401kWire.com: Transamerica, a TPA, a Lawyer and a Plan Sponsor Tell Congress About Small Business Retirement Plans
By Neil Anderson
October 2, 2013

Much of the federal government is shut down this week, yet some members of Congress are delving into the problem of retirement plan coverage for employees of small businesses.

This afternoon at 1pm the House Committee on Small Business, led by Chairman Sam Graves (R-Missouri), began a hearing titled "The Challenge of Retirement Savings for Small Employers." The scheduled witness list includes: Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies; Roy Messick, head of Overland Park, Kansas-based recordkeeping TPA TPP Retirement Plan Specialists; Paula Calimafde, chair of the Small Business Council of America and chair of the employee benefits and retirement plans practice groups at the law firm Paley Rothman; and Ray Rucksdashel, chief financial officer of Houston-based plan sponsor Quest-Tec Solutions. On Monday, the committee's staff sent a seven-page memo to the committee's members to prepare them for today's hearing [pdf of the memo].

Four and a half years ago, the committee's then-Chair, Nydia Velazquez (D-New York, now Ranking Member), held a similar hearing, "Drop in Retirement Savings: the Challenges Small Businesses Face Funding and Maintaining Retirement Plans in a Struggling Economy." Collinson testified at that hearing, too. And this summer Senator Tom Harkin's HELP Committee conducted its own hearing on "Closing the Retirement Plan Coverage Gap for Small Businesses".

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