In my April 2015 blog, A Few Notes on Labor Productivity, I discussed how productivity is defined by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and its potential impact on employment, inflation and economic growth. The blog emphasized that it is important to distinguish between…
…Interim Final Rule on lifetime income disclosures under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE) Act. The Interim Final Rule outlines how defined contribution plan sponsors governed by The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) would provide participants…
…to just what an issue cybersecurity has become. Information security research firm Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that by 2025, cyberattacks will cost businesses worldwide $10.5 trillion annually. In the meantime, EBSA estimates that, as of 2018, there were 34 million defined benefit plan participants in private…
…their exposure to sudden market downturns-such as in 2008, late 2018 and the first quarter of 2020? A well-known form of adjustment is known as rebalancing. I first posted a blog on this subject in the 2017 Current Thinking. Rebalancing can be defined as reducing…
…of plans (GoP), which the new proposed rules instead call a defined contribution group (DCG). That approach allows employers — whether affiliated or not — to file a single 5500 for multiple defined contribution plans, as long as the plans have the same trustee, administrator,…
…plan or vesting is adversely affected. In a defined benefit plan partial plan termination can occur when future benefits are reduced or ceased. The IRS adopted the 20 percent guideline in Rev. Rul. 2007-43 from a 2004 court case Matz v. Household International Tax Reduction…
…to a market-value based formula for additional efficiency and smoothing of contributions. The point is—there are so many plan design choices today to consider and, they continue to evolve. Historically, defined benefit (DB) plans were the dominant retirement benefit offering until 401(k) plans came on…
…to defined benefit plans in 2018. In addition, many plans have increased the company match in their 401(k)s. Both contributions and matches may be diminished in 2019 as the tax advantage of front-ended employer contributions becomes less beneficial. On the policy side, higher budget deficits…
…relief to closed defined benefit plans that met specified conditions, was also not included. Many of the other changes included in the new law revolve around taxes, which of course will have an impact on participants’ retirement strategies as well. These include: Individual tax cuts,…
…brackets on investments at current levels (20%, 15% and 0%).1 On its surface, there should be relatively little impact of these proposals on the economics of retirement savings. Tax deferral via defined benefit plans and 401(k) provides a superior means of accumulating wealth for retirement….
…Expands the definition of permissible distributions from retirement plans Increases plan loan limits Temporarily Waives Required Minimum Distribution Rules (RMDs) for calendar year 2020 Provides Funding Relief for Defined Benefit Plans Join us as we provide a summary of the changes impacting the retirement industry….
…retirement plan is based on the fact that most employers no longer offer defined benefit plans – e.g. pensions. Instead, the onus is now on plan participants to take the bull by the horns and put a little more time and effort into managing their…