The Employer-Employee Relations Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing yesterday entitled “Reforming and Strengthening Defined Benefit Plans: Examining the Health of the Multiemployer Pension System.” You can access testimony given at the hearing here and a press release about the hearing here.
PlanSponsor.com: “GAO: Careful With Multiemployer Legislation“:
[T]he GAO found the percentage of multiemployer plan that were fully funded fell to 67% in 2002, from 83% in 2001. . . However, the GAO found the level of exposure the PBGC faces from this liability with multiemployer plans is nowhere near that of single-employer plans. . . . This is due to the regulatory framework in place for these plans that distributes financial risks toward employers and employees and away from the federal government.
Morningstar.com has posted an instructional article on the rules governing required minimum distributions: “Getting Required Distributions Right: Errors in calculating retirement plan withdrawals can cost you.”
The Indianapolis Star: “Governor approves pension secrecy“:
Nearly every detail of state lawmakers’ individual pensions will remain secret under a bill Gov. Joe Kernan signed into law Thursday, the final day he could act on legislation passed during the 2004 General Assembly. . . Charles Davis, executive director of the Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri, has said the change in the law sets Indiana apart. Other states at least make public the amounts of public employees’ pensions.
The Philadelphia Inquirer: “Mr. 401(k) returns to his roots“:
[Ted] Benna, 64, now is going back to his roots, launching a company in Williamsport called Malvern to administer retirement plans for small businesses. With the new venture, he is returning to the work he did in 1981 in Langhorne at the Johnson Cos., his former employer. Johnson, a benefits firm, sponsored the first 401(k) plan ever, using its own workers as guinea pigs.