Plan, et al. (Nos. 07-3485, 07-3593, 07-3771, 08-1910, and 08-2616)…
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In Advisory Opinion 2009-03A, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) concludes that it would be a prohibited transaction under IRC Sec. 4975(c)(1)(B) for the owner of an individual retirement account to grant to a brokerage firm a security interest in the assets of the owner’s non-IRA accounts held by the broker as a requirement for establishing an IRA with the broker. The advisory opinion was written by Louis J. Campagna, chief of the division of fiduciary interpretations in the EBSA’s Office of Regulations and Interpretations…
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The Department of Labor has obtained a court order that appoints an independent fiduciary to manage the abandoned 401(k) plan maintained by defunct Autolines, Inc., a company formerly located in Whitman, Mass. The order was entered by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, in Solis v. Autolines, Inc. (Civil Action No. 1:09cv11734)…
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The Department of Labor has obtained a default judgment that requires the fiduciary of the retirement plan maintained by TMG National Holdings of Mokena, Ill., to restore $4,111 to the plan for improperly using plan assets to benefit the company. The default judgment was entered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, in Solis v. Michael Campo (Civil Action No. 08-01277)…
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The following interest rates have been announced for use in the operation and administration of qualified pension plans…
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Many employer plans eventually would be compelled to restrict abortion coverage because of an amendment included in the House-passed health reform bill, H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act…
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has announced that it has reached an agreement with the United Kingdom’s Pensions Regulator and the UK’s Pension Protection Fund (PPF) that provides a framework for information sharing that will help the agencies protect retirement benefits earned by workers and retirees on both sides of the Atlantic. The agreement is a reflection of the mutual interests of the three agencies and the global reach of corporate entities that sponsor pension plans…
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The percentage of employers making contributions to employees’ health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs) dropped from 67% in 2008 to 63% in 2009, according to research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The November 2009 EBRI Notes also reported that the percentage of workers with employee-only coverage reporting that their employer contributed $1,000 or more to their account fell from 37% to 32%. In addition, the percentage of workers with employer contributions of less than $200 increased from 3% to 8%…
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In its November 2009 Issue Brief, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) examines demographic differences in retirement plan participation. The EBRI article is entitled Employment-Based Retirement Plan Participation: Geographic Differences and Trends, 2008…
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In their endorsements of the House health reform proposal, H.R. 3962, both the American Medical Association (AMA) and AARP also urged Congress to pass the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009 (H.R. 3961) to permanently repeal the physician payment formula…
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