Feeling out of the loop on industry happenings this summer? DWC stays on top of what's trending, and our self-proclaimed pension geeks often offer their insights in industry publications. Get caught up with this month's round-up: 

Facts

People in the retirement plan business sure do like their acronyms.  All these letters get thrown around, and I do not know what half of them mean.

Facts

Our company sponsors a 401(k) plan, and we moved to a new recordkeeper about two years ago.  Last week we received a letter and a check from our previous recordkeeper indicating that the check represented our portion of the proceeds from a legal settlement involving one of the mutual funds that used to be part of our plan investment menu.

DWC is honored to announce its six 2018 summer intern consultants have successfully completed their summer program.

Facts

Our 401(k) plan allows new employees to make contributions on the first day of the quarter after they work for us for a year.  All of our full-time employees have been with us for a long time.  Most of our new hires are for short-term projects, so they almost always terminate employment in less than a year and never become eligible for our 401(k) plan.  Recently, however, we had two new hires that did stay with us for a year and should have become eligible for the plan.  One of them heard about the plan from a co-worker and submitted a deferral election form, but since we are not used to new hires sticking around that long, we overlooked implementing the election.  The other never knew about the plan at all.

Whether a company is small or large, chances are it offers employees a 401(k). But this well-intentioned benefit has become target practice for attorneys, with lawsuits against companies ranging from those with $10 million to tens of millions in assets.

Facts

People in the retirement plan business sure do like their acronyms.  All these letters get thrown around, and I do not know what half of them mean.

Facts

In order to be eligible for our company’s 401(k) plan, employees must have worked for us for at least a year and be a minimum of 21 years old.  They can join the plan on the next January 1^st or July 1^st following the date they meet those requirements.  Recently, we discovered that we allowed an employee to start contributing to the plan before he met those requirements.  He also received company matching contributions.

Corporate mergers and acquisitions can be stressful. When employees hear that their company is part of such a deal, they instinctively worry about their jobs. Even with reassurances that there's no need to worry about layoffs any time soon, employees should expect changes in their benefit plans, particularly their 401(k)s or other retirement savings plans. DWC Managing Partner Keith Clark highlights these changes in this article published by Kiplinger.

Facts

When certain employees terminate employment with our company, we agree to continue severance payments for a period of time after they leave.  Some of these employees have asked us to continue withholding 401(k) contributions from their severance pay.