Retirement

4 tools to keep golden-years dreams alive

04/18/2011

American workers are less confident than ever that they’ll be able to save enough to retire comfortably, according to a new study by EBRI. Benefits professionals, take note: The finding means you have lots of work ahead of you to help employees meet their retirement goals. But a growing arsenal of online tools can make it easier for employees to take control of their retirement planning.

EBSA moves to rescue ‘orphan’ retirement benefits

04/14/2011

The DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has sued Parkland Hotel Investors—once one of the Twin Cities’ biggest commercial financiers—in an attempt to distribute the company’s 401(k) assets to 96 former employees who participated in its retirement plan.

Did Elmhurst firm raid pensions? EBSA, SEC want to know

04/14/2011

Elmhurst-based Results One Financial and its co-founder Steve Salutric face charges of diverting more than $1 million from pension funds it managed.

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.