$, They’ll Never Miss It
Nobody likes to have something taken away from them, especially kids. At least at my house, when one of my kids takes a toy from another one I always have to intervene. Of course, two minutes later the...
View ArticleDOMA Ruling and Retirement Plans: A Simple Case of Cause and Effect
Cause and effect is a fairly simple concept that can be applied to almost every decision, action, or in this case, legislative ruling. The Supreme Court’s recent decision, declaring a portion of the...
View ArticleAre Your 2013 Taxes Taken Care Of? Are You Sure?
If you haven’t already heard the news, taxes went up this year! For some, they went up a lot. The tax increases are from a combination of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) and provisions...
View ArticleSEC vs. DOL
No, I’m not talking about the Southeastern Conference (SEC) vs. all Da Other Leagues (DOL) in college football—although that would be timely as well. I’m talking about the Securities and Exchange...
View ArticleMyRA: The Pros and Cons
During his State of the Union address last week, President Obama announced a new retirement savings program called My Retirement Account or MyRA. Labeled as a “starter savings account,” the plan is...
View ArticlePBGC: A Four-Letter Word to Plan Sponsors
The noble mission of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is to pay benefits to the orphaned retirees of failed defined benefit (DB) plans (with some limitations). To date, they have taken...
View ArticleThe reality of the new tax reality
If you filed your tax bill earlier this year, chances are it wasn’t pretty. I polled a group of key advisors and asked if the new tax reality had sunk in with their business owner clients, and the...
View ArticleOdd Law Aims to Smooth Highways and Pension Funding
There are a lot of questions surrounding the recently passed Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014 (HATFA). The first may be how to pronounce it. Is it a short “a” like “hat”? As in, “You’ll...
View ArticleMore Business Owner Insights from Inc. 500/5000
Like my colleague Jerry Ripperger, I’m in Arizona at the Inc. 500/5000 annual meeting where 1,500 business owners and key employees have gathered to: Share best practices Learn from each other Hear...
View ArticleThird Defined Benefit “Relief” Law Less Charming to Plan Sponsors
With the third major pension funding relief law passed in just over three years, defined benefit (DB) plans seemingly occupy a charmed position on the legislative docket. Plan sponsors investigating...
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