FEI's Washington Update.

FEI's Committee on Benefits Finance Comments to the IRS on Cash Balance Plans

On Jan. 19, 2000, FEI's Committee on Benefits Finance (CBF), the technical committee that formulates FEI policy on matters pertaining to the design, implementation, financing and administration of employee compensation, pension and healthcare plans, responded to the Internal Revenue Service's request for comments on cash balance pension plans.

CBF's letter discusses the dynamics of the business environment, the importance of the defined benefit plan, why plan design flexibility is important to the employer, how cash balance plans work and why they, like other flexibly designed pension vehicles, are important to America's retirement security. But of the issues discussed, the one identified as most important to employers is plan design flexibility. Tom Dawson, FEI's manager of government...