| | Benefits & Administration | | Nonqualified Plans Have Education, Recordkeeping Issues | | More than three-quarters (78%) of nonqualified
retirement plan sponsors surveyed indicated they have some concerns and
challenges with their plans. Topping the list of issues among nonqualified
retirement plan sponsors is educating participants, increasing participation,
maintaining compliance, and ensuring accuracy in the administration of the
plan, according to the 2014 Wells Fargo Nonqualified Plan Benchmarking Survey.Read more > | | Funded ratios of public pension plans rose
modestly from last year, but remain near 70% despite several strong years of
post-2009 investment returns, according to Milliman. The Milliman 2014 Public
Pension Funding Study, which annually explores the funded status of the 100
largest U.S. public pension plans, found larger plans in the study tend to be
better funded than the smaller plans in the study. The best funded plans, those
in the top quartile of plans as measured by the sponsor-reported funded ratio,
account for 34% of the aggregate sponsor-reported accrued liabilities, whereas
the worst funded plans, those in the bottom quartile, account for only 18% of
the aggregate sponsor-reported accrued liabilities.Read more > | | Evaluating Outsourced Chief Investment Officers | | The outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO)
search is a formidable task even for experienced retirement plan committees,
says Ronald Klotter, managing director of Strategic Investment Group. But while
the challenge of finding the right provider is great, so is the potential
performance improvement and ease of administration that an OCIO can bring to
pension plan clients, Klotter noted in a recent webinar hosted by Strategic
Investment Group. Klotter and other experts predict substantial growth in OCIO
mandates, and during the webinar, they touched on a variety of key
opportunities and challenges in the budding industry, especially among
corporate defined benefit (DB) plans and not-for-profit endowments and
foundations.Read more > | | | Research | | Great-West Financial added 514 new 403(b) clients in 2013, according to PLANSPONSOR’s 2014 403(b) Buyer’s Guide. Security Benefit added 194 new clients. Principal Financial Group, Planmember Securities Corporation and Mutual of America rounded out the top five providers by new 403(b) clients added in 2013.Read more > | | | Products, Deals & People | | The Bloomberg, Morningstar, and Interactive Data
databases now include historical data for the Endowment Index. The Endowment
Index helps trustees, portfolio managers, consultants and advisers to
endowments, foundations, trusts, defined benefit/defined contribution plans,
pension plans and individual investors more appropriately track the performance
of and analyze globally diversified, multi-asset portfolios.Read more > | | | Economic Events | | The U.S. Census Bureau announced that September
2014 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and
offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading-day differences
but not for price changes, were $454.3 billion, up 0.2% from the revised August
level and up 5.2% from the September 2013 level. September sales of durable
goods were up 0.5% from last month and up 5.4% from a year ago. Sales of
nondurable goods were down 0.1% from August, but were up 5.1% from last
September. | | | Market Mirror | | Wednesday,
the Dow slipped 2.70 points (0.02%) to 17,612.20, the NASDAQ was up 14.58 points
(0.31%) at 4,675.13, and the S&P 500 decreased by 1.45 (0.07%) to 2,038.23.
The Russell 2000 climbed 6.50 points (0.55%) to 1,186.46, and the Wilshire 5000
ticked up 5.45 points (0.03%) to 21,468.12.
On the NYSE,
3.2 billion shares traded, with a 1.2 to 1 ratio of advancers to decliners. On the
NASDAQ, 2.7 billion shares changed hands, with 1.5 advancing issues for every
declining issue.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note was unchanged,
with its yield up to 2.365%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond slipped
1/32, increasing its yield to 3.096%.
| | | Compliance | | Senate Committee Changes Could Impact Retirement Plans | | The Senate’s shift to Republican control is
important because it brings more unity to a long-divided Congress, but the
result is muted by the fact that President Obama still has two years in office,
notes with Judy Miller, director of retirement policy at the American Society
of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA) and executive director of
ASPPA’s College of Pension Actuaries. She tells PLANSPONSOR that the shift in
Senate control is probably most important for the retirement planning industry
because it implies a change in leadership for a number of key committees,
through which any substantial retirement or tax-reform legislation will likely
move during the next two years. “The Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions, or ‘HELP’ for short, is an example where the midterm
election results shook things up,” Miller explains.Read more > | | In a 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), State Street said it is responding to subpoenas from the
Department of Justice and the SEC for information regarding its solicitation
practices with public plans and has retained counsel to conduct a review. The
review will include “our use of consultants and lobbyists in our solicitation
of business of public retirement plans and, in at least one instance, political
contributions by one of our consultants during and after a public bidding
process,” the firm said.Read more > | | Supreme Court Denies Review of Tussey Fee Case | | The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request to
review an appellate court’s decision in a case concerning retirement plan
recordkeepers and fees. In Tussey v. ABB,
Inc., the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a district court
finding that the ABB fiduciaries breached their duties to the plan by failing
to diligently investigate Fidelity and monitor plan recordkeeping costs, but it
agreed with Fidelity and ABB that the district court relied on hindsight in its
ruling that the switch from the Vanguard Wellington fund to Fidelity Freedom funds
violated their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security
Act (ERISA).Read more > | | High Court Hears Arguments About Health Benefits in CBAs | | The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in M&G Polymers v. Tackett, about
collective bargaining agreement (CBA) provisions for retiree health care
benefits. The suit questions whether silence in a CBA about a plan’s intentions
for vesting of health care benefits, should be interpreted to benefit the
employer’s wishes or the employees’? How should a plan sponsor understand how
to carry out the plan’s intentions when they are not explicitly spelled out?Read more > | | | Small Talk | | ON THIS DATE: In
1805, Johann George Lehner, a
Viennese butcher, invented a recipe and called it the “frankfurter.” In
1956, the U.S. Supreme Court struck
down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses. In 1971, the U.S. spacecraft Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to
orbit another planet, Mars. In 1977,
the comic strip “Li’l Abner” by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for
the last time. In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington
after a march to its site by thousands of veterans of the conflict. In 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush
signed an executive order that would allow for military tribunals to try any
foreigners captured with connections to the terrorist attacks on the United
States on September 11, 2001. It was the first time since World War II that a
president had taken such action. In 2009,
NASA announced that water had been discovered on the moon. The discovery came
from the planned impact on the moon of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing
Satellite (LCROSS). | | SURVEY SAYS: With
Thanksgiving only two weeks away, many of you may be getting into the holiday
spirit. This week, I’d like to know about holiday practices at your workplace.
What time off are you given? Is there a meal or party? Are gifts exchanged? You
may respond to this week’s survey by 6 p.m. Pacific time today.Read more > | | Share the good news with a friend! Pass the Dash along – and tell your
friends/associates they can sign up for their own copy.Read more > | | News from PLANSPONSOR.com
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