BNA reported on August 20th the concerns of the AICPA’s 403(b) Plan Audit Task Force about practitioners "misunderstanding" of the impact of the recently issued DOL FAB 2009-2, where the DOL took steps to alleviate some of the more draconian impacts of the new Form 5500 reporting rules for certain 403(b) plans.
Task force members are reported
I sat sown this morning to follow up with Part 2 of my mini-series addressing the fiduciary risks in purchasing DC annuities (link here to Part 1), when a Plan Sponsor magazine article caught my attention. It spoke of a study which linked the lack of pensions with the risk of poverty among women
The DOL’s release of FAB 2009-2 may well more significant than I took at first glance. Soon after blogging on the release of the FAB and how it sets us up to develop a more permanent solution, Ellie Lowder and my colleagues Evan and Monica let me know of a different view: they believe that
The DOL released to Field Assistance Bulletin 2009-2 on July 20th, which provides much needed Title 1 reporting relief for 403(b) plans.
So, first of all, our hats off to Ass’t Sec’y Borzi, for what looks to be one of her first public acts, and to the Good Bob Doyle, for showing true leadership in
The first element in a fiduciary review is to get at least a layman’s grasp on the nature of insurance and insurance regulation. Pooling risks with others is an uncomfortable concept that is foreign to fiduciary with a defined contribution mindset Because of pooling and this “30 year risk,” insurance is regulated in ways of no other industry
Continue Reading Addressing Fiduciary Concerns in the Purchase of 401(k) Distributed Annuities: Dealing With The Five “I’s”- Part 1, Irrevocability
So what are we finding as we get down to this nitty gritty of things? Most striking is the unique ways in which ERISA’s fiduciary rules will need to be used in their application to ERISA 403(b) plans. It is not that the rules were never there in the past, it is just that the new rules have forced the industry and employers to more closely define their relationships and the duties for which vendors and employers will each be responsible. This process of defining roles have caused us all to look more closely at how the rules apply, in ways we have never done in the past….Let me give you an example…What are the ERISA implications of a fund substitution under individual annuities for the 403(b) plan fiduciary?
Continue Reading 403(b) Fiduciary Challenges Demand Applying ERISA in Unique Way
One of the natural byproducts of doing a lot of 403(b) work is a necessary familiarity with many of the security law rules which apply to retirement plans. This familiarity is recently becoming handy on the 401(a) side of our business as well, with the SEC showing an increasing interest in all retirement plans. The
Our blog of May 26 on "Distributed Custodial Accounts" generated a number of comments, which require a bit of a "follow-on." Ellie Lowder, one of the grand dames of the 403(b) world, agreed with my assessment. She mentioned that she had discussions with the IRS on this point. Staff just couldn’t see how distributions of
What Happened
One of the biggest disappointments arising from the issuance of the 403(b) regs has been the inability of employers to effectively terminate their plans. At first, the IRS caused quite a favorable stir when it announced that the regs would specifically classify the termination of a 403(b) plan as a distributable event, and
The Green Book, published May 11 by the Treasury Department, contains further details on Obama’s workplace pensions first described in his budget proposals (on which we blogged in March). See pages 7-9 of the Treasury report for details.
It really does create a new scheme of individual pensions, much akin to the 403(b) arrangements