Posts Tagged ‘Employee Benefits’
by Stacey L. Spencer, QKA | Manager, Employee Benefit Services Group
The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently announced cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for 2012. The purpose of the COLA is to ensure that the purchasing power of Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits is not drained by inflation. It is based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the third quarter of the last year a COLA was determined to the third quarter of the current year. If there is no increase, there can be no COLA.
Continue reading “COLA 2012 Updates” »
by Stacey L. Spencer, QKA | Manager, Employee Benefits Group
317.260.4421
Women often reach retirement age with fewer pension benefits and retirement assets than men. All workers need to save more for retirement, but women face added challenges because they have lower earnings, experience higher job turnover, and have a longer life expectancy. Women generally begin retirement with smaller pensions than their male counterparts but usually live longer than men. Social Security is intended to be a supplemental source of income in retirement, but too many women are forced to rely on it as their sole source support in retirement. As a result of these issues, elderly women in the United States have one of the highest poverty rates of any industrialized nation.
Chief among the reasons that women save less than men is that women earn less than men; lower earnings equal lower retirement savings. The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963 and yet almost half a century later, women make only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. According to the National Women’s Law Center, “This persistent pay gap translates to more than $10,000 in lost wages per year for the average female worker.”
Continue reading “Women Facing Poverty in Retirement?” »
by Stacey L. Spencer, QKA | Manager, Employee Benefit Services Group
The retirement plan industry is overloaded with hidden fees and as a result, employers often think they are getting 401(k) administration for free. But in reality, the administration fees are concealed in the insurance contracts or mutual funds. This is a result of companies that offer "bundled services". A bundled service provider is when one vendor provides all investment, recordkeeping, administration, and sometimes payroll services. Bundled service providers are popular with small plans because their fees appear to be lower because administration fees are offset by higher investment management fees. Bundled services by their nature are priced as a package and cannot be priced on a per service basis.
Continue reading “401(k) Plan Fees – There’s No Such Thing as a Free Ride” »
by Larry Greenwalt, CPA, Managing Partner
In our recent Business Intelligence Survey, 68% of the respondents reported reducing employee pay, hours or benefits in the last 18 months (43% of not for profit respondents, 75% of manufacturing and distribution respondents, 83% of service and professional respondents, and 100% of construction respondents), as follows:
Continue reading “Business Survey Results Regarding Employee Compensation” »
by Stacey L. Spencer, QKA, Manager, Employee Benefits Services Group
Effective January 14, 2010, the Department of Labor (DOL) has established a final safe harbor rule as to what constitutes a timely deposit of participant contributions to small employee benefit plans (those with fewer than 100 participants). To be considered timely, employee contributions, including plan loan repayments, must be made to the plan by no later than the seventh (7th) business day following the time the employee could have otherwise received cash. Continue reading “New Retirement Plan Deposit Rules” »