The New CES-CREWS Blog

Welcome to ,CES-CREWS' new blog on the fascinating world of DB plan de-risking and termination trends.
 
Just who needs that you might be saying?
 
Well, our blog is uncommonly interested in a point-of-view which is often lacking in this area: the participants. Not that we aren’t interested in the plan sponsor – quite the opposite. But plan sponsors generally have a phalanx of advisers available to them and no shortage of analyses to read about themselves. Participants? Not so much.

CREWS was originally created to focus on the needs of participants in the lump sum election process, and that is still what we are principally about. Plus plan sponsor issues are often entangled with those of their participants so we wind up spending a good deal of our efforts working with decision makers through our sister company CES providing fixed fee, zero-commission, SPGA placement services, again, with an eye focused on participants.
 
So this blog will take up issues you likely won't see a lot about in the media. Issues such as:

• Why terminations can be good for participants – Often the termination process is seen as negative by regulators and advisers, but a termination can be excellent news for participants.
• Personal vs impersonal advice – Advice is often invaluable for participants when making one of the most important financial decisions of their lives. This advice can come in many forms so we will delve into the merits and sources of this information. Plan sponsors have all the advice they can stand already though we will also weigh in on these sources and their pros-and-cons.
• What a buyout should cost – Advisers often overestimate the cost of a plan termination. Why? We will explore.
• Nitty-gritty of SPGA placements – Acquiring a Single Premium Group Annuity is surprisingly complex, especially for a plan sponsor who will likely do it only once – if they do it right. So we will dig into this world and the always changing landscape of how carriers view things. Not to mention how the participant mix can impact things.
• How the election process impacts the cost – The process itself can impact the cost of a termination and therefore the ability/advisability of doing so. Timing and partial buyouts are questions most have nowadays and the process is anything but straightforward.
• Guarantees – State guarantees vs the PBGC. Who really understands this stuff? We do!
• Regulatory framework – The GAO, DOL, IRS, PBGC, and the other members of the alphabet regulatory soup depict a maze of confusion. And what about New York?!
• How the Brits do it – England has recently overhauled its system. So we will take a look from time-to-time to see what they’ve come up with.
• Refinancing - Underfunded liabilities viewed as debt. A topic only a plan sponsor could love.

Still here? Great! You are just the unusually wise DB Plan expert we’re looking for!