Insight
This site is brought to you by J.P. Morgan to help you stay on top of current happenings in the employee benefits world. Our goal is to provide strategic insights to employers that sponsor retirement, health & wellness, and compensation plans, based on ongoing developments on legislative, regulatory, and litigation fronts. If these articles are helpful to you, we encourage you to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter by clicking the "Insight Subscription" link to the left.
Recent Articles
| Nov 5, 2009 | Pension finance update – November In our monthly pension finance update, we review changes in market-driven assets and liabilities during the month of October. While both asset levels and discount rates generally fell during the month, funded ratios for many plans will be very similar to those that they experienced at December 31, 2008. |
| Nov 4, 2009 | DB funding relief bill introduced Congressmen Pomeroy (D-ND) and Tiberi (R-OH) have introduced the Preserve Benefit and Jobs Act of 2009, a bill implementing many of the defined benefit plan funding relief proposals being advocated by sponsor and participant groups. In this article we review the bill and its implications for plan sponsors. |
| Oct 28, 2009 | New interim final GINA regulations affect wellness programs The IRS, DOL, and DHHS jointly released interim final regulations on the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act recently. In this article we review the provisions of GINA and their impact on employee wellness programs. |
| Oct 14, 2009 | Pension finance update – October Stocks, generally, have advanced steadily every month since the March trough. Concurrently, there's been a steady downward movement in corporate bond yields. In pension finance terms, what stocks have given, interest rate movements have taken away, pushing pension assets and liabilities alike higher without significantly affecting funded ratios. |
| Oct 09, 2009 | IRS guidance The IRS recently published a myriad of guidance concerning new safe harbor rollover notices, additional information on automatic enrollment/increase arrangements and the contribution of unused paid time off to qualified plans. Here we review the rulings and notices. |
| Oct 09, 2009 | Retirement income – Fundamental issues In this first of a series of articles, we review retirement income "basics" in the United States: competing theories of adequacy, key priorities from both the participant's and the sponsor's point of view, and the role of the employer and the government in providing retirement income. |
| Oct 08, 2009 | IRS will permit switchback to smoothed interest rates for 2010 The IRS recently provided guidance allowing pension plan sponsors the freedom to select a different yield curve basis for 2010 valuations from what is used for 2009. Here we explain why this is great news for plan sponsors and which options most sponsors should avail themselves of. |
| Sep 14, 2009 | PPA compliance: buttoning up Pension plan sponsors will face several PPA-imposed requirements and deadlines between now and the end of the year. Here we provide a guide to help plan sponsors ensure compliance for their plans. |
| Sep 14, 2009 | Current pension legislative and regulatory outlook – September 2009 – DB plan initiatives Here we review the current legislative and regulatory landscape with respect to defined benefit plans. |
| Sep 14, 2009 | Current pension legislative and regulatory outlook – September 2009 – DC plan initiatives Here we review the current legislative and regulatory landscape with respect to defined contribution plans. |
| Sep 14, 2009 | Pension finance update – September The equity markets continue to rebound and corporate bond yields continue to decrease, resulting in a deterioration in pension funded status during the month. But overall, a typical defined benefit plan has still seen an improvement in funded status year-to-date of 2-5%. |