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The Spencer’s Benefits Reports is a summary of the week's news items posted in the WHAT'S NEW pages of Spencer’s Benefits Reports Online. For questions regarding this email service, contact Customer Service at (800)449-9525.
The U.S. Master Pension Guide reflects the latest regulations, rulings and cases for qualified retirement plans, surveying the different type of plans from which an employer may choose, and describing the procedures for obtaining plan qualification.
Links within news stories display full text documents including legislation, regulations, court decisions, rulings and government reports.
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The editors of Spencer’s Benefits Reports wish our readers a Happy Thanksgiving. Spencer’s Benefits Reports will not publish news or new reports on Thursday and Friday, November 26 and 27. Publication of new items will resume on Monday, November 30.
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has issued a proposed rule to make changes to its reportable events regulations under ERISA Sec. 4043 and to a number of other regulations to conform to statutory changes made by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA). The changes would eliminate most of the automatic waivers and filing extensions that are currently provided under the reportable events regulation. The proposed rule appeared in the November 23 Federal Register…
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has requested comments about the purchase of irrevocable commitments to provide plan benefits before a standard termination is initiated under ERISA Sec. 4041(b). The request for comments appeared in the November 23 Federal Register…
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Following are recent health care questions that were submitted by subscribers and the answers from Spencer editors…
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Requirements to publish online health care reform summaries 72 hours before any Senate vote and to require members of Congress to enroll in a public plan are among the first of an expected flurry of amendments to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, an amendment introduced in the Senate on November 18 as a substitute to H.R. 3590…
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The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has published a notice in which the agency withdraws its final regulations to implement provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) that amended the statutory exemption set forth in ERISA Secs. 408(b)(14) and 408(g) relating to the provision of investment advice by a fiduciary adviser to participants in participant directed individual account plans (such as 401(k) plans) and individual retirement accounts. Notice of the withdrawal was published in the November 20 Federal Register…
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In 2009, employers held medical benefit plan cost growth to an average of 5.5% (for an annual average of $8,945), the lowest rise in a decade, according to the final results of Mercer’s annual National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans for 2009. Employers plan to keep medical plan cost growth to 6% in 2010, mainly by changing plan design or plan vendors. Without plan changes, employers would experience a 9% cost growth. The Mercer survey includes responses from 2,914 employers with at least ten employees. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of all employers offer health care benefits, but nearly all employers with at least 500 employees do so…
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In Notice 2009-93, the Internal Revenue Service announces that it has launched a pilot program allowing filers of information returns to truncate an individual payee’s nine-digit identifying number on paper payee statements for calendar years 2009 and 2010 if the filers meet the requirements set forth in the notice. Notice 2009-93 applies to paper payee statements in the Form 1098 series, Form 1099 series, and Form 5498 series…
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Tepanyaki, a Clearfield, Utah, Japanese restaurant, has agreed to pay $30,000 and to furnish other relief to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah (Civil Action No. 1:09-cv-43 TS)…
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Currently, 44% of employers offer a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP), according to a recent survey conducted by Aon Consulting and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (ISCEBS). The survey, CDH Plans Shift to HSAs, also found that 56% of employers offering a CDHP provide a health savings account (HSA), 35% offer a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA), and 9% offer both. Over the last three years, the gap has widened between HSAs and HRAs: the percentage of employers offering HSAs has risen from 48% to 56%, while the percentage offering HRAs has dropped from 43%
to 35%…
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In addition to the employer-related provisions already described, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, an amendment introduced in the Senate on November 18 as a substitute to H.R. 3590, includes a number of revenue provisions that would affect employers and employees in group benefit plans…
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has issued its annual report to Congress, which shows that the agency ended fiscal year 2009 with an overall deficit of $22 billion. This compares with the $11.2 billion deficit recorded at the previous fiscal year-end on Sept. 30, 2008…
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