Financial Planning

H&R Block Inc. announced that Brian L. Nygaard, president and chief executive officer of H&R Block Financial Advisors Inc., has decided to leave the company.

The AARP, the high-profile lobbying group for 36 million Americans over 50, plans to launch a two-week advertising campaign to battle President Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security via the rollout of ownership accounts. The group headquartered here, plans to spend some $5 million on the advertising push to fight the creation of the proposed accounts, which would be funded through payroll taxes. According to reports, the full-page ads are scheduled to appear in roughly 50 newspapers across the country. One of the ads displays a picture of stock traders with the tagline, "Winners and losers are stock market terms. Do you really want them to become retirement terms?" Another shows a couple saying, "If we feel like gambling, we'll play the slots."

The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2005-5 providing guidance on the new automatic (or default) rollover rules for qualified retirement plans. These new rules were added to the Internal Revenue Code as part of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, but they will not be effective until March 28, 2005, which is the effective date of related final regulations published by the Department of Labor. The guidance answers questions regarding the application of the new requirement and will make it easier for plan sponsors to comply in a timely manner. The new automatic rollover rule requires that mandatory distributions of more than $1,000 from a qualified retirement plan be paid in a direct rollover to an Individual Retirement Account unless the distributee elects to have the amount rolled over to another retirement plan or to receive the distribution directly. EGTRRA also requires that the plan administrator notify the distributee in writing that the distribution may be paid in a direct rollover to an IRA. The guidance responds to comments received by the Department of Labor, Treasury, and the IRS. For example, the guidance clarifies that the automatic rollover requirement applies to governmental and church plans although a transition rule is provided for these plans to comply. The guidance provides that all plans have until the end of 2005 to establish administrative procedures for processing the automatic rollovers and clarifies that rollover IRAs can be set up without the participant's participation. Finally, the guidance includes a sample amendment that plan sponsors can use to amend their plans to comply with the new rule.

The Internal Revenue Service has released final regs totaling over 230 pages with rules for plans that permit employees to make pre-tax contributions and for plans that have employer matching contributions or employee after-tax contributions. The existing regulations covering these plans were last updated in 1994. Since then, there have been significant statutory changes. The new regs will be fully effective for plan years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2006, although employers are permitted to use the new rules for any plan year that ends after Dec. 28, 2004. These comprehensive final rules are the result of a long effort of input gathering from retirement plan participants, sponsors, and service providers. Specifically, they address many of the concerns raised by comments submitted in response to the proposed regulations. These final regulations will make it easier for employers to sponsor plans to help employees save for their retirement and will assist administrators in keeping the plans qualified. The final regulations update and simplify many of the current rules for 401(k) plans. In addition, the new regulations strengthen the nondiscrimination rules that ensure benefits for rank-and-file employees. They require certain employer contributions to be spread over a large group of rank-and-file employees before they can boost the ability of high-paid employees to defer income under the plan.

Douglas Hill, managing general partner of embattled brokerage house Edward D. Jones & Co., intends to leave the company roughly one week after the firm agreed to pay $75 million to settle charges of improper disclosure of revenue-sharing payments. Hill, 60, will retire as managing general partner Dec. 31, but would remain as managing partner through 2005. In addition, Hill is expected to pay $3 million of the agreed-upon fine, while the firm's general partners are expected to shoulder an aggregate of $44 million. Last week, the brokerage firm reached a settlement with the SEC, the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers as a result of arrangements that Edward Jones entered into with seven fund groups. The firm had not disclosed the fact that it received millions from the fund families each year for selling their respective products.

H&R Block Financial Advisors, the investment arm of the tax prep giant, agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and to return $325,000 in clients' mutual fund trading profits to settle charges brought against it by the National Association of Securities Dealers related to the market-timing of mutual fund shares by two of its former financial advisors.

Section 331 of the American Jobs Creation Act included a provision that could potentially have a big impact on some investors.

COLLEGE TUITION INCREASES SMALLER THAN LAST YEAR: Average tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities for the 2004-2005 year climbed 10.5 percent from last year's levels, to $5,132, while fees at four-year private schools rose 6 percent, to $20,082, the College Board reported.

A recent merger in wealth management has observers wondering if this time around, the cultures of banking and investment advisors will successfully mesh.

A taxpayer generally may exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 for certain married couples filing joint returns) of gain realized on the sale or exchange of a principal residence. To be eligible for the exclusion, the taxpayer must have owned the residence and used it as a principal residence for at least two years during the five-year period ending on the date of the sale or exchange.