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E-CONNECTIONS issues.
To share your ideas or for more information
about the E-CONNECTIONS newsletter, or by via email at via e-mail, dforcina@westchester.org . phone (914) 948-5689.
Anthony
Mullen, a 2002 graduate of Mercy College, was named 2009 National Teacher
of the Year and honored by President Obama at a White House Ceremony on
April 28, 2009. Mr. Mullen currently teaches special education at the ARCH
School, an alternative education branch of
Greenwich
High
School (
Greenwich,
CT). He learned to be an educator at
Mercy
College, where he
earned M.S. degrees in both Elementary Education and Special Education. Read
More...
Westfair
Business Publications,
the publisher of Westchester County Business Journal, Fairfield County
Business Journal and HV Biz, has launched a new Web site,
westfaironline.com.
Read
More...
More than 4,000
prints and 20,000 negatives of groundbreaking African-American
photographer Gordon Parks's work - along with a large collection of 19th
and early 20th century images by Mathew Brady and other early American
photographers - will move to a new home at Purchase College/State
University of New York, where the collection will be preserved,
catalogued, and made available for public view and study, according to
officials of the Gordon Parks Foundation, a division of the
Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation.
Read
More...
POINT
& CLICK LEARNING INC IS PLEASED TO BE CELEBRATING OUR 14TH YEAR AS WESTCHESTER COUNTIES PREMIER
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND CONSULTING SERVICES ORGANIZATION.
We all are
pressed for time. With this in mind Point & Click Learning Inc has
developed 3 hours training sessions for the most used applications and
skills needed in today's environment. Read
More...
Robert Cioffi, co-founder and Director of Technology
of Progressive Computing Inc was recently selected by Microsoft as a member of its
exclusive U.S. Small Business Specialist Community (SBSC) Advisory Board.
One partner from each of the ten Microsoft US geographic regions were
tapped for this unique opportunity. Robert Cioffi is representing the
NY/NJ Metropolitan sales region - the largest in terms of revenue. The
period of this appointment is for Microsoft's Fiscal Year 2010 which
begins July 1, 2009. Read
More...
Phelps
Memorial Hospital Center marks a
significant milestone this month when Keith Safian celebrates his 20th
year as President and CEO. Under Safian's leadership, the 235-bed
comprehensive community hospital has grown to become an important
healthcare provider and major economic force in
Westchester
County. Read
More...
Marks
Paneth & Shron LLP (MP&S), a leading New
York-area accounting firm with nearly 500 people, approximately 70 of whom
are partners and principals, announced today that it has merged with
Westchester based accounting firm Montalto CPA, LLC. The merger expands
MP&S's tax and family office and business management services offered
to small businesses and highnet- worth individuals in
Westchester
County, the northern suburbs and
Connecticut. A
partner, Anthony V. Montalto, CPA, 64, one senior tax manager, Lucille
Murray, 53, and four supporting staff members will join the MP&S
Tarrytown, New York office. Read
More...
Maryknoll's weekly radio
program, Voices of Our World, has been named winner of a 2009 national
Gracie Award in the Outstanding Public Affairs Program category for the
segment on domestic violence, "Till Fear Do Us Part". This award, the
program's sixth in eight years, is the highest recognition in that
category presented by the American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT),
an organization dedicated to advancing the impact of women in the media.
Airing for over two decades, Voices of Our World is dedicated to speaking
up for the rights of the underrepresented. Read
More... <br
Yuval H.
Marcus, an intellectual property litigator with 15 years of experience,
has joined Leason Ellis,
LLP, the largest IP law firm based in
White
Plains, the county seat of
Westchester County,
New
York. Mr. Marcus is Co-Chair of the Intellectual
Property Committee of the Westchester County Bar Association and a
Co-Chair of the IP Committee of the
Westchester/Southern Connecticut Chapter of the
Association of Corporate Counsel. Read
More...
Leake
and Watts is proud to
announce that the Carol and
Frank
Biondi
Education
Center has been selected as a 2009-2010 National
Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET)
School of
Excellence. Each
year, this distinction is bestowed upon a few select and qualified
licensed private special education schools in the State of New York and is
one of the highest levels of recognition that a private special education
school can achieve. Schools are selected each year by demonstrating truly
exceptional dedication, commitment and achievement in the field of special
education Read
More...
