INSIDER

An Issue of Fairness
In the end, it comes back to the question of fairness. After all the newspaper articles, the legal maneuvering and the congressional clamor, the core question remains: Are hybrid pension plans unfair to older workers?

Reflections on the Cash Balance Media
It's always disturbing when the news media confuse opinion with fact or make unsubstantiated generalizations. And when the issue at hand affects countless organizations and potentially millions of workers, the confusion cries out for clarification.

Pensions in Crisis
It is difficult these days to pick up a newspaper or business magazine or to watch a national news broadcast without seeing a story about pensions.

Financial Economics — Call to Arms or Siren Song?
A spate of recent articles in various publications has prompted a debate among actuaries, academics and other professionals in pension plan finance about how financial economics tenets apply to pension plans.

Defined Benefit vs. 401(k) Returns: An Updated Analysis
The gradual shift away from defined benefit plans and toward 401(k) plans has several consequences, one of which is to essentially reassign responsibility for ensuring adequate retirement income from plan trustees to individual participants.

IRS Issues Final Regs on Retroactive Payments from Defined Benefit Plans
The IRS recently issued final retroactive annuity starting date election regulations, which describe the required procedures for distributing qualified joint survivor annuity explanations to participants and spouses after the annuity starting date.

IRS Releases 2003-2004 Guidance Priority List
The 2003-2004 Guidance Priority List is out, reflecting the IRS’s regulatory intentions for the next year, although the agency may release other guidance as well. After a dramatic decrease in the number of employee benefit plan projects last year, this year's number is higher, increasing from 40 to 47.