Retirement

Acquiring another company? Buyer beware on employee benefits

03/29/2011

If your company ever acquires another company that has multiemployer pension or health benefit plan obligations through a union, beware. You could wind up being responsible for any delinquent contributions or underfunded benefit liabilities of the seller.

Benefits administrator pleads guilty to ERISA embezzlement

03/29/2011

The owner of Ohio-based Irvin Administrative Solutions faces up to 10 years in prison plus fines and restitution for embezzling more than $1 million from 12 different retirement plans located in seven states. The company served as a third-party administrator for employee retirement plans covered under ERISA.

What keeps HR awake at night?

02/22/2011

Rising health care costs, implementing the new health care reforms, rapidly changing business and labor markets, growing regulatory complexity and managing the aging workforce top the list of challenges HR pros face. That’s what the Society for Human Resource Management found when it surveyed more than 9,000 practitioners.

Economy edges upward, so do 401(k) contributions

01/25/2011

As the economy improves—even slightly—employers and employees have begun a slow return to normalcy in how they treat 401(k) retirement benefits. A recent survey by Plansponsor magazine uncovered the following trends in 2010, compared with 2009:

Health network’s full funding pumps up pension contributions

01/18/2011

Sutter Health, a Northern California health care network, pumped $60 million a month into its pension plan for more than 40,000 active and retired employees during the last quarter of 2010. The not-for-profit network promotes its pension benefit as a valuable piece of an employee’s total compensation.

401(k) plans face year of rebuilding

01/12/2011

After two years of cutbacks, 2011 will be a year of rebuilding company-sponsored 401(k) plans—for both employers and employees. But the result could be more flexible, more customized retirement savings plans. Here is a roundup of recent research regarding your employees and their retirement savings plans.

Arnold’s last act: New contract scales back state pensions

12/21/2010

Members of Local 1000 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 95,000 California state employees, have voted to accept a new labor contract that features significant pension reforms sought by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

11 for ’11: Big trends shaping comp & benefits

12/13/2010

Pay-for-performance and higher employee health care contributions look like they’ll remain fixtures of the post-recession comp and benefits landscape. Here are 11 other trends that could take a firm hold in 2011:

DOL to require more disclosure of 401(k) fees

11/08/2010

Starting Jan. 1, 2012, employers will need to more clearly spell out—in quarterly statements—the fees charged by their 401(k) plan so employees can comparison shop among the plan’s investment options, say new Department of Labor rules.

Employees still worried about personal financial security

10/22/2010

Workers who participate in employer-sponsored benefits plans are more optimistic about the direction of the U.S. economy in general, but remain extremely concerned about their own situations, according to a new survey by the benefits consulting firm Mercer. Their anxiety shows in greater worry about keeping their jobs and the adequacy of their retirement benefits.