The New York
State Thruway Authority installed prominent new signs on I-87 directing
motorists to
Historic
Hudson
Valley's attractions: Kykuit, the
Rockefeller estate, Union Church of Pocantico Hills, Philipsburg Manor,
Van Cortlandt Manor, and Washington Irving's Sunnyside. The signs are
northbound just before Exit 9 and southbound just before Exit 10. Read
More...
The
HARP program, or Home Assistance Refinance Program is in full
effect boyeeeeeee. Please excuse me for going Flavor Flav on you, but I'm
excited about this program designed to help homeowners in
difficulty.
For any of you owners who may be in difficulty - as
long as you are current on your mortgage, you may be eligible for this
program even if your house has dropped in value. This financing goes to
105% LTV or loan to value. Read
More...
NAI
Friedland Realty,
a full service commercial real estate firm headquartered in
Yonkers,
NY,
recently closed a $20 million deal for the sale of the 144,000 sq. ft.
Paradise Foods warehouse at
1080 Leggett Avenue in the Hunts
Point area of the
Bronx. The 4.9 acre
property, purchased from Paradise Foods by Manhattan Beer Distributors, is
among the year's largest sales in the borough. Steve Kornspun, Friedland's
Executive Director, represented Manhattan Beer on the deal, which took
less than 6 months to close. Read
More...
DIGISCRIBE ANNOUNCES FREE
EMAIL MANAGEMENT SERVICES AS PART OF THEIR DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
SOLUTIONS.
Every company has email, and free email management allows
companies to comply with federal regulations and streamline records
management practices without breaking the bank. Now companies can manage
all of their documents easily, quickly and cost-effectively, including the
thousands of emails that are generated every day. Read
More...
Dallek,
New York's premier
office furniture and commercial interior design source proudly joins the
Westchester County Association. To celebrate the association Dallek is
offering a 20% discount on stock merchandise to all Westchester County
Association members through July 30, 2009. Read
More...
Executive Printing & Direct Mail, Gary, Andrew and
Judy Dieckman,
Elmsford,
NY, received a Management Award from CPrint® International during its
semi-annual board meetings in
Jacksonville. Each six months, CPrint® selects the printer who has demonstrated the most significant positive
changes in their company over the past six months from among its
participants. Read
More...
The College of
Westchester is pleased to announce the promotion of JoAnn
Sondey to Director of Career Services and congratulates John Hunter in his
new position as Project Manager, Community Relations. Read
More...
Cabrini of
Westchester honored three individuals who have been
instrumental to the success of the Saint Cabrini Nursing Home's three-
year Major Modernization Project at the annual Sharing in Mission Award
Dinner on Wednesday, April 29 at Abigail Kirsch at Tappan Hill Estates in
Tarrytown. Cabrini of Westchester Support
Services Director, Ron Labriola, of the Bronx; Lloyd J. Landow, Senior
Partner of Landow and Landow Architects LLP of Dix Hills; and Charles
Winter, President of Andron Construction Corporation of Goldens Bridge;
were the recipients of the 2009 awards. Read
More...
To meet the needs of on-the-road executives,
employees, and telecommuters, BNCVoice has launched BNCVoice
Virtual Office to help executives maintain phone contact, allowing clients
to experience a higher level of service with the same call quality as
in-office calls. Read
More...
Berkeley
College in
New
Jersey and
New
York and Berkeley College Online has elected to
participate in the new Yellow Ribbon Program for students receiving
educational assistance under the Post-9/11 GI Bill (also known as Chapter
33). The program allows as many as 1,550 students at Berkeley College to
benefit by having 100% of their tuition and fees covered each academic
year Read
More...
This
is no ordinary golf outing. It's for our new home. Check
it out...
The Hudson River
Museum, Yonkers, has joined the Fairfield/Westchester Museum
Alliance to offer free admission and a 10% gift shop discount to members
of all participating institutions including The Aldrich Contemporary Art
Museum, Bruce Museum, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Katonah
Museum of Art, and Neuberger Museum of Art. www.hrm.org.
