Products December 14, 2009

AtPrime Offers Economy-Priced Version of Pension Inspector

December 14, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - AtPrime Media, Inc., the sponsor of the @Prime! Pension Inspector Suite, has introduced a new economy-priced addition - The Market Research Platinum Edition.

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According to a press release, the Pension Inspector Market Research Platinum Edition:

  • Delivers performance results, from more than 40 Qualified Retirement Plan categories, from official data filed by plan sponsors to the IRS and DoL within the Annual Plan Report Form 5500;
  • Is designed for plan participants, plan professionals, government agencies, marketers, plan sponsors and plan administrators, and affords the user computer desktop access, plus performance results to more than 1,000,000 qualified plans and key plan contact information;
  • Includes beginner and advanced modes, that have been integrated into the framework of the service to simplify use; and
  • Includes special formulas to provide better insight into plan performance, including average plan earnings and average plan direct expense queries.

The @Prime! Pension Inspector Suite also includes the free Standard Edition, and subscription Compare and Rank Edition (see New Online Tool Allows Anyone to Compare Plans). The three-program suite provides the user access up to six years of plan performance, which includes spreadsheets, graphs, and color coding of key performance results, plus, three years of market research data which is user tailored to any zip code, plan type, tax preparer, CPA, or enrolled actuary.

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The Market Research Platinum Edition is offered free as a one-year subscription when the user purchases a one-year subscription of the Pension Inspector Compare and Rank Edition for $199 – a savings of more than 50% from the standard combo subscription rate of $400 (offer expires December 31, 2009). Both subscription editions allow the user to save results to their laptop or desktop computer – which may include key plan contact information – that is Skype friendly, the press release said.

Administration December 14, 2009

Milliman Pension Funding Index Status Brightens in November

December 14, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The funded ratio of 100 of the nation’s largest defined benefit plans increased from 75% to 75.5% in November, according to Milliman.

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A news release about its Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index said the pensions experienced asset increases of $20 billion and liability increases of $18 billion, resulting in a $2-billion increase in funded status – the first such hike since April.

“Finally, a month with some improvement in pension funding status,” said John Ehrhardt, co-author of the Index, in the announcement. “For much of this year, any asset gains experienced in a given month were offset by liability increases. This month we saw the kind of increase in liabilities that has been characteristic of 2009 but it wasn’t enough to offset $20 billion in asset gains.”

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Over the last 12 months, the cumulative asset return has been 14.74% and yet the funded status has fallen by $179 billion. For these 12 months, the funded ratio of the Milliman 100 companies has fallen from 85.8% to 75.5%.

To view the complete monthly update, go here.

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