Power-packed SelfDirected IRA conference hosted by RITA

Retirement Issues Update from Washington

On March 25th through the 27th, the Retirement Industry Trust Association (RITA) held its annual Washington, D.C. conference at the Mayflower Hotel. The theme of the conference was Best Practices, and speakers included representatives from the Treasury Department, Department of Labor, IRS, SEC (Enforcement and Risk/Fin), the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), American Bankers Association, AARP, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee from Congress, among others.

As a result, attendees were hearing directly from Government regulatory and legislative groups about the latest directions on retirement issues. Among the highlights were:

-Continued interest in passing an Automatic IRA vehicle for those employees whose companies dont sponsor a pension plan (to encourage more savings)

-Interest in creating a GIAP or Guaranteed Income Annuity Product that would provide a minimum amount of guarantee income for people at age 80, and which could be funded by up to 15% of the individuals pension plan (e.g. 401(k))

-Potential concern over the possibility that Roth IRA tax-free features might be tweaked to help address the Federal deficit

-Potential concern that the contribution limits for IRAs and 401(k)s might be lowered to reduce the deductible amount or that the amount of deduction will be lowered to help with the deficit

-Concern that 30% of Americans over age 30 have no savings and that the majority of all Americans have insufficent savings for retirement

-Regulatory concern over fraud associated with real estate schemes, prommisory notes, viaticals and life settlements, affinity fraud, oil and gas investments, precious metal and gold investments, free lunch promotions, and offers with exaggerated returns and bogus credentials

In addition, RITA members were able to interract with regulators during a panel aimed at addressing fraud in the financial markets, and to learn about the latest techniques and issues related to fraud prevention and detection

Finally, RITA members offered several ideas to the various governmental groups for consideration, including:

-The possibility of creating a non-punitive loan feature for IRAs much like what exists for 401(k)s to help people effected by the current economic downturn

-The possibility of permitting an allocation (not to exceed 25%) of a 401(k)s portfolio, for investment in alternative assets, as a hedge against a falling stock market

-More definitive guidance on the ROBS (Rollover for Business Startups) investment structure as to what approaches are acceptable and which are not (thereby avoiding prohibited transactions)

Finally, RITA reaffirmed its commitment to continue to work proactively and cooperatively with all the regulatory agencies in our collective efforts to prevent, detect, mitigate and prosecute fraud.