Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The first of what is expected to be a series of interest rate increases by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Dec. 16 should start to help defined benefit retirement plans recover from years of underfunding, Moody’s Investor Service said in a report Dec. 14. Pension funding levels for about 670 rated U.S. non-financial corporate pension […]
Do you offer long-term care (LTC) insurance to your employees? If so, and the changes the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) made to the tax and information reporting requirements affecting some LTC coverage apply, you can offer your two cents’ worth to the IRS. The PPA amended the tax rules for qualified LTC insurance, […]
When you hear the word ‘target,’ you may picture a specific point in the center of a group of concentric circles. The target doesn’t move, and it doesn’t change shape. Is that the picture in your mind when you think of a target date fund? If it is, you’re not alone. A target date fund, […]
Solving the worker shortage by retaining your older workers brings many benefits, but an aging workforce also raises several challenges. A June 10 webinar will tell you what you need to know.
Update Dec. 16: House Passes COBRA Subsidy Extension and Expansion Even as President Barack Obama prepares for a trip to Denver Tuesday to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the stimulus package, many are still trying to sort out the bill, which Congress passed last Friday in dizzyingly rapid […]
President George W. Bush recently signed into law the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act of 2008, which provides the following employee benefit-related advantages to eligible military personnel and their families. Keep up with the latest changes in federal employment laws and regulations with the Federal Employment Law Insider Retirement plan requirements The […]
With the enactment of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA), plan sponsors were given a freedom they didn’t have before. The legislation, which William Arnone of Ernst & Young calls “the most far-reaching legislation impacting benefits since ERISA,” enables plan sponsors to offer employees investment advice without exposing themselves to liability for the outcome […]
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has published a final rule clarifying the penalty that may be imposed on a plan administrator for failing to provide a written notice to participants and beneficiaries of their rights to diversify the portions of plan accounts that are invested in the employer’s publicly traded […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has rejected a lawsuit charging that IBM’s conversion to a cash-balance pension plan violated age discrimination prohibitions in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
On August 17, 2006, President Bush signed the sweeping Pension Protection Act of 2006 (H.R. 4) into law. The bill, which is the most comprehensive overhaul of pension laws in 30 years, will: require employers to fully fund pensions, with time limits for funding shortfalls; encourage more employers to use automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans; […]