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Increased Flexibility for 401(k) Plan Sponsors

By Karl Nelson, Mark Whitburn, and Chad Mead
April 27, 2007

In the first half of this decade, a series of events wreaked havoc on pension plans. Enron and other major corporations collapsed with the result that employees and other investors lost billions of dollars in savings, including in many cases significant pension investments. Sept. 11 accelerated and deepened the fall of the financial markets. Lower securities prices, coupled with low interest rates, resulted in modest investment returns and increased funding obligations for sponsors of traditional defined benefit plans. In turn, major legacy air carriers and other historical industry leaders struggled (sometimes without success) to avoid bankruptcy. In response to these and other upheavals, Congress enacted the Pension Protection Act ('PPA') on Aug. 17, 2006, only three weeks after its introduction in the House of Representatives, in an effort to reform outdated aspects of federal pension laws and to provide greater stability and overall protection to pension plan members.

Pension Protection Act

Understandably, given its roots in the financial troubles that preceded its enactment, the PPA concentrated much of its attention on remedying shortfalls in employer funding of defined benefit pension plans. However, the PPA also acknowledged the growing significance of defined contribution plans (e.g., '401(k)' plans) as the primary ' and in many cases, the sole ' source of retirement savings for a growing number of Americans. Accordingly, the PPA also made significant changes affecting diversification rights, automatic enrollment, and default investment options under such plans. In particular, the PPA established exemptions for fiduciaries, so that they could more freely provide investment advice to plan participants who wield increasing control over their plan investments. This article summarizes those changes.

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