Benefits August 20, 2013

Americans Saving Less for Retirement This Year

August 20, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Many individuals are saving less for retirement this year, a survey found.
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According to Bankrate, 20% of people responding to its August Financial Security Index with no college degree are saving less for retirement this year, compared to 10% of people with a college degree. Seventeen percent of people earning less than $30,000 didn’t contribute anything in 2013 or 2012, versus an average 3% of people earning $30,000 or more.

Eighteen percent of respondents younger than 65 say they’re saving less in retirement accounts, while 7% of those 65 and older say they’re doing the same.

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The survey also found one in five men (21%) say they feel better about their savings, compared with one in seven women (14%). Twenty-eight percent of people ages 18 to 29 are more comfortable with their savings, versus 15% of people 30 and older.

Forty-two percent of people making less than $50,000 are less comfortable about their savings, and the same was true for 25% of those making at least that much.

From August 1 to 4, telephone interviews (on landlines and cellphones) with 1,005 adults living in the continental U.S. were conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

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Compliance August 20, 2013

Trustees to Repay Union Benefit Funds

August 20, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The trustees of union benefit funds have begun a process of repayment to the funds after a recent judgment against them.
Reported by

The trustees of the pension plan, annuity fund and vacation fund of Exhibition Employees Local 829 of the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees in New York repaid a total of $2,256,817, with an additional $50,000 scheduled to be paid, to the funds following a consent judgment, which came after a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigation revealed numerous violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The trustees have also agreed to make additional payments and forfeitures of their own annuity plan accounts, resign and take other corrective action.

The DOL filed the lawsuit, Harris v. McNamee, et al (Civil Action Number: 12-CV-1511), in February 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit alleged numerous ERISA violations, which include the improper transfer of assets from the Local 829 pension plan to the union’s annuity, vacation, hiring hall and general funds as well as the improper transfer of at least $240,000 from the pension plan and annuity fund to service providers.

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Under the consent judgment, the trustee defendants have repaid $1,975,209 to the pension plan, $219,467 to the annuity fund and $112,141 to the vacation fund. They have also placed $268,181.82 in an escrow fund to pay civil money penalties.

Additionally, defendants Kevin Dunphy, Manuel Farina, John T. Hall, Michele Sullivan and John Walsh forfeited up to $325,000 of their annuity fund balances. The defendants also agreed to resign as trustees and to be permanently barred from serving in a fiduciary or service provider capacity for these or any other ERISA-covered benefit plans.

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