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OPEB, COLI and Post-Retiree Needs

By Lawrence L. Bell
July 28, 2009

Part One of a Two-Part Article

The recently passed COLI Best Practices ' 101(j), Deferred Compensation ' 409A and the Medicare Act of 2003 require advisers to review all qualified and nonqualified benefit programs. These legislative changes and the courts' review of COLI [See Bell, Lawrence L. "Deferred Compensation Nonqualified Employee Benefits ' The COLI Wars," Journal of Compensation and Benefits, July/Aug. 2002; Lawrence L. Bell, "Deferred Compensation Nonqualified Employee Benefits (Part I)," Journal of Retirement Planning, May-June 2003.] provide attorneys with a different approach to help solve their benefits planning problems. While pensions have been codified, limited, and scrutinized since 1974 with ERISA, non-pension post-retiree benefits (OPEB-GASB 45, FAS 106, and IAS 19) have been less regulated ' until now. Judicial action, legislation, and administrative agency action have caused a paradigm shift in benefits planning.

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