ACG Blog

This morning, the European Central Bank (ECB) introduced negative deposit rates and also cut its main refinancing rate to 0.00%. What this means is that European banks will have to pay the ECB 0.4% of any deposits that they hold with the central bank...

UPDATE: The Treasury and the IRS announced on April 14 that the proposed rules we wrote about below are being withdrawn at this time. Yay! We will post a separate article about the withdrawal of these proposed regulations in the coming weeks.

When you first think about it, the idea of a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) plan seems appealing. Qualified retirement plans like 401(k)s can be complicated and confusing. With a SEP, you don’t need to hire a Third Party Administrator, there are n...

Last week I watched the two-part TV series, Madoff. The made-for-TV movie chronicles the exploits and downfall of notorious white collar criminal, Bernie Madoff, the manager of the multi-billion dollar hedge fund. Except that it wasn’t a hedge fund—i...

I am registered to attend the national Enrolled Actuaries Meeting in April. I have missed this annual conference only once since 1997. Unfortunately, a friend that has been there with me every time will not be joining me this year and may never again...

ADP. ACP. 402(g). Safe harbor. Cross-tested. 404(a)(5). Top-heavy. TPA. 410(b). CPA. 415. ERISA. 404. IRS. DOL. Blackout notice. Revenue sharing. 5500. QDIA.

The IRS has introduced new compliance questions on the Form 5500 information returns filed annually for 401(k) and other qualified retirement plans. While these questions are optional for the 2015 Form 5500, plan sponsors and service providers should...

It seems as if the stock market ate at Chipotle and caught a norovirus to start 2016. December sales at Chipotle decreased around 30%, which is hopefully not what will happen to the stock market. But investors should be cautious and aware of the many...

In the qualified retirement plan world, there are limits on how much money may be contributed to a plan by an individual or a company. There is also a cap on the wages that may be taken into account for an employee in determining contributions and be...

Note: This article was published in 2015. The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 eliminated cost-of-living adjustments to PBGC variable-rate premium percentages. As such, some information in this article may be outdated. At an industry conference in Washington, ...