Products September 28, 2004

Standard Offers Plan Loan Administration

September 28, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Standard Insurance Company has launched a new fee-based service allowing plan sponsors to designate The Standard as the Manager of the Approval Process (MAP) for retirement plan loans and distributions.
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Using this service, plan sponsors transfer the administration of the approval process, evaluation of hardship conditions and distribution of funds to The Standard.

The service coincides with the enhancement of an online offering allowing participants to initiate paperless loan and distribution requests using The Standard’s Personal Savings Center Web site.

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“These online services bring information to the fingertips of plan participants and our business partners, allowing them to easily initiate loans and distributions and view transaction details,” said John Nord, assistant vice president of administration of The Standard’s Retirement Plans Division.

Benefits September 27, 2004

Overtime Eligible Workers on the Rise

September 27, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Almost 50% of large companies have increased or will boost the number of employees getting overtime under the new federal wage-hour regulations, a survey found.
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The HR Policy Association survey found that nearly all employers (98%) have initiated compliance with the new regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Among those companies, 48% said that they would treat more employees as eligible for overtime, while 49% said that there would be little or no change and no companies reported that they would treat fewer employees as eligible for overtime, a news release said.

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“Our members are baffled by those who claim that millions of workers will be denied overtime because of the change in the rules,” said HR Policy Association President Jeffrey McGuiness, in the press release. “The survey confirms what we have been hearing anecdotally for some time now, that more employees will start receiving overtime, not less, and that the rest will experience little or no change in the way they are treated,” he said.

More than 100 companies employing more than 6 million workers participated in the survey, which was conducted September 15 to 22.The association represents senior human resource executives of Fortune 500 companies.

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