The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C. Blog

I have been blocked by 3 of the sitting 7 members of my local board of education on social media because it’s my opinion that they’re doing a bad job. Imagine that, a publicly elected official with such fragile egos, can’t stand criticism. I think I’ve said enough.

Opinions aren’t facts, they are beliefs shaped by experience. Many times, the opinions are shaped by incorrect facts. We see this often on Twitter when people have opinions that are based on lies. Outside of that, there is no point in arguing about someone’s opinion. They like what they like and if they don’t like what you do, just accept it. When I first started writing those payroll provider third-party administration articles, I would get negative feedback from people who worked for those payroll providers. I never understood the need to argue, my experiences with their work have been dreadful and only good work would change that

In the end, respect opinions, don’t fight them.

I work as the attorney for a not-for-profit organization, at least as the attorney for the board.

It seems all the dysfunction I saw working with the College Republicans, the Stony Brook Statesman newspaper, the synagogue, and those law firms was the perfect training.

The problem with those organizations centered around dysfunction, mainly because of a lack of communication. The chosen few, the handful of people in charge, believed they could make uniform decisions without anyone else’s input. That’s a mistake. Just because you have the power to do something, doesn’t mean you should. Building consensus among stakeholders, as to decisions you’re pondering will go over better than if you decide things on your own. Many of the lines in the sand that have created discord were done by people who failed to build any form of consensus.

The CFP Board through a survey, claims that about 97% of Americans agree that the financial professional who provides one-time recommendations or other one-time advice about retirement investments should be required to act in their client’s best interest, including rollovers.

Obviously, certified financial planners will support any stringent fiduciary standard. Brokers and insurance professionals may be against it, but the public wants to hire professionals who look out for their interest, rather than the pro’s pocket. The industry and the public have come a long way to realize that the best advice is the one that doesn’t provide professionals with more compensation. Over the past 25 years with concern over fees, revenue sharing, and front-loaded funds (is that still a thing?), people want to hire someone who will give the best advice and net the financial pro, with the same compensation.

Jay Leno had better ratings than David Letterman. Avatar drew more money than Black Panther. PC outsells Mac. Popularity doesn’t mean better. It never has, it never will.

So if a potential plan provider will tell you how big or popular they are, it doesn’t matter to you. At least it shouldn’t. The best plan providers can be the smallest because of their competency, not because of a creation of mergers and acquisitions.

For plan providers, you need the right fit for your plan’s needs, so don’t let plan provider size be a huge factor.

People will say that when it comes to retirement savings, the glass is half empty. I see it as half full.

According to Vanguard, a record-breaking 43% of participants raised their rate of salary deferral into retirement savings. People will point out that the number reflects 15% of participants increasing their deferral percentage on their own, while 28% experienced an automatic increase through the automatic contribution arrangement.

Whether it’s on their own or it’s forced, it’s still good news.

Modern Wealth Management acquired Beltz Ianni & Associates’ advisory business and their third-party plan administration services, Enhanced Retirement Solutions, which will be rebranded to Modern Wealth Business. The move is the 6th acquisition for Modern Wealth since its founding in April 2023 by former Goldman Sachs and United Capital executives Gary Roth and Mike Capelle.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has sued Paul Palguta, the owner of RiversEdge Advanced Retirement Solutions LLC, a third-party administrator for embezzlement of plan assets.

RiversEdge’s retirement plan clients had agreements with the TPA, allowing Palguta and RiversEdge to execute trades and direct the disposition of the plan’s assets.

According to the complaint, RiversEdge made multiple transfers of plan assets from the corporate custody account at Mid Atlantic Trust Company to an account at PNC Bank for FBO RiversEdge Advanced Retirement Solutions. According to the DOL, RiversEdge made no transfers from the PNC account back to any account at Mid-Atlantic.

Hub Retirement and Private Wealth, a division of Hub International Ltd., announced the launch of HUB Retirement Select PEP, a pooled employer plan (PEP) designed for theiur clients with less than 100 employees seeking to offer 401(k) retirement plans.

Sallus Retirement, the independent pooled plan provider, will serve as the Pooled Plan Provider, and Ubiquity Retirement + Savings will be the recordkeeper/administrator, according to the announcement.

The PEP will be a new option for Hub’s national network of retirement plan and wealth advisers.

This new PEP joins Hub’s Retirement Select 100+ PEP, launched last year for employers with more than 100 employees.

The rules are the rules and I believe that rules should be consistent and rational. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) disagrees with that notion when it comes to automatic enrollment and merged plans into MEPs and PEPs.

SECURE 2.0 requires that 401(k) plans created on or after December 29, 2022, must automatically enroll participants at a contribution rate of 3% to 10% starting in 2025. Plans started prior to December 29, 2022, are not subject to this requirement and are “grandfathered” in.

IRS 2004-2 explained that a single-employer plan that is grandfathered under this provision and later joins a multi-employer plan (MEP) or pooled employer plan (PEP) that is not grandfathered, loses its grandfathered status.

I think that this contradicts the law and reduces the interest that the existing plan would have to join MEPs and PEPs. Automatic enrollment may cost an existing plan more matching contributions if they joined a PEP enacted after the deadline.

Any existing plan that merges into any type of plan should be grandfathered for purposes of automatic enrollment.

Bank of America’s research found that 401(k) account balances rose 15% to an average of $86,280 in 2023 because of higher contributions and a strong stock market.

Bank of America’s Retirement and Personal Wealth Solutions conducted their research information on over 4 million participants.

Almost 18% of 401(k) plan participants increased their deferrals in the fourth quarter of 2023, up from slightly more than 9% in the third quarter.

Fewer participants borrowed from their 401(k) plan in the 4th quarter, with 2.3% taking loans, as opposed to 2.5% in the 3rd quarter.