November 2004

Welcome to Prairie Post, Blue Prairie Group's monthly e-Newsletter about Human Resource and Institutional Retirement & Investment issues.

In this Issue...

 
  - Evaluating Investment Managers

  - Automatic Enrollment in 401(k) Plans

  - Oppenheimer Survey on Women and Investing

  - Industry Braces for 401(k) Fee Fallout

  - What Plan Sponsors Must Know About 401(k) Revenue-sharing Deals

  - Changing 401(k) Defaults on Cashing Out: Another Step in the Right Direction

  - Employee Benefits Trends Survey Report of Findings

  - Overview: Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Reform Requires Immediate Action

  - What the Election Will Bring in Health Care

  - Transition to Consumer Directed Health Plans: Keying Off Employee Communications

  - Employee Benefits Outside the Box Have Unexpected Benefits for Employers

Evaluating Investment Managers

According to Jeff Molitor, principal in Vanguard's Portfolio Review, the process of evaluating investment managers today is overly dependent on quantitative approaches. Decisions are based on an array of statistics and analytical tools that, to outward appearance, seem to offer objective judgments of manager ability—though they are often misinterpreted and cloud the evaluation process.
 

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Automatic Enrollment in 401(k) Plans

The Congressional Research Service has issued a new report titled "Automatic Enrollment in Section 401(k) Plans."

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Oppenheimer Survey on Women and Investing

Women are more confident in their investing abilities but many of those surveyed lack understanding of investment vehicles.

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Industry Braces for 401(k) Fee Fallout

Attorneys who deal with retirement issues say they're expecting a flood of lawsuits related to the fees. The suits could even target employers who've failed to quell the increasing fees. "Fees are the hot issue that everybody needs to know about," said Chrys Martin, a Bullivant Houser Bailey PC attorney who specializes in Employee Retirement Security Income Act issues."

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What Plan Sponsors Must Know About 401(k) Revenue-sharing Deals

Mutual funds pay money to vendors who sell the fund families' product, but plan sponsors rarely know these payments exist. When they do, they usually are unaware of the amounts, who receives the payments or the potential conflicts of interest created -- all of which are items that a prudent fiduciary is expected to know about his service providers.

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Changing 401(k) Defaults on Cashing Out: Another Step in the Right Direction

Since people tend to stay where they are put and let the default run its course, these new automatic rollover provisions should dramatically reduce the cashing out of 401(k) accounts with less than $5,000. This change will be a major improvement in increasing many people's retirement savings.

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Employee Benefits Trends Survey Report of Findings

This survey of employers in the Carolinas gives us information against which to benchmark the trends in employee benefits. The surveys 84 respondents primarily represent organizations with less than 5,000 employees. Most were in North Carolina, with 40% from manufacturing and health care industries. The survey focused on four topic areas, which were health care, retirement, communication and outsourcing.
 

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Overview: Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Reform Requires Immediate Action

This overview provides a summary of the NQDC reforms, an analysis of the implications for employers and what's next for employers, and asks, 'Will NQDC survive?"

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What the Election Will Bring in Health Care

The election is over and a lot of press is devoted to anticipating what the second term and a new Congress will bring. Kent Hoover writes in many 'Business Journals' that a new Bush term 'bodes well for health care reforms sought by small businesses.' First among these are association health plans that would be exempt 'from state regulation and coverage mandates.'

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Transition to Consumer Directed Health Plans: Keying Off Employee Communications

You're a small business with an eye on keeping and retaining talent. You know that a generous health plan is a sought-after benefit, but full-coverage HMO and PPO plans are either distant pipe dreams or increasingly draining your bottom line dry. Like a growing number of companies, you wonder whether a consumer-driven health plan might be the answer. Herzog Contracting ... ended up transforming its full-coverage plan into a health reimbursement account, enrolling 400 employees ...."

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Employee Benefits Outside the Box Have Unexpected Benefits for Employers

Like a lot of companies, Gen-Probe views employee benefits as a key to recruiting and keeping the best workers. But the Southern California biotech firm has found one unintended benefit from its 9/80 workweek program, which gives workers a day off every other Friday. 'We have a rule that we don't have meetings on Friday,' .... 'People look forward to working on Fridays now because they know they won't be interrupted by meetings and they'll be more productive.'

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The articles have been carefully chosen from a variety of high-quality sources including government, research and academic institutions.

Please note: Blue Prairie Group checked each of these links before sending you this e-Newsletter. However, some links are only available for a limited period of time, so, you may occasionally find that a link has expired. If this happens, we apologize for any inconvenience.

Disclosure Statement:
Blue Prairie Group, L.L.C. does not endorse and disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, or reliability of the material. All articles are copyrighted to their publishers.