Hudson Fusion LLC, an integrated
marketing firm, announced today that the ten Big W Awards received from
the Advertising Club of Westchester last week brings their award count to
49 awards in the past 30 months. For more info go to: www.huds
onfusion.com/news
Girl
Scouts Heart of the
Hudson's
summer garden tour, Rhapsody in Bloom, Saturday, July 11, 10 a.m. - 4
p.m., will feature beautiful northern
Westchester gardens. Tickets are $40. A $65 ticket
includes lunch (reservations required) at the
Hammond
Museum and
Japanese
Stroll
Garden. Questions? 914.747.3080,
ext. 239, or see www.girlscoutshh.o
rg.
Concorde Personnel,
Concorde Search Associates and Concorde Temporary Staffing have
a new address as of June 1, 2009. Our new home is:
4 West Red Oak Lane, Suite
303,
White Plains,
NY
10604. 914.428.0700 phone,
914.948.4458 fax, 914.428.4865 general fax. Our phone, fax and email
addresses remain the same. You can find directions to our new home office
online at www.conc
ordepersonnel.com.
New Veterans Initiative @ Fordham Westchester The FordhamVets
program ensures that the University is as "veterans-friendly" as possible.
Fordham participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program on all campuses, which
covers all tuition and fees for Post 9/11 veterans with full benefit
eligibility: www.fordham.edu
/vets
New
Realitys located in
Peekskill,
NY announced that they just saved
another home from foreclosure! New Realitys buys, renovates, rents and
resells properties in Westchester, Putnam and
Dutchess
Counties. They actively negotiate
with seller's mortgage companies to buy houses in the area in need of
updates at a reduced price. When successful, they help the homeowner's
credit by stopping the foreclosure, keep vacant bank owned properties off
the market, provide work for local contractors and building suppliers,
improve the neighborhood and provide a beautiful home at a discounted
price to a new (typically first- time) home buyer.
Manhattanville
College's
School of
Education and School
of Graduate & Professional Studies are hosting a Graduate Open House
on SaturdayAugust 1, 10:30am-12:30pm. Our Open House gives you the
opportunity to meet with Admissions Representatives, Academic Advisors,
Student Services offices and Deans. To register, please call 914-694-3425
or e-mail gps@mville.edu.
NOTHING
LASTS FOREVER, EXCEPT YOUR RETIREMENT PLAN'S BENEFICIARY DESIGNATION?
David I. Gensler, MSPA, MAAA, EA Madison Pension Services,
Inc.
How
many people really pay attention to the beneficiary designation that they
completed when they enrolled in their company's retirement plan? Few do.
In fact, most people would be hard pressed to even remember who they
actually named as their beneficiary. And why does it really matter anyway?
Most of us have a will, which will instruct the executor of your estate to
carry out your wishes after you are gone. And for those of us who have
been divorced, we are comfortable knowing that as a marital asset, your
retirement plan was part of your overall marital settlement as negotiated
through both attorneys and your former spouse. Right?
Well, as you
will see from the recent Supreme Court case of Kennedy vs. DuPont, your
beneficiary designation happens to matters a lot. And as will become very
clear, your beneficiary designation may have "legs" that cause it to
continue to be legally binding, long after you forgot it even
existed.
What Happened?
Mr. Kennedy worked for DuPont and was a
participant in their Savings and Investment Plan. He married in 1971 and
in 1974; he designated his wife as his beneficiary to receive benefits
from the plan in the event of his death. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy were legally
divorced in 1994. The divorce decree specifically stated that Mrs. Kennedy
was divested of all rights related to any retirement plan for Mr. Kennedy
through his employer. Mr. Kennedy did not revoke or update his beneficiary
designation following his divorce. He died in 2001.
It is important
to note that a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (a QDRO) specifically
having the former Mrs. Kennedy waive any rights to her husband's qualified
plan benefits was never done. All of the parties assumed that the divorce
decree accomplished the intended objective: that when both parties signed
the divorce decree, that the ex-Mrs. Kennedy had waived any and all rights
to her former husband's retirement benefit.
The Plan
Administrator, in accordance with the 1974 beneficiary form, paid the
benefits to Mr. Kennedy's ex- wife. Mr. Kennedy's estate sued the plan,
claiming that Mrs. Kennedy had waived her rights as beneficiary under the
1994 divorce decree.
What Did The Supreme Court Decide?
The
Court first considered whether a former spouse had waived her rights to
survivor benefits under a divorce decree that was not a QDRO. The court
found that while a former spouse could waive benefits without a QDRO, the
divorce decree in and of itself was ineffective as a waiver since it did
not conform with the plan's procedures for a beneficiary to waive
benefits.
