NEW DOL FEE DISCLOSURE
    REGULATIONS:  2009 PLAN YEAR
    EFFECTIVE DATE

By: Lynn S. Clarke
Three sets of new Department of Labor (“DOL”) fee disclosure regulations need attention now for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2009. The first set of new regulations were finalized in 2007 and require increased disclosure of direct and indirect compensation received by plan service providers on Form 5500’s Schedule C, effective for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2009. The identity of each person receiving direct or indirect compensation of at least $5,000 is required to be reported by large plan filers (in general, that’s a plan covering 100 employees or more). What might come as a surprise to some employers is that even non-monetary items of value (such as gifts, trips or awards) are included in the definition of reportable compensation.  MORE...

ROLE OF COMPENSATION MORE
    CRITICAL THAN EVER

By: Melody A. Simpson
With an economic recession, massive job losses, and the word “bonus” raising hackles across the country from congressional hallways to local taverns, there can be no doubt that compensation issues have taken on an entirely new perspective for most businesses. In the boom economy of the past several years, compensation issues tended to revolve around incentive compensation, equity compensation, and even deferring compensation. In today’s economy, by contrast, compensation issues are related more to how to retain key employees, how to make incentives realistic, how to reduce overall compensation expenses, and how to get out of undesirable compensation obligations. MORE...