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Keynote Address
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| Speaker: |
Lisa Coutts
Starbucks Coffee Company
director, savings & retirement plans
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In 2012, Starbucks ranked #73 on the Fortune 100 “Best Companies To Work For” list. The company's massive part-time work force - some 95,000 employees - gets full health insurance benefits, stocks awards - and of course free coffee. Referring to their employees as “partners” is only one of the vast arrays of methods they use to engage and connect with the baristas to highlight and emphasize their unique culture. Their benefits get attention and are a valued part of their partner relationships.
Through a series of stories, Lisa will take us through the processes they employ and the innovative approaches utilized to involve and communicate to their diverse employee population. From social media to gamification, Starbucks is committed to improve employee outcomes and connect with customers, partners, and community.
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| Moderators: |
Mark Landay (Vanguard Institutional Investor Group)
Karen Casillas (CAPTRUST Advisors)
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10:00 – 10:15
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BREAK
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| 10:15 – 11:15 |
Session I
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Track A: Is Defined Benefit Dead? NO!
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| Speakers: |
Christine Tozzi (Towers Watson)
Patrick Kendall (Transamerica Retirement Solutions)
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Would you be surprised to learn that organizations that have never sponsored a Defined Benefit Pension Plan are currently exploring putting them in? Despite the perception that Defined Benefit plans are dying, traditional pension and hybrid plans continue to play a critical role in providing retirement benefits to American workers. New plans are being created. A retirement program that includes both pension and savings plans has many advantages over Savings Plan only approaches, especially since legislators have proposals on the table to reduce the amount of tax-effective retirement dollars employees can save in 401(k) plans.
The advantages of pension plans and why some employers are considering adopting them are not well understood by many employers and even less so by employees. Come hear about the financial and workforce management advantages of adopting a new pension plan or re-vitalizing your current pension plan. Be ready to explore the various plan design features as well as the latest opportunities to streamline, automate and integrate pension plans to enhance the employee experience and ease the administrative burden.
The opportunity is ripe for plan sponsors, advisory teams, and vendors to work in tandem to actively promote these plans to ensure their advantages are well understood and appreciated.
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Moderator:
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Jennifer Dack Brooks (Trucker Huss, APC)
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Track B: Legal Update
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| Speakers: |
Diane Aaron (Buffington & Aaron, ALC)
Stephen Wilkes (The Wagner Law Group)
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Diane will present an outline of some of the more significant changes in the laws that affect defined contribution plans. Specific topics will include (1) expanded IRS and DOL amnesty programs for correcting plan errors, (2) how courts are responding to lawsuits against plan fiduciaries, (3) how new laws can help employers make their plans more enticing for owners and employees and (4) practical solutions to complying with recently enacted DOL disclosure requirements.
Stephen will present: “Washington Politics: The View on Retirement Savings.” Congress, trade groups, policy think tanks, the White House…..each has a view on where our national retirement system should be heading. Stephen will discuss where these groups are pushing legislative and regulatory activity with regard to our savings rate for retirement, the world of fees and expenses, and the latest thinking on how retirement dollars are handled during the draw-down phase AFTER retirement. |
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Moderator:
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Mike Zelda (Moss Adams LLP)
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Track C: Health & Welfare Update
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| Speaker: |
Julie Burbank (Trucker Huss, APC)
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Julie will provide an overview of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's Employer Shared Responsibility provisions. This will include a discussion of what employees and dependents must be offered as minimum essential coverage that is affordable and provides minimum value in order to avoid the penalties for non-compliance. Julie will discuss how to determine affordability and whether an employer's plan provides minimum value. Julie will also discuss what employers should be doing now to prepare to pay the applicable Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund Fees and Transitional Reinsurance Fees |
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Moderators:
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Justin Chilcote (Transamerica Retirement Solutions Corporation)
Laura Dalzell (Towers Watson)
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11:15 – 11:30
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BREAK |
| 11:30 – 12:30 |
Session II
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Track A: Defined Contribution
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| Speakers: |
Henry Kao, PIMCO
Jon Chambers (Shultz Collins Lawson Chambers, Inc.)
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Don’t Take Stable Value for Granted…Again
For over 30 years, participants have relied on stable value to provide safe and consistent returns particularly during periods of market turbulence, but the Financial Crisis of 2008 caught many benefits professionals and plan fiduciaries by surprise on many fronts, not the least of which, that all stable value options are not created equal. In this session, Henry will 1) examine how stable value has changed since the Financial Crisis and the impact on the value proposition of this popular investment option, and 2) offer ways to evaluate and benchmark this product to minimize any surprises going forward and more importantly, to help participants meet their capital preservation goals.
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Understanding Target Date Funds
Over the past five years, Target Date Funds have become a primary feature in most defined contribution plans, capturing the largest share of ongoing cash flows in many plans. In this session, Jon will help you better understand what makes a target date fund, how target date funds compare to customized portfolios, different glide paths and management styles for target date funds, how to write an Investment Policy for target date funds-undefined including relevant fund selection and retention criteria, and current industry trends and regulations pertaining to this category of funds. |
| Moderators: |
Molly Knapp (MassMutual Retirement Services)
Tim Shortt (Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust)
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Track B: Non Qualified – Do NQDCPs Deserve A New Look?
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| Speakers: |
Erik Beucler (Compensia)
Craig Main (Main Data Group, Inc.)
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The current tax landscape may encourage employers to take a fresh look at non-qualified deferred compensation plans. This session will begin with an overview of the NQDCP basic plan types and design features and then review some reasons for the past swoon and increasingly broad support of NQDCPs. Finally, it will introduce some new approaches designed to maximize value, steer performance and allow companies to benefit in the current economy. |
| Moderator: |
Matt Borror (Matthew J. Borror, Esq.) |
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Track C: Regulatory Update – DOL Hot Topics Update
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| Speaker: |
Jean Ackerman, Regional Director in the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s (“DOL”)
Employee Benefits Security Administration’s (“EBSA”) San Francisco Regional Office
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Jean Ackerman will be providing a 2013 enforcement and regulatory update for EBSA. What areas of enforcement will the EBSA be focusing on, both nationally and regionally, in 2013? How is EBSA handling enforcement issues on new regulations such as the 408(b)(2) Regulations? How is the DOL handling the new healthcare mandates? We are pleased to have a senior official from the DOL provide her perspective on these and other hot enforcement and regulatory topics, so please join us for this very interesting session. |
| Moderator: |
Saswati Paul (Tobin Law) |
