Pension Answer Book, 2012 Edition

The 2012 Pension Answer Book covers the most recent legislative, regulatory, and case law developments so you're never without the information you need to detect compliance and regulatory issues - ensuring you make the right decisions and avoid potential problems.

The 2012 Pension Answer Book is a library unto itself, probing, explicating, and elucidating the most recent laws, regulations, private rulings, and court decisions that affect pensions. The advantages of owning this reference source are apparent after the very first consultation. Don't deny yourself and your clients this valuable research tool.

Exclusive Q & A Format!

The 2012 Pension Answer Book is not only comprehensive in scope, but remarkably accessible, too. Clear, jargon-free language and an efficient question-and-answer format combine to speed your research every time. No wonder it's found on the desks of professionals and academics alike.

Always Up-To-Date...Always Accurate!

Renowned pension expert Stephen J. Krass provides rigorous updates that regularly re-establish this remarkable volume as the definitive work of its kind. No matter what type of defined benefit, defined contribution or combo plan you're working with, The 2012 Pension Answer Book will give you the up-to-date, reliable answers you need.

The 2012 Pension Answer Book has been fully updated to reflect the changes made by the Revenue Rulings, Revenue Procedures, Notices, Announcements, and Private Letter Rulings issued by IRS, Opinion Letters and Interpretive Bulletins issued by DOL, final and proposed regulations issued by both IRS and DOL, and important case decisions, including:

• IRS final and proposed regulations regarding statutory hybrid defined benefit plans
• Preliminary results from ROBS Compliance Project
• Court ruling that a debtor's account in a no longer qualified retirement plan remains protected from claims of creditors
• Expanded treatment of affiliated service groups
• For 2012, increases in the dollar limitation applicable to the annual retirement benefit under a defined benefit plan ($200,000), the annual addition under a defined contribution plan ($50,000), compensation ($250,000), and elective deferrals under 401(k) and 403(b) plans ($17,000)
• Department of Labor (DOL) guidance concerning the provision of an annual funding notice by plan administrators of certain defined benefit plans
• United States Supreme Court decision on whether summary plan descriptions (SPDs) and summary descriptions of material modifications (SMMs) are terms of a plan
• Court rulings concerning:
  • Receipt of qualified joint and survivor annuity (QJSA) followed by abandonment by non-participant spouse
  • Validity of spousal consent where plan representative fails to witness his spouse's consent to QJSA waiver
  • Failure of plan participant to remove former spouse as beneficiary of plan account
• IRS final regulations concerning evidence of delivery of documents having a tax filing deadline
• The 10 percent tax on early distributions and being disabled for social security purposes
• IRS advice on user fees
• IRS guidance concerning opinion and advisory letters for masterand prototype (M&P) and volume submitter plans
• Voluntary correction program (VCP) submissions and 403(b) plan failures
• Electronic deposits of withholding taxes on plan distributions
• New Form 8955-SSA
• Fiduciary duty issues concerning:
  • Misrepresentation of future retirement benefits
  • Class actions
  • Awarding of attorneys' fees