Other questions that were raised by this case
were:
1.Whether a divorce decree that does not satisfy the requirements
for a QDRO could serve as a waiver of a beneficiary's rights.
2.Could
a beneficiary's waiver be recognized if it was inconsistent with the plan
document?
The answer to question one is that the Court found that
a waiver could be effective even though it does not satisfy the
requirements for a QDRO. In answering question two however, the Court also
found that since the ex-Mrs. Kennedy never waived or disclaimed her rights
as a beneficiary by following the plan provisions permitting a disclaimer,
that the divorce decree was ineffective to waive the ex-wife's rights.
The Court further found that in administering a retirement plan,
plan administrators need not look beyond the plan document (and
beneficiary designations and waivers) to determine which beneficiaries are
entitled to receive survivor benefits under the plan.
What Action
Should You Take?
Review and update all of your beneficiary
designations, especially if you have had a change in a "life" event (a
divorce, death of a spouse, a second marriage, children from a subsequent
marriage, etc.)
Does your plan include a provision for automatic
revocation of a beneficiary designation when there is a subsequent
divorce?
Does the plan document include a method for beneficiaries to
waive or disclaim rights to survivor benefits?
Prior to paying
benefits, try and ascertain if other parties may claim rights to benefits.
If the participant was divorced, there is a likelihood that more than one
party may surface to stake a claim to the survivor benefits. Make sure
that you follow the plan's claims and appeal procedures carefully.
What Else Have We Learned?
Once again, it is the plan document
and the plan document alone that trumps any and all other documents. If
you have not already done so, you will soon be restating your plan
document to comply with EGTRRA. Do not just assume that the plan
provisions in the old document should carry over to the restated document.
Meet with your retirement plan advisor. Plan provisions such as the plan's
eligibility, its entry date(s), the vesting, the matching formula all
serve to provide the one true roadmap as to how to administer your plan.
If you do not pay attention to these items, decisions may be made that
cannot be easily undone. For more information, please visit: Madison
Pension Services, Inc.
By:
Michele A. Lazzara, CPA, partner at Marks Paneth & Shron
LLP
In
response to the current economic situation and its effect on seniors'
retirement accounts, Congress passed The Worker, Retiree, and Employer
Recovery Act of 2008 (2008 Worker Act). The 2008 Worker Act places a one
year moratorium on required minimum distributions from individual
retirement accounts and defined contribution plans for 2009. Congress
understands that taxpayers would have to sell stocks, bonds, and mutual
funds that dropped significantly in value in order to take their
distributions; thus locking in a loss. The 2008 Worker Act legislation is
intended to give retirees an opportunity to recoup financial losses
suffered in the last year.
For taxpayers affected by the 2008
Worker Act, the following required minimum distribution rules apply:
No minimum distribution is required for calendar year 2009 from
either individual retirement accounts (IRA) or employer-provided qualified
retirement plans that are defined contribution plans.
Even though
an individual may not be required to withdraw because of this provision,
if the individual needs the distribution for the cash flow, he or she will
still have to sell a portion of his or her retirement assets and pay tax
in 2009 not withstanding the tax rule.
Taxpayers who turn 70 1/2
in 2009 are not required to make a distribution for 2009 and, therefore,
no distribution is mandated by the required beginning date of April 1,
2010. However, their minimum distribution for 2010 is required to be made
by December 31, 2010.
It is important to note, for years not
affected by the 2008 Worker Act, individuals are required to start
receiving periodic distributions from their IRA and retirement plans by
April 1 of the year following the year they reach the age of 70 1/2. If a
taxpayer does not take out the required minimum distribution, the IRS
imposes a 50 percent penalty. The amount of the required minimum
distribution is generally based on the fair market value of the account
balance as of December 31st of the previous year.
If you have any
questions regarding how this provision affects you, please feel free to
contact me at 914.909.3421 or via email at via e-mail, mlazzara@markspaneth.com. Marks Paneth & Shron LLP (MP&S) is an accounting firm that
provides businesses with a full range of auditing, accounting, tax,
bankruptcy and restructuring services as well as litigation and corporate
financial advisory services to domestic and international clients. For
more information, visit www.markspanet
h.com.
