Pension Protection Act Blog

Interesting article in Dental Economics today by Brian Hufford. It is about how some of the changes made by the Pension Protection Act now make pairing a 401(k) plan with a cash balance plan attractive. The example given in the article is how a dentist employing his spouse can design a 401(k)/Cash Balance […]

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The Dept. of Labor issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2007-02 (FAB 2007-02) on how the Final 403(b) Regulations affect the status of 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity programs.
FAB 2007-02 provides a glimpse of the DOL’s expectations for the new plan document requirement contained in Final 403(b) Regs. It addresses how an employer can comply with the […]

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In a special edition of Retirement News for Employers, the IRS provides a summary of the Final 403(b) Regs.
One highlight of the summary is the statement that the Final 403(b) Regs also contain a provision not related to 403(b) plans. In the language of the IRS summary:
Finally, the 414(c) regulation addresses aggregation […]

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Today, the IRS released the Final 403(b) Regulations. Officially, the title is Final Regulations on Revised Regulations Concerning Section 403(b) Tax-Sheltered Annuity Contracts (T.D. 9340). (hat tip to BenefitsLink.com.)
These regulations are effective July 26, 2007, and are generally applicable for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008. The preamble states that since […]

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Another day has come and gone with no 403(b) regs.
If you’ve wondered why my posts have been a little light lately, it is due to the Final 403(b) Regs. Or I should say it is due to the absence of the Final 403(b) Regs. The IRS said they would finally be releasing these […]

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Dow Chemical announced that, starting in 2008, new eligible salaried employees will be enrolled in the company’s new cash balance plan instead of their existing traditional defined benefit plan. The new plan is named their Personal Pension Account.
A traditional defined benefit plan provides participants with a specific retirement benefit for life calculated using the […]

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Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal marked the 10th anniversary of blogging with an article by Tunku Varadarajan. The article includes several people listing their favorite blogs. In the spirit of marking this anniversary, here are some of my favorite ERISA blogs:
Taxprof - written by Prof. Paul Caron and Ron Jones of […]

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The IRS announced they will stop accepting applications for opinion/advisory letters for prototypes and volume submitter defined benefit plans not restated for EGTRRA and the 2006 Cumulative List as of September 7, 2007. In Announcement 2007-61, the IRS provides three final time frames for GUST.
Before Feb. 1, 2007 - applications for opinion/advisory letters for […]

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Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published an article about how businesses are jumping on the automatic enrollment bandwagon. In “Auto Enroll Retirement Plans Take Off”, Jillian Mincer reports that, in 2006, Fidelity experienced a 95% increase in automatic enrollment in plans it administers. (hat tip to the National Center for Policy Analysis.)
Even though […]

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Off to see the new Harry Potter movie with the kids tonight.

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