Qualified Retirement Plans: End of Year Compliance Items The Pension Protection Act of 2006 made several changes to the laws governing qualified retirement plans and requires documentary and operational changes to such plans by the end of the 2009 plan year. This article is a brief summary of each of those changes. Source: Bryan Cave LLP

Recovery in 401k Balances One of the questions posed following the 2008–2009 market decline was: How long will it take for 401k plan participants to recover the wealth they attained at the peak of global stock prices in October 2007? This new "Research Note" from Vanguard Center for Retirement Research provides an answer: For the median plan participant at Vanguard, recovery took about two years. The main reason—ongoing contributions. Source: Vanguard Center for Retirement Research

Hardship Withdrawals Are Hard for Everyone It's not just HR that hardship withdrawals and loans hurt. For the participant, it means a possible and often unexpected tax bill next year. For the plan Adviser, it means depleting the plan's assets. Source: Benefits Selling

Fiduciary Q&A on the Status of Regulatory Reform At a Market counsel conference this fall, Kristina Fausti, director of legal and regulatory affairs for fi360, took part in a roundtable on regulatory developments and the emergence of a harmonized fiduciary standard. One thing became apparent to her: Most advisors are still not clear on the issues. Here is her take on what is happening. Source: Financial-Planning.com

Company Stock Can Be Source of Fiduciary Worry Some sponsors view their company's stock as a way to allow employees to share in the firm's growth. Some plans may even be designed to provide a company match in the form of stock. But the recent spate of lawsuits raises the question: Should company stock be a cause of fiduciary worry for plan sponsors? Source: Vanguard

Sensible Transparency for Retirement Plans Act -- H.R. 4146 This is the text of a new bill (H.R. 4146) that would amend title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to provide for disclosure regarding compensation for services to pension plans. Source: American Benefits Council

Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Has Reversed the Dismissal of Wal-Mart 401k Fee Case Keller Rohrback LLP announced that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a decision by the district court for the Western District of Missouri that had dismissed, in October of 2008, Plaintiff Jeremy Braden's ERISA class action lawsuit filed on behalf of a class of participants and beneficiaries of the Wal-Mart Profit Sharing and 401k Plan. Source: 401khelpcenter.com

403(b) Universal Availability The universal availability requirement applies to all 403(b)s, except for church plans. The universal availability rule permits all the right to defer and thus does not favor HCEs; and because the ability to make deferrals is universally available, there is no ADP test. Source: McKay Hochman

401k Plans and Race Data sources show a disparity among racial and ethnic groups regarding participation in and contributions to 401k plans. In this study, the first section documents the differentials in eligibility, participation, and contribution rate by race. The second section reports how the race variables are affected once demographic and plan variables are included. The third section concludes that while additional variables can eliminate the significance of race, all is not necessarily right with the world. Source: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

Company Stock Holdings Continued to Shrink in 401k Accounts According to the latest update of the EBRI/ICI 401k database, 401k participants continue to trim their investment in company stock, with this asset allocation category falling by nearly 1 percentage point (to an average of 9.7 percent) in 2008. Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute

IRS Offers Insight on Recent Guidance Relating to Retirement Plan Distributions Recently, the IRS hosted a phone forum during which IRS representatives discussed certain of the guidance issued this fall that relate to retirement plan distributions and addressed practitioner questions. This article summarizes the content of the IRS guidance, and, where applicable, highlights the comments made by IRS representatives during the recent phone forum. Source: Proskauer Rose LLP

IRS's Retirement News for Employers -- Fall 2009 This edition includes articles such as Roth & Roll: 2010 Roth IRAs & Rollovers; 5500 for 2009 and Later Required to be Filed Electronically; Establishing a SEP or SIMPLE IRA Plan; IRA Investments; New Web Tool for SARSEP Plans; and more. Source: IRS

QDIA Notice Rules Since issuing the final regulations detailing the QDIA notice requirements the DOL has published additional guidance. This article will outline the final QDIA notice rules, and additional guidance, and also provide links to related QDIA information. Source: McKay Hochman