Monthly Archives: October 2011

The Future after Fee Disclosure and the Crystal Ball

Fee disclosure regulations will be implemented for the first time for retirement plans on April 1, 2012. There are many people in the industry who have asked for my opinion and my guess on what will happen when they are … Continue reading

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So You Decided to Set Up a Retirement Plan?

My latest JDSupra.com article can be found here.

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The New 401(k) Advice Rule and the Road to a New Fiduciary Standard

A couple of years before and a couple of years after I left that third party administration (TPA) firm  the Director of ERISA Legal Services, I predicted their demise. Whether it was co-workers or competitors or financial advisors I had … Continue reading

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The Inefficient Retirement Plan Design

When you start fixing up the house (for me, a never ending battle) and replacing appliances or items like the front door or the roof (that was me last week), you realize that the replacements are more energy efficient. Replacing … Continue reading

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Sometimes the honest plan provider will say no

I always believe that regardless of whether it’s business or in regular day to day life, that you can’t be everything for everybody. Being honest with that is only half the battle. A few weeks back, I met someone who … Continue reading

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401(k) Gambling and the Self Directed Brokerage Option

My latest JDSupra.com article can be found here.

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2012 Retirement Plan Limits

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced cost of living adjustments (COLA) affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for Tax Year 2012. In general, many of the pension plan limitations will change for 2012 because the increase … Continue reading

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To Safe Harbor or not Safe Harbor, that is the question

December 1 is pretty quickly going to be upon us, which reminds me that I have some notices to send out shortly. For those in the retirement plan business, we know December 1 marks the date that safe harbor notices … Continue reading

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An Employer’s Guide in Choosing which Retirement Plan to set up

I call this time of the year as Retirement Plan Crazy Season where plan sponsors decided to change plan providers in order to get things changing smoothly at January 1. I call it Crazy Season based on NASCAR’s Crazy Season … Continue reading

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3 out of 4 public sector employees make up 75% of their defined benefit plan participants

Years ago, David Letterman mocked the graphs that a national newspaper had on its sections by joking that: “USA Today has come out with a new survey: Apparently three out of four people make up 75 percent of the population.” … Continue reading

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