Deals and People March 25, 2011

PLANSPONSOR Announces 2011 Retirement Plan Adviser and Adviser Team of the Year

March 25, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Last night at its annual Awards for Excellence event in New York City, PLANSPONSOR named its 2011 Retirement Plan Adviser and Adviser Team of the Year. 
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Garnering 2011 Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year honors was James L. Worrell of GPS Investment Advisors, LLC in Providence, Rhode Island, while FDG Institutional Consulting Group at UBS in Stamford, Connecticut was selected as the 2011 Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year.

Worrell and FDG Institutional Consulting Group were selected from a pool of nearly 500 nominations. 

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“The retirement security of millions of Americans depends on 401(k) and other employer-sponsored programs, and most plans today rely on the skills and presence of a financial adviser,” said Nevin Adams, Global Editor-in-Chief of PLANSPONSOR. “These awards recognize the contributions of the nation’s best financial advisers, who help make retirement security a reality for workers across the nation.”

Finalists for the 2011 Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year included:

  • Sean Deviney, Provenance Wealth Advisors, LLC, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
  • Gregg L. Fine, Gallagher Benefit Services, Boca Raton, Florida
  • John W. Spach, 401(k) & 403(b) Advisors-Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, California
  • Philip Steele, Pension Architects, Malibu, California

Finalists for the 2011 Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year were:

  • Rogers Financial (Kenneth Rogers, Jenifer Nesselrodt, Raymond Gay), Harrisonburg, Virginia
  • The (k)larity Group (C. Todd Lacey, Stephanie Hunt, Blake Overbay), Athens, Georgia
  • The Ratay Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (Mark Ratay, Daniel Peluse), Lisle, Illinois
  • Institutional Investment Consulting (Michael Kozemchak, Barry Stoey, Paul Stephens, Tony Ciocca, Greg Cimmino), Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Launched in 2005, the PLANSPONSOR awards recognize the contributions of the nation’s best financial advisers in helping make retirement security a reality for workers across the nation. Nominations were solicited online from retirement plan advisers, their employers and/or broker/dealers, and plan sponsors, as well as from working partners of these advisers, including investment vendors, accountants and attorneys, and pension administrators (advisers who have attained the PLANSPONSOR Retirement Professional (PRP) designation receive an automatic nomination).  The award is based on both quantitative and qualitative measures.

In addition to Adams, the judge’s panel for both awards included Steff Chalk, CEO, Fiduciary Consulting Group and Alison Cooke Mintzer, Executive Editor, PLANADVISER. In addition, serving on the panel as judges for the Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year were Steven Dimitriou, Managing Partner, Mayflower Advisors, LLC (2009 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year) and Rick Wedge, TK (2010 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year). The judges panel for the Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year judging panel were Ryan Gardner, representing Fiduciary Investment Advisors, LLC, the 2009 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year, and Doug Prince, representing The Price Group of Stifel Nicolas, the 2010 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year. 

Compliance March 24, 2011

EEOC Announces Final ADA Amendments Act Regs

March 24, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) announced the final regulations to implement the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) are now available for public view on the Federal Register Web site at www.ofr.gov.
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The ADAAA went into effect on January 1, 2009. It overturned several Supreme Court decisions that Congress believed had interpreted the definition of “disability” too narrowly, resulting in a denial of protection for many individuals with impairments such as cancer, diabetes or epilepsy.   

The act states that the definition of disability should be interpreted in favor of broad coverage of individuals (see EEOC Proposes ADA Amendments Act Changes). The effect of these changes is to make it easier for an individual seeking protection under the ADA to establish that he or she has a disability within the meaning of the ADA.  

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The ADAAA and the final regulations keep the ADA’s definition of the term “disability” as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; a record (or past history) of such an impairment; or being regarded as having a disability. But the law made significant changes in how those terms are interpreted, and the regulations implement those changes.  

Based on the statutory requirements, the regulations set forth a list of principles to guide the determination of whether a person has a disability. For example, the principles provide that an impairment need not prevent or severely or significantly restrict performance of a major life activity to be considered a disability. Additionally, whether an impairment is a disability should be construed broadly, to the maximum extent allowable under the law. The principles also provide that, with one exception (ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses), “mitigating measures,” such as medication and assistive devices like hearing aids, must not be considered when determining whether someone has a disability. Furthermore, impairments that are episodic (such as epilepsy) or in remission (such as cancer) are disabilities if they would be substantially limiting when active.  

The regulations clarify that the term “major life activities” includes “major bodily functions,” such as functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, and brain, neurological, and endocrine functions. The regulations also make clear that, as under the old ADA, not every impairment will constitute a disability. The regulations include examples of impairments that should easily be concluded to be disabilities, such as HIV infection, diabetes, epilepsy, and bipolar disorder.  

Following the dictates of the ADAAA, the regulations also make it easier for individuals to establish coverage under the “regarded as” part of the definition of “disability.” Establishing such coverage used to pose significant hurdles, but under the new law, the focus is on how the person was treated rather than on what an employer believes about the nature of the person’s impairment.  

The commission has released two Question-and-Answer documents about the regulations to aid the public and employers – including small business – in understanding the law and new regulations. The ADAAA regulations, accompanying Question and Answer documents and a fact sheet are available at http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/adaaa_info.cfm.

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