UHY LLP News Alert - Are you being overcharged fees in your retirement account?

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CORE Webinar Series

5/30 Petroleum Webinar

6/2 Annual D.M.G.C.

6/12 Reshoring/Backshoring Breakfast Forum

7/28 Annual Charity Car Show

10/16 UHY Int'l BRIC Series

11/1 Manufacturing Outlook

12/5 Accounting & Regulatory Update

12/5 Tax Forum

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Are you being overcharged fees in your retirement account?

On February 3, 2012, the Department of Labor ("DOL") issued final regulations under ERISA Section 408(b)(2) regarding fee disclosures. This new rule becomes effective for existing and new contracts or arrangements between ERISA covered defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans and covered service providers which include plan administrators and third party consultants/recordkeepers as of July 1, 2012. Plan service providers are required to provide written fee disclosure of the direct and indirect compensation they receive in connection with services they provide to plan administrators by July 1, 2012 in order to comply with their disclosure obligations to plan participants. Any service provider not in compliance will be in violation of ERISA's prohibited transaction rules and subject to penalties under the Internal Revenue Code. The prohibited transaction would be required to be reported in the plans audited financial statements, if required, and disclosed on Form 5500.

How does this new rule impact ERISA covered plans? The Plan Sponsor (the company) is required to analyze the fees being charged by the entities that provide plan recordkeeping and investment management services to determine if they are "fair and reasonable". This analysis may require benchmarking the fees with those paid by similar plans for similar services. If fees are determined to be unreasonable, the Plan Sponsor must take all necessary steps to negotiate a lower fee, seek rebates of excessive fees, or even terminate the contract with the service provider in order to comply with the new rules. In addition, plans that permit participant-direction of plan investments (mostly 401k plans) must provide plan participants the details of fees and expenses charged to their accounts by August 30, 2012.

What can you do? First, contact your plan service provider and investment advisor to ensure they will provide the necessary fee disclosure information prior to July 1, 2012. Secondly, consult with your investment advisor to determine if the fees charged are "fair and reasonable" and what benchmarking data they can provide to document this analysis in order to protect you as trustee and plan sponsor.

For more information or questions on this topic, please contact your professional at UHY LLP in Farmington Hills (248) 355-1040 or Sterling Heights (586) 254-1040 or visit us on the Web at uhy-us.com.

Events Calendar

UHY CORE Business Management Webinar Series

Start your week out right with an executive-level, 55-minute webinar. The CORE Business Management complimentary webinar series is packaged to provide busy executives with the understanding, business direction and recommended strategies to help address, achieve and maintain business profitability and viability. Each session will run from 8:05 AM-9:00 AM EST. The series targets strategy, tools and methodologies to achieve and sustain a viable business based on strengthening a company's processes leading to increase profitability, market share and operational control.

6/11 Social Media as a Marketing Tool

CPE credit is offered.The CORE webinar series will be presented by Alan Lund, Consulting Principal. Alan has over 30 years of experience providing business process analysis and profit improvement services. Please contact Alan Lund via email alund@uhy-us.com or phone 248-204-9447 to register.

5/30 UHY LLP Petroleum & C-Store Briefing Webinar Series: Mergers & Acquisitions

Please join us for this quick hitting lunch hour geared towards petroleum and c-store business owners, chief executives and chief financial officers. Tune in as our experts address current trends in M&A activity affecting the industry and you. Webinar will conclude with an open discussion.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

12:00 PM-1:00 PM EST

CPE credit will be offered. Pre-registration for this complimentary webinar is required. Multiple registrations are welcome. Please contact Courtney Gray via email cgray@uhy-us.com or phone 586-843-2533 to register. Log-in information will be sent via email to each registered attendee a few days prior to event.

6/12 Reshoring/Backshoring Breakfast Forum

The National Tooling & Machining Association proudly presents "Reshoring/Backshoring" with Alan Lund, Counseling Principal of UHY Advisors, MI.

When: Tuesday, June 12, 2012, 8:00 AM-10:00 AM EST

Where: Troy Community Center, 3179 Livernois, Troy, MI 48083

Cost: $10.00 per person (includes breakfast)

Registration: Contact Anne Cairns via phone (586) 872-6363 or email detroitntma@aol.com

As many companies are aware, a large number of manufacturing jobs have been sent offshore during the past two decades. We are now witnessing an increasing number of these manufacturing projects being brought back to the United States. Companies such as Caterpillar, Master Lock, General Electric, Whirlpool, Buck Knives, Otis Elevator and NCR, to name a few, have brought major sections of their overseas production back to the U.S. market in the past three years. Call it "reshoring" or "backshoring" or just "rebalancing", but the dynamics of global labor, transportation and productivity costs are combining to begin a shift to bring jobs back to the U.S.

Key points to be discussed at this NTMA meeting include:

* What is Reshoring/Backshoring?

* Will manufacturing return to the US . . . .When and why?

* Eroding Cost Advantages of Asian countries

* Can U.S. productivity compete with Low Cost Countries?

* What is a strategy for a Global Company?

Alan K. Lund is a Consulting Principal of UHY Advisors MI, Inc. He has over 20 years of direct manufacturing/operations work experience during his career with nationally recognized companies such as Lennox Industries and Fisher Controls. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University. Alan manages a team of professionals devoted to providing business process and profit improvement services and has provided consulting and business advisory services to over 200 companies in the areas of business profitability, industry diversification, business analysis and business process improvement. Alan has experience working with a wide variety of industries including, metal/plastic fabrication, transportation, construction, tool and die, rapid prototyping, chemical processing, software developers, retail and service organizations. Clients have ranged from as small as a 4 employee entrepreneurial start-up to a 16,000 employee, multi-site organization.

Save the date! More UHY events coming up...

6/2 17^th Annual Dan McCarty Golf Classic

7/28 6^th Annual Cruisin' for Charity Car Show

10/16 UHY BRIC Series-International Roundtables

11/1 UHY LLP Annual Manufacturing Outlook 2013

12/5 UHY LLP Annual Accounting & Regulatory Update

12/5 UHY Advisors Annual Tax Forum

Contact Courtney Gray via email cgray@uhy-us.com or phone 586-843-2533 to save your spot or for more information.

Published by UHY LLP News.

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