- Glossary • FAQ -   Professional Support Pages (Roll over Title for Preview, Click to Read) Date Posted Article Title 4/26/2012 DOL Heightens Scrutiny Over Third Pary Provider Fees and Expenses In light of the impending DOL fee disclosure regulations, the DOL is shifting focus from plan sponsors to Third Party providers to assess the "reasonableness" of fees and expenses. 2/27/2012 401k Plan Sponsors and the Risk of Fiduciary Liability The DOL is cracking down on 401(k)plan sponsors who are not fulfilling their Fiduciary obligations, holding them liable even if it is their service providers who fail to comply. Do you know where your plan sponsor responsibilities begin and end? 2/13/2012 Are 401k Plan Sponsors Making the Fiduciary Grade? A 'report card' appoach can be a very effective way to assess how your plan stacks up in the 5 key areas of fiduciary liability for plan sponsors. 1/27/2012 It Pays To Understand Your 401(k) Plan Fees Are you in the dark when it comes to knowing and understanding the true cost of operating your 401(k) plan? 1/26/2012 Don't Forget Retirement Plan Tax Credits "Are there any special tax credits or deductions available for retirement plan sponsors and plan participants?” ... yes. 1/24/2012 2011 Earned Income and Self-Employment Tax Q&A pertaining to the reduction of the employee's share of social security taxes by (up to) 2% on pension calculations. 10/11/2011 NestEggs Professional Support … Year-End Retirement Plan Ideas Questions and related talking points about impending opportunities & challenges in the retirement plan arena. 3/24/2011 Making Up For Lost Time - The "Piggyback" Alternative This article, written by Robert Slimmon, outlines the advantages of "piggybacking" a Cash Balance Plan on top of a well-designed profit-sharing/401(k) plan as a way to increase tax deductible contributions considerably and help make up for time that may have been lost saving for retirement. 10/26/2010 DOL Final Rule on Fee Disclosure...A Step In the Right Direction New DOL regulations for Defined Contribution Plans with Participant-Directed investments will require that fees related to plan expenses, administrative services, and investments be made available in a "user friendly" format that allows participants to evaluate and compare investment options. This impending transparency will increase awareness of some of the "hidden fees" and other undisclosed expenses that are typically 'buried' in a retirement plan, often unbeknownst to plan sponsors and participants. This article summarizes the Who? What? When? Where? and Why? of this new DOL rule. 1/29/2010 ROTH Conversions in 2010 2010 marks the end of AGI limits that prevented many high-income individuals from converting their Traditional IRAs to Roth. This creates some interesting planning opportunities! 7/24/2008 412i Plans (Insured Defined Benefit Plans) Great tax deduction if you don't mind paying a fine of $300,000. 7/17/2008 Fee Disclosure - DOL Analysis Form This is the DOL's recommended analytical tool to enable retirement plan Sponsors to identify and compare all fees associated with competitive retirement plans. 7/17/2008 Fee Disclosure Starting in 2009, retirement plans will need to provide substantial new detail about their expenses, including many 'hidden' fees that are not currently revealed. 3/6/2008 DOL Announces 7-Day Contribution "Safe Harbor" for Small Plans This ruling brings clarity to an issue that previously caused a lot of confusion ... just when does an employer need to transmit its employees' 401(k) deferrals to be considered "timely" and avoid penalties? 2/21/2008 Supreme Court Unanimously Affirms Participant's Right to Sue for Losses The Supreme Court ruled that individual participants in 401(k) retirement-savings plans can sue plan administrators in order to reclaim losses. Experts say the ruling is significant, but should not result in a flurry of frivolous lawsuits. Many questions remain, however. 2/13/2008 Retirement Plan Expenses and Fiduciary Responsibility We often see retirement plans in which most costs are 'embedded' in the investment options, and therefore quite difficult to analyze. As the accompanying article highlights, discovering these costs is the responsibility of the Plan's Fiduciaries (Trustees, Plan Sponsor); the sales person, as a non-Fiduciary, has no obligation to be proactive in that discovery process. NestEggs never receives payments from embedded costs or from any other investment provider; all of our fees are billed directly, either to the Sponsor or the Plan. Avoiding the conflict of interest inherent in embedded costs helps us deliver a more professional service. Should you ever need assistence discovering the true costs of your clients' plans, we'll be happy to help. 2/12/2008 Controlled and Affiliated Service Groups ... IRC 414(b) and (c) Probably the most complicated area of retirement plan rules ... and one of the most frequent to occur in the small entrepreneurial environment. This article is the IRS' own field training manual on the subject, and is the most comprehensive guide we've ever seen. 2/8/2008 Expenses in Retirement Plans Here's the Department of Labor's recommendation for what a proposing vendor should provide to a retirement plan's Trustees. If your clients demand a certified, completed copy of this, they can be assured of an apples-to-apples comparison. That helps protect the Trustees from Fiduciary Liability as well as insuring a level playing field.