The Financial Accounting Standards Board, the body that sets accounting rules
in the U.S., will undertake a project aimed at defining cash-balance pension
plans and measuring obligations under such plans.
In the wake of a controversial $1.5 million pension payout to a former chief executive, the United Way of America is changing its rules to prevent such payments from happening again.
The Internal Revenue Service today reminded approximately 750,000 small and mid-size businesses using “off-the-shelf” retirement plan documents that they must update their plans by Sept. 30 to maintain the tax benefits.
Microsoft’s decision
in July to end its stock-option program for employees in favor of restricted
stock grants is not swaying other North American companies to follow suit,
according to survey results.
Northwest Airlines won permission from the Department of Labor on Monday to fund its pension plans with a subsidiary's stock instead of cash. Such a strategy has been used only twice before by struggling companies.
The trustees of a Norwich, Connecticut, company’s profit-sharing
and pension plans have agreed to resolve over $800,000 in claims regarding prohibited
loans and imprudent investments and to resolve a lawsuit filed against them
by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The airline industry and its unions are pressing for a special break from federal
pension-funding rules, even as Congress debates reform of the rules, according
to the Washington Post.
While it's been only a week since Microsoft Corp. announced it would stop
offering stock options to employees, the Boston Globe reports that the move
doesn't appear likely to start a trend.
A Bush administration proposal to change how corporations calculate their pension
liabilities could force some major employers to trim retirement benefits or
drop traditional pension plans altogether, according to some business groups
as well as labor unions.
The Internal Revenue Service reminds the approximately 750,000 small and mid-size
businesses using “off-the-shelf” retirement plan documents that they
must update their plans by Sept. 30, 2003. Businesses must formally adopt updates
to maintain the tax benefits associated with retirement plans.
