CIEBA Separation Spurs New Approach Toward Benefits Panel.

• Position: Committee on the Investment of Employee Benefit Assets - Brief Article

Following a decision by the Committee on the Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA) to end its affiliation with FEI, FEI's leadership plans to explore ways of creating a more expansive group to monitor benefits issues.

CIEBA's separation, effective June 1, ends a relationship that began in 1985, when the group was formed to provide a voice in Washington exclusively for corporate financial officers who administer and manage, as fiduciaries, the investment of funds for employee pension plans. "CIEBA has historically functioned independently, and the committee's desire to continue to do so unfortunately made this outcome unavoidable," FEI's top officers said in a letter to members.

"This decision by CIEBA has given FEI the opportunity to rethink the appropriate mission for its benefits-related Technical Committees," said outgoing FEI chairman Fred Allardyce in a letter to CIBBA members. "The FEI National Leadership Board believes a group should be created to better involve a wider spectrum of FEI members in pension benefit and asset investment policy issues that are critically important to maintaining a competitive corporate workforce. To take advantage...