Compliance November 1, 2013

PBGC Offers Tips for Premium Filings

November 1, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is working to finalize new rules about premium filings.
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During a recent speaking engagement, Michael Rae, deputy chief of Negotiations and Restructuring at the PBGC, said the agency is in the process of reviewing comments received after the regulations were proposed, and hopes to issue final regulations before time to pay 2014 premiums (see “Shutdown Put Delay on Some Regulations”).

In the meantime, the agency has offered some premium filing reminders:

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  • Review plan’s premium account history: To help ensure that your plan’s premium information is correct, you should review the plan’s account history after you submit a filing to PBGC. The account history shows key information about each plan year, for example, the amount due, the amount paid, any overpayments, and any underpayments. To review the account history online via My PAA, request that the plan’s Filing Coordinator assign you “view account history” permission. You can then go to the Plan Page to access the plan’s account history. Please note that it may take a few days for your filing to be posted to your account history.
  • Use credits or request refunds: There are times when a plan has overpaid premiums for a plan year, as shown on the account history (see previous bullet). If the overpayment is in a plan year immediately preceding the current premium year, show the overpayment as a credit on the current premium year’s filing, which will reduce the net amount owed. Otherwise, have the plan administrator request a refund via e-mail to premiums@pbgc.gov.
  • Deactivate accounts you no longer use: If you will no longer use My PAA for premium filings, have the plans in the account removed by the Filing Coordinator and then send an e-mail to premiums@pbgc.gov requesting that the account be deactivated. Otherwise, PBGC will initiate the deactivation of My PAA accounts that haven’t been used for an extended period of time.

To learn more about My PAA, go here.  

The reminders and more PBGC Insights are here.

Products November 1, 2013

DoubleLine Debuts Shiller-Inspired Fund

November 1, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The DoubleLine Shiller Enhanced CAPE Fund uses the long-term stock valuation principles of Nobel Prize-winning Yale economics professor Robert Shiller.
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The mutual fund combines Shiller’s stock market strategy with active fixed-income investment management by DoubleLine Capital LP. The no-load, open-end fund is available in two share classes, institutional (DSEEX) and N shares (DSENX).

The fund seeks to deliver a total return in excess of the Shiller Barclays CAPE U.S. Sector TR USD Index. DoubleLine will seek to invest 100% of the fund’s net assets in debt instruments. Part of those holdings will be pledged as collateral against derivatives, exposing the fund to the four least-valued sectors in the U.S. stock market as measured by the Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings ratio (the CAPE Ratio). The fund seeks to have simultaneous exposures both to the index and to debt securities, each in an amount potentially up to the value of the fund’s net assets.

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The Index and the CAPE Ratio incorporate Shiller’s principles of long-term stock investing. To the extent the derivatives strategy leaves enough of the fund’s assets available for other investment, DoubleLine will seek to manage the unreserved debt instruments to generate a supplemental source of long-term return.

The fund’s holdings of debt instruments may resemble those of the DoubleLine Core Fixed Income Fund, although the two portfolios are likely to differ in several respects (such as the amount of cash or short-term holdings). DoubleLine may determine to invest a portion of assets directly in the DoubleLine Core Fixed Income Fund in lieu of investing directly in a portfolio of debt instruments.

Shiller has conducted research on financial markets, asset prices and macroeconomics. His work includes findings on the relationship of stock price volatility to long-term returns. In 1981, Shiller set the stage for the Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings ratio (the CAPE Ratio) in his paper, “Do Stock Prices Move Too Much to Be Justified by Subsequent Movements in Dividends?”

Portfolio managers of the fund are Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive and chief investment officer of DoubleLine, and Jeffrey Sherman, an asset-allocation specialist at DoubleLine.

According to Gundlach, the investment strategy is an opportunity based on discipline and value. The fund gives investors access to two complementary value-orientated approaches across both equity and fixed-income markets, Shiller said in a release.

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