Salutations, ASEA!

So nice to get a break from deadlines as the weather heats up. Hope your vacation and concert schedule is full of fun times ahead. Perhaps you will prepare a hundred or so Cycle 3 document restatements during down time?

Remember preparing your 2023 PBGC Forms that reflected big asset losses in 2022? There was a lot of explaining to do to clients and we faced a bit more scrutiny. Even in the small plan world, premiums of more than $10k would not be uncommon. At least we were not dealing with the Department of Justice, $127 million, and nearly 3,500 participants assumed to be alive who were not. While many with wait for the Lifetime movie to learn more about this story, you can read our own John Iekel’s article on this here: https://www.asppa.org/news/central-states-returning-controversial-127-million-sfa-payment-pbgc 

We have another court case like the ones you might read about in a John Grisham novel. This one involves potentially outdated mortality tables. Will Tom Cruise or John Travolta star in the adaptation? You read Nevin E. Adams’ article and you tell me who you see starring in this. You can find the article here: https://www.asppa.org/news/court-finds-no-obligation-use-current-actuarial-tables-pension-conversion-calcs 

The final article is a bit of the flip side to the previous article. Norman Levinrad describes a bit more of the technical considerations to adding a cash balance plan to a preexisting profit sharing plan. Brings to mind some of the early-on issues I had to consider when combo plans started to become my whole life. The 20% HCE rule completely bypassed me for a decade or two. But it became a tool when I started working on combo plans. You can find more food for thought in Norm’s article here: https://www.asppa.org/news/adding-cash-balance-plan-profit-sharing-401k-plan 

I’ve been working with a great DC person for so long that that those early days of combo plans feel so far removed. Though I wish I had the last two articles when I started. Between Norm’s list of items to look out for and Dick’s article on how to ‘sell’ the plans, there is a lot of interesting info to absorb—even if combo plans are “old hat” at this point.

OK, folks—benefit applications don’t forget to get spouses’ signature notarized on their own. Need to send out some polite reminders. Have a great one!

—Alan