Retirement

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s single-employer program is improving, but the funding crisis for multiemployer pension plans is not, according to the agency’s fiscal 2013 projection report.

If it “smells like a benefit plan,” you likely have to follow ERISA, said one speaker at the National Association of Health Underwriters annual convention in Scottsdale, Ariz. Here are some general tips benefit advisers need to know about complying with this law, for your clients and their employees alike.

Public HR departments may need to tweak their traditional management and operational techniques to be more in line with the private sector, as tax revenues grow shorter and employees' needs become more complex.

According to one 401(k) expert’s poll, employees need to be saving 20% of their earnings for retirement. How they get there is where you come in.

Many employees who change jobs choose to roll their 401(k) accounts into IRAs rather than leaving them in place or rolling them into their new employers 401(k) plan. Rolling a 401(k) account into an IRA is generally a really bad idea, for the following reasons.

Recently, the Internal Revenue Service has focused enforcement activity on examining the implementation of a strong internal control system. The IRS has publicly stated that if a plan is selected for audit the agent will use their evaluation of the plan’s internal controls to determine whether the scope of the examination will be focused or expanded.

In contradictory fashion, paying off debt was cited as the top reason for taking out a loan from retirement plan savings (46%), yet only 26% of respondents said paying off debt was a good reason to take out a loan.

Commentary: Blogger Aaron Friedman reports good news for benefit advisers interested in working with employers on 403(b)s

The United States Supreme Court ruled that funds held in an “inherited IRA” are not retirement funds. As such, these funds are not exempt from the IRA holder’s bankruptcy estate and are subject to the claims of creditors in bankruptcy.

Commentary: With all the controversy around the new fiduciary definition, blogger Jerry Kalish reminds benefit advisers and brokers that there’s on fiduciary protection that is not in question — the support from the retirement plan.