Deals & People October 7, 2010

UNIFI Hires Two Executives

UNIFI Companies announced today the appointments of Tim Stonehocker and Jim Schulz.
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A news release said Stonehocker was elected executive vice president – individual and Ameritas Investment Corp. for UNIFI Companies, effective July 30. Stonehocker is responsible for the individual business, the broker-dealer, and the field distribution for individual and retirement plans.

Most recently, Stonehocker was president and CEO of the Life and Protection Group of AEGON in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was associated with AEGON for 24 years and served in numerous leadership and officer positions. A graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration.

Schulz was elected senior vice president – retirement plans for Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. and The Union Central Life Insurance Company, effective June 1. Schulz is responsible for managing sales, product development, administration and service for the retirement plans business.

According to the announcement, Schulz brings 30-plus years of field experience to his new position. Prior to joining Ameritas, he was president of Midlands Financial Benefits, Lincoln, Nebraska. Schulz attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he studied business administration with an emphasis in actuarial science.

Compliance October 7, 2010

DC to DB Transfer Elimination Upheld

A federal appellate court has agreed with a lower court judge that an employer was allowed to drop an option allowing participants to move defined contribution plan assets to a defined benefit program.
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The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says that shipper DHL Holdings did not violate the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) anti-cutback mandate with its late-2004 change in plan options, and upheld the lower court ruling on grounds that the change was permitted under Treasury Department regulations, even if it diminished an accrued benefit.

The 1st Circuit decision came in a case filed by plaintiff Jeffrey R. Tasker who, according to the court, sued DHL after discovering the rule change when he tried to exercise the asset transfer option in 2008. The DC to DB transfer option had been in place when Tasker retired in March 2004 when he was 57, according to the court.

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Circuit Judge Bruce M. Selya said the appellate panel was not ignoring Tasker’s plight, considering the annuity on which he sought to collect was worth about half what he anticipated because of the rule change governing the inter-plan transfer.

“This is a hard case — hard in the sense that it requires us to deny relief to a plaintiff for whom we have considerable sympathy. After all, the plaintiff worked for many years, planned for his retirement, and now finds that the annuity he can collect is roughly half the size that he had anticipated,” Selya wrote in the appellate ruling. “On general notions of fairness, the plaintiff deserves better. But this case — like most hard cases — cannot be decided on generalized notions of fairness. ERISA is a creature of statute, fleshed out by regulations. Subject to constitutional concerns not present here, courts must follow the path demarcated by Congress and the Executive Branch.”

Selya concluded: “Where, as here, the statute and the implementing regulations are clear, an inquiring court must follow their lead. No judge is free to disregard the law simply because he or she thinks that it would be fairer to do so in a given case.”

The case is Tasker v. DHL Retirement Savings Plan, 1st Cir., No. 09-2661.

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