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Does Your Agency’s Plan Have Dormant Accounts That Should Be Paid Out?
Quite often, a review of the participant status within an agency’s 401(a) and 457(b) plans will reveal that the plans have a large number of dormant accounts – accounts relating to previously terminated, deceased, or divorced employees (who have divided their accounts...
Take a Closer Look at Your 401(a) and 457(b) Plans When You Change Providers
Previously, we have discussed a number of the do’s and don’ts of switching plan providers, such as investment advisors and recordkeepers. This post focuses on why plan sponsors, plan administrators and plan recordkeepers all should take greater care in reviewing plan...
Managing Your Agency’s CalPERS Pension Liabilities
By Jeff Chang Municipal and special district employers, particularly their elected council and board members, continue to express concerns over the size of their agencies’ CalPERS “liabilities” and what can be done to mitigate them. Although there are several...
Is Your 457(b) or 401(a) Plan Fee Allocation Fair and Reasonable?
By Jeff Chang Investment fiduciaries and plan administrators of California public sector 457(b) and 401(a) plans are required by law to act as “prudent experts” for the sole and exclusive purpose of providing benefits and defraying “reasonable expenses” of...
What Participant-Level Records Should Your Governmental 401(a) or 457(b) Plan Keep?
By Jeff Chang In earlier posts, we discussed the plan documents you should keep as well as some of the policies and procedures you will need to properly maintain and administer your governmental 401(a) or 457(b) plan. This post discusses the participant-level records...
Is Your Social Security Replacement Plan Up to Snuff?
By Jeff Chang As we previously explained, most public agencies are not automatically subject to Social Security. They have a choice between voluntarily participating in Social Security pursuant to a section 218 agreement, or they can exempt some or all of their...
The “Mechanics” of Combining Your Agency’s Multiple 457(b) Plans
By Jeff Chang Many public agencies have come to sponsor and maintain multiple 457(b) plans, which can unnecessarily increase the compliance burden as well the fees paid by participants. Although the human resource and finance managers who typically oversee these plans...
California Public Agency 401(a) Sponsors Should Amend Their Plans for PEPRA and May Want to Submit for a New IRS Determination Letter
By Jeff Chang Ongoing changes in the way the IRS reviews and “approves” qualified retirement plan documents and the need for California public agencies to comply with the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act (PEPRA) are forcing these agencies to reevaluate the “form”...
Authorized Plan Representatives for Your Governmental 457(b) or 401(a) Plan
By Jeff Chang Whenever you engage a new recordkeeper for your governmental 457(b) or 401(a) plan, the plan sponsor will be asked to complete, sign and return an authorized plan representatives form (APRF). The APRF designates the so-called “contact persons” and the...
Improving Administrative Service Agreements For Public Agency Retirement Plans
By Jeff Chang Although many of our municipal and special district clients have sophisticated contracting and RFP departments, they often do not have balanced and well-negotiated administrative service agreements (ASAs) with their 401(a) and 457(b) recordkeepers. This...
Public Agencies Need to Make Sure That Their Retirement Plans Keep In Step With Their MOUs and Employment Agreements
By Jeff Chang Having worked with dozens of cities and special districts, we are familiar with the focus and attention placed on memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and management employment contracts – especially provisions relating to retirement benefits and...
Have You Developed All of the Policies and Procedures Needed to Properly Administer Your Governmental 457(b) or 401(a) Plan?
By Jeff Chang If you are responsible for the administration of a public agency 457(b) or 401(a) plan, you know that these tax-favored plans are complicated and subject to myriad rules and requirements found in the plan document, the Internal Revenue Code (and related...