Month: October 2008

From MarketWatch: “Money funds struggled before Reserve fall: More than a dozen other funds needed rescue as credit crisis deepened.” Excerpt:

When money market fund provider The Reserve announced on Sept. 16 that its flagship Primary Fund had “broken the buck” and was worth less than $1 a share, the shock was so great that within days investors had pulled more than $120 billion from money funds.

But what investors most likely didn’t realize was that for the past year more than a dozen money funds have found themselves in similar situations, only to be rescued by their parent companies. . .

According to the SEC’s Web site, there have been 18 requests in the past year to bail out troubled money market funds.

Good article here from Pension & Investments: “DOL: Plan fiduciaries must value alts accurately.“

From the Wall Street Journal: “House Passes Bailout Bill.”

UPDATE: Already signed into law by President Bush.

The Tax Prof Blog has all the links here.

C-SPAN is streaming the debate online here. Also, there is a running blog on the debate here.

From Google Labs, “The In Quotes feature allows you to find quotes from stories linked to from Google News.” Suggested use: You can insert the word “retirement plans” or “health care” and find out what the candidates or other individuals had to say about such benefits-related topics. Read about the feature here.

(From Be Spacific)

Some of the benefits-related provisions in EESA passed by the Senate in addition to the executive compensation provisions discussed here (House bill and Senate bill provisions on executive compensation appear to be identical–see comparison here):

Extension and Modification of AMT credit allowance against Incentive Stock Options (ISOs).

Extension of IRA rollover provision allowing taxpayers to make tax-free contributions from their IRA plans to qualified charitable organizations.

Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 requiring private insurance plans that offer mental health benefits as part of the coverage to offer such benefits on par with the medical-surgical benefits.

Doubling of limitations on loans and deferral of loan payments from loans under qualified plans in Midwestern disaster area.

Nonqualified deferred compensation provisions for deferred compensation plans of “nonqualified entities”

More detail on these provisions in this Senate Finance Committee Summary.

See also this News Release.

GovTrack has posted a comparison of the EESA legislation which was passed last night by the Senate and the previous bills which were in circulation on the House side here. (More comparisons here.)

From MarketWatch, “Senate approves $700 billion financial rescue plan.” Excerpt:

Wednesday morning, groups representing large and small businesses and retired persons urged the Senate and House to approve the legislation and kick-start the flow of credit. Leaders of the Business Roundtable, the National Federation of Independent Business and the AARP said that businesses and retirement savings are at risk without passage of the rescue package.

“We need action now to protect jobs and homes and retirements,” commented Bill Novelli, the AARP’s chief executive. “People are calling in great fear because their 401(k)s are basically disappearing.”

The Senate has just passed their version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (“EESA”). Access the text of the bill here. The Wall Street Journal covers the story here.

The bill appears to contain the same reference to retirement plans as did the House bill that was discussed in a previous post here.

Also, there appears to be this nice little Warren Buffett provision in the bill:-)

(3) PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION.—The Secretary shall encourage the private sector to participate in purchases of troubled assets, and to invest in financial institutions, consistent with the provisions of this section.

Great article from CFO.com entitled “Benefits: Adult Education.” Excerpt:

By offering more and better education around benefits, companies not only help employees make the most of their perquisites, but also gain from increased retention, higher productivity, and related forms of goodwill.

“Benefits are probably the largest untapped potential retention tool that organizations have,” says Steve Miranda, chief of human resources at the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Virginia. But all too often, he says, “they turn into nonperforming assets because they aren’t being used to create ‘stickiness.'” In other words, to tap the full benefit of benefits, companies should package them with more-useful instructions. “People are clamoring for more communication,” says Miranda.

More:

To usefully address such questions, companies have learned to dole out data in small bursts — using E-mail blasts and podcasts, monthly intranet postings, or even animated characters online. (Ceridian, an HR services company, actually created online commercials featuring a superhero named Flexman, who saves people from financial binds by explaining the virtues of flexible-spending accounts.)

You can access one of the commercials featuring Flexman here.