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Underfunding of liabilities most important DB pension risk

Sponsors of the largest U.S. defined benefit pension plans are deepening their risk-management focus on plan liabilities and are increasingly viewing plan assets in the context of liabilities, according to a new study from MetLife released Wednesday. Amid ongoing economic and regulatory uncertainty, the top two risk factors identified as most important to plan sponsors today continue to be liability-related: underfunding of liabilities and asset and liability mismatch. These two risks are followed in the importance rankings by asset allocation and meeting return goals, two investment-oriented risks.

Lisa V. Gillespie
By Lisa V. Gillespie
Writer

Four steps to a provider review

Every three to five years the Department of Labor would like you, as a plan sponsor, to review the providers that work with your retirement plan. As a fiduciary to your plan, you have an obligation to ensure that the providers you're working with are appropriate and that the fees that are paid for their services are reasonable. It's not required that you make any provider changes, but the retirement plan marketplace is very dynamic, and it's likely that when you conduct a provider review you'll discover some surprises. Here are some suggestions for managing a provider review process.

Robert C. Lawton
By Robert C. Lawton
President
Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants

Understanding 401(k) fee disclosures

Starting in July, 401(k) plan participants will start receiving quarterly fee disclosures. These rules apply to plan years beginning after October 31, 2011, and require the disclosures to be distributed no later than 60 days after the beginning of the plan year. So for a calendar year plan, fee disclosures need to be distributed no later than August 31, 2012.

By Shana Sweeney

Back from the Brink

Financial literacy among employees is "an age-old issue. It's nothing new," says Kevin Close, vice president, global compensation, benefits & HRIS, with EMC, an information technology company with about 50,000 employees worldwide. "We've always struggled with helping employees optimize the value they receive from participating in employer-based programs."

Andrea Davis
By Andrea Davis
Editor-in-Chief
Employee Benefit News

Plan sponsors take charge of TDFs

Custom target-date funds are proliferating at the expense of their off-the-shelf counterparts, in part because plan sponsors want to have greater control over what's in a fund and have access to a wider array of investments to put in them.

By Nelson Wang

2012 a pivotal year for making pension plan decisions

In 2012, many organizations that sponsor pension plans are considering the future of those plans – especially sponsors of frozen defined benefit plans. The year 2012 is arriving with fully phased-in changes to calculating lump-sum payments that will make it more cost-effective to terminate a pension plan. Many plan sponsors are reviewing those changes, and trying to understand what those changes may mean for the future of their pension plans.

By Cathy J. Toner

Benefits Think Is offering a DB and DC plan plus a match letting employees double-dip?

To me, it only seems fair that workers who already have guaranteed retirement income to look forward to through a pension plan not be able to reap more guaranteed money through a 401(k) match. I say that maintaining such a policy — aside from being wildly expensive and I’d think unsustainable — would be the ultimate gross-out double-dip.

12 most memorable interview blunders

HR professionals have seen it all from job applicants — from chewing gum to texting mid-interview. Hiring and HR managers shared their most unusual interview memories in a recent CareerBuilder survey of more than 3,000 employers. The candidates included here didn’t make great first impressions, to put it mildly.

Private pensions in crisis: Where do we go from here?

Private pension downfalls of recent years aren’t only plaguing private companies and employees, but the federal government, prompting a group of retirement policy experts to gather in Washington, D.C. yesterday to discuss possible solutions, including re-imagining what the defined benefit plan could look like.

Lisa V. Gillespie
By Lisa V. Gillespie
Writer

Do you work with a Meryl Streep? How to identify and retain star performers

This Sunday, America’s hottest celebrities will walk the red carpet in celebration of the 84th annual Academy Awards. Just because the average person will be watching the celebration at home in their slippers, doesn’t mean they’re not superstars. To help CEOs and other senior executives identify employees worthy of an accolade, Dr. Paul H. Eccher, co-founder and principal of The Vaya Group, a talent management company, and author of Optimizing Talent: What Every Leader and Manager Needs to Know to Sustain the Ultimate Workforce, put together the following list of characteristics that signal superstar employees.

Manufacturing jobs make U.S. comeback, but employees need new skills

The manufacturing jobs once thought to be lost to China and India are slowly making a comeback in the United States, though they’re in different specialties than originally thought. Last week, employers representing the private sector, education and government came together to talk about the future of jobs in America, and the message was hopeful, but not without caveats.

Lisa V. Gillespie
By Lisa V. Gillespie
Writer

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