The NAGDCA Board conducted its annual visit to Washington D.C. on March 12-13, meeting with various offices and government officials to present NAGDCA’s Legislative Priorities , discuss retirement related issues and learn about prospects for future legislation that could impact defined contribution plans. Our priorities include preserving important plan features that were at risk during last fall’s tax reform deliberations as well as proposing enhancements to existing rules and regulations. You can view NAGDCA’s priorities here and learn more about the current legislative landscape in Paul Beddoe’s Washington Report below.
 
The new benchmarking survey launched April 3. The survey data provides valuable information to plan sponsors and Industry members, and the data was critical to our recent legislative successes. We encourage all plans to participate in this year’s survey to receive complimentary access to the online benchmarking tool. The survey data will be released prior to the annual conference in September.
 
I want to thank all the Industry members who attended the annual Industry Roundtable April 5-6. Ben Taylor and the rest of the Industry Committee developed a great program including a legislative panel and a cybersecurity panel. Discussion groups covered cybersecurity, auto enrollment, and using data to help participants achieve their retirement goals. The NAGDCA Board will use the outcomes from these discussion groups to determine what actions or initiatives NAGDCA should take to assist its members.
 
In closing, I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone that NAGDCA will be asking members to volunteer for its committees and for a member-at-large Board position this summer. Committees will be assigned in late su mmer and will meet during the annual conference, and the member-at-large election will be conducted online prior to the conference. NAGDCA’s success depends on its volunteers. Please take time to consider how you can serve your peers. Please contact me, the other Board members, or Tracy Tucker if you have any questions, and look for the call for volunteers .

Sincerely,
Keith Overly, Executive Director
Ohio Deferred Compensation
NAGDCA Board visits DC
Industry Roundtable - Cybersecurity Panel
Industry Roundtable - Discussion Groups
BENCHMARKING SURVEY
The link to the 2018 survey and login information has been sent to all government primary members.   If you cannot locate this email, please check your junk folder and email Carly Miller to request an email re-send.

The survey deadline is May 1 . Plans that complete the survey will receive complimentary access to the  online benchmarking tool and will be entered into a drawing for a free membership ($600 value).

  • Click here to access a PDF version of the survey.
  • Click here to view the 2018 Benchmarking webinar. (For members only.)
LEADERSHIP AWARDS
The nominations for the 2018 NAGDCA Awards are open! All nominations are due Monday, April 30th .

Click here for more information.
MEDIA AWARDS
Nominations are also open for the NAGDCA Media Award. This award recognizes a member of the media for outstanding coverage of pension and retirement issues in newspapers, magazines, newsletters or research reports.

Click here for more information.
2018 ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Registration and hotel reservations now open!

MEMBERS IN THE NEWS
Cindy Rehmeier, DC Plan Manager, Missouri State Employee Retirement System and NAGDCA Vice President, was featured on the April 22nd episode of The Weekly Pulse .

Click here to listen.
TAMING THE GDPR MONSTER
With less than a month until the effective date of May 25, 2018, NAGDCA, in partnership with our Association Management Company, AMR Management Services, is working to make sense of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Although NAGDCA’s membership does not include anyone with European residency, we believe it is important and prudent to evaluate the data we collect on our members and inform you about how we are protecting it. In addition, as there continues to be a heightened focus on data protection and cybersecurity, we wanted to share information with all our members about GDPR to help you stay informed.

What is the GDPR? The General Data Protection Regulation was passed in April of 2016 and empowers residents and citizens of the European Union the right to control how their data is collected, used, and stored. The GDPR’s expanded definition of personal data is vast and gives data subject authority to not only control their data, but also to understand, update, and delete their data at any time. The GDPR also further defines the roles of both the data’s controller and processor and their responsibilities for providing data subjects with clear, specific, and purposed descriptions of how the data will be used, who will have access, and how it will be stored. With penalties for non-compliance as high as 20 million euros, the rush to compliance is understandable. 

NAGDCA has started taking steps to not only be in compliance with GDPR, but to also be proactive given the potential for similar legislation in the US. As you register for the NAGDCA Annual Conference, you’ll notice a few extra questions and some additional information about how the data we collect from you will be used. We’ll also be looking at the membership renewal process to incorporate similar information. We appreciate each of our members and want you to feel confident we are treating your data responsibly. Please contact NAGDCA HQ, nagdca@amrms.com , if you have any questions.

Source: Ferrell, K. (2018, February 7). Taming the GDPR Monster [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.amrms.com/Blog/ArtMID/448/ArticleID/88/TAMING-THE-GDPR-MONSTER
by Paul Beddoe, NAGDCA Government Affairs Director
NAGDCA’s Executive Board hit Capitol Hill in March, aiming to build on our success in last year’s tax bill. As I reported in the winter issue , NAGDCA, along with a coalition of other defined contribution retirement plan stakeholders, was able to get all the adverse provisions removed from the legislation which Congress finally sent to the President’s desk in late December.

Among the many meetings, the Board was able to sit down with Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and the retirement policy staff of Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), two of NAGDCA’s champions. Both confirmed that they would like to team up to move a bi-partisan package of retirement improvements, which could include some of NAGDCA’s priorities. When this could happen will depend on the crowded congressional election year calendar -- and some other high priority retirement matters which will have to be cleared first.

The first is the Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans was created by the Bi-Partisan Budget Act which passed in February and is made up of an equal number of senators and representatives from both parties. The committee is charged with crafting legislation to rescue a number of troubled private sector multiemployer pensions by the end of November and will be dissolved at the end of the year.

Second, the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act (S. 2526), or “RESA,” introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), is a legislative package of improvements to (mostly) private sector 401(k) plans. RESA was approved unanimously by the committee in 2016 but the clock ran out in the 114th Congress, so the senators have reintroduced it and hope to pass it by unanimous consent in the Senate. The House has not made its intentions clear about moving a counterpart bill. Consensus is that RESA needs to pass before a something like a new Portman-Cardin package could move.

While NAGDCA continues to promote its members’ ideas to improve governmental defined contribution plans, we also are watching out for any legislation that might be a vehicle for harmful policies like Rothification or plan consolidation. With the President and the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee both talking about another round of tax cuts, NAGDCA will watch for any of these adverse provisions reemerging as part of a new tax bill.
Help for Participants Worried About Outliving Their Retirement Savings
submitted by: GuidedChoice
" Now, as America's workforce ages and Baby Boomers retire in droves, our orientation has shifted to figuring out how to extract those assets from our nation's workplace retirement plans so they last retirees throughout their lifetime. It's a process known as decumulation , where retirees 'spend down' their retirement plan assets to fund their lifestyle in their post-career years. "
Click here to read the article.
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