An advisor team previously with Merrill Lynch have launched their own independent firm in Amarillo, Texas.

The four advisors who report having served around $320 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets, have launched Veritas Legacy Wealth with support from LPL Financial’s Strategic Wealth Services.

John Klein leads the team as managing director and wealth management advisor and is joined by advisor Blake Bailey, advisor emeritus Lavona Kuhn and director of client relations Summer Rudder.

With 57 years of industry experience, Kuhn played a key role in building the multigenerational practice, partnering with Klein and Bailey 21 years ago.

Among the team’s client base are professionals from the oil and gas industry, farming and other hard-working individuals approaching retirement.

Klein says that the team is like a second family and share the same values and vision for a client-centered practice, which is reflected in their business name — Veritas means “truth” in Latin. 

“We understand that true wealth is not just measured by monetary gains or by your financial portfolio. It’s by the impact that it has on future generations,” he said, adding that they always considered themselves to be entrepreneurs so the freedom that their new firm allows is paramount.

SUPPORTED INDEPENDENCE

By choosing to leverage the support functions of LPL Financial’s supported independence model, the new firm can focus on clients without the burden of business administration.

“There are so many hats to wear as business owners, but with Strategic Wealth Services we don’t need to worry about things like payroll, technology, or marketing. Our entire focus is the client,” concluded Klein.

After laying off most of its workforce last week, right-wing media group Project Veritas is considering cost-cutting measures like going fully remote and bringing in an outside firm to produce its content.

Project Veritas laid off 25 employees last week, citing financial difficulties. The company has struggled to fundraise after the departure of its founder James O’Keefe earlier this year. By the time of his departure, O’Keefe had become controversial within Project Veritas, with some employees accusing him of being “a power-drunk tyrant” who allegedly squandered company funds on lavish personal expenses. After the layoffs—which employees previously characterized as slashing Project Veritas from 43 to 18 staffers—the company is seeking a profitable path forward, according to sources. And it won’t be easy, management has suggested in a exact conversation.

In post-layoff conversations with staff, Project Veritas board president Joseph Barton has indicated that the company plans to work remotely and part ways with its Mamaroneck, New York, headquarters, people familiar with the talks told The Daily Beast.

Barton, who did not return requests for comment, also indicated that Veritas hopes to cut costs by outsourcing its production to a third-party firm.

Ex-Project Veritas Staffer Claims James O’Keefe’s Party Guests Pooped on the Floor

Production costs were also a concern in a post-layoffs meeting on Friday, during which remaining leadership discussed saving money by “pre-producing” some of the company’s content. Near the end of the meeting, leadership held a “moment of silence” for the workers who’d been laid off the previous day.

CEO Hannah Giles, who assumed leadership of Project Veritas after O’Keefe’s departure this year, told The Daily Beast that the company is considering a number of options to keep it solvent.

“I am streamlining and considering many cost-cutting measures to maintain the long-term sustainability of Project Veritas,” Giles told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “Our internal team will continue to produce the nation’s best investigative journalism.”

Giles did not immediately clarify whether Project Veritas would outsource any of its content creation.

“Project Veritas is in a tough situation,” Giles said. “It was made tough by O’Keefe leaving, and made doubly challenging by mismanagement before I was hired. I wish we could have kept everyone on and grown the organization but I’ve been put in the situation where I have to cut and refocus so we can get to growth. I’m not going to fight in the press over complaints from laid off staffers, I’m going to keep doing the work to rebuild this organization from the mess it was left in.”

In a exact conversation with staff, however, Barton claimed Project Veritas was still not operating sustainably. According to people familiar with the conversation, Barton complained that Giles had been unwilling to lay off as many people as he believed necessary to keep the company’s expenses under control.

Financial concerns have loomed large for Project Veritas under multiple sets of leadership. O’Keefe is accused of spending company funds on dubious personal expenses like chartered cars, helicopter flights, and musical theater productions. Project Veritas is currently suing O’Keefe over this alleged spending, as well as allegations that he used Project Veritas’s donor list to solicit funds for a rival media group after his departure this year. But O’Keefe also served as Project Veritas’s public face during his tenure with the company, and employees told The Daily Beast that the group struggled to fundraise in his absence.

“We all had high hopes for Hannah, so it’s just unfortunate the way things turned out,” former Project Veritas senior investigative reporter James Lalino told The Daily Beast.

Laid-off Project Veritas employees previously alleged to The Daily Beast that the company’s pre-layoff operations were frustratingly opaque, with staffers struggling to obtain information from management about the company’s future.

One of those now-former employees, senior investigative reporter Christian Hartsock, served as the company’s board ombudsman, a role intended to give staffers greater insight into the board’s discussions.

But Hartsock told The Daily Beast that he was blocked from some of those proceedings after Barton, the board president, started classifying meetings as “special board meetings,” from which Hartsock was barred.

Layoffs Gut Project Veritas: ‘What the F*ck Happened Here?’

“I later found out (second-hand) that those ‘matters discussed’ that night were removing indemnification from journalists (current and former) against criminal and civil litigation as a result of work assigned to them in the field,” Hartsock told The Daily Beast of the first “special board meeting” from which he was excluded.

The Daily Beast reviewed text messages between Hartsock and Barton from Aug. 16. (Project Veritas laid off employees earlier that week on Aug. 14 and again on Aug. 17.) In the texts, Hartsock informed Barton that he hadn’t been invited to a board meeting.

“No shit,” Barton wrote back.

“Can you forward me the invite?” Hartsock asked.

“No,” wrote Barton, who went on to characterize the meeting as “special” and inform Hartsock that “You re not invited.”

Other exact communications from exact employees show them voicing layoff concerns in a company-wide group chat, where Giles was a member. (“Once the sloppily executed layoffs happened, the chat became a firing squad aimed directly at Hannah,” a laid-off employee told The Daily Beast.)

“Lmao. who is making the stories now. Hannah cant figure out Twitter let alone final cut,” one ex-staffer wrote to the group, in reference to the production software Final Cut.

Elsewhere in the chat, Lalino tagged Giles and accused her of telling him the previous day that he would not be laid off.

“Thanks for lying to me yesterday and telling me I wasn’t getting laid off,” he wrote. “Awesome working with you. Thanks for giving it to me straight when I asked, you taught me a valuable lesson about dealing with snakes.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Two think tanks are urging a federal court to block the Biden administration’s scaled-back plan to cancel $39 billion in student loans, arguing that the plan exceeds the administration's authority.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in Michigan by the New Civil Liberties Alliance on behalf of free market think tank Mackinac Center for Public Policy and libertarian think tank the Cato Institute.

The groups accused the administration of overstepping its power in announcing student loan debt relief for 800,000 borrowers worth $39 billion – a plan the Department of Education rolled out shortly after the Supreme Court struck down a broader student loan handout plan pushed by President Biden.

Friday's lawsuit requested for a judge to rule the latest debt forgiveness plan as illegal and to block the Department of Education from carrying it out until the case is decided.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FORGIVES $39 BILLION IN STUDENT LOAN DEBT TO MORE THAN 800,000 BORROWERS

The Department of Education claimed in a statement that the suit is "a desperate attempt from right wing special interests to keep hundreds of thousands of borrowers in debt," adding that the department will not "back down or give an inch when it comes to defending working families."

The challenge comes after several legal complaints Republicans have made to halt the Biden administration’s proposals to reduce or eliminate student debt for millions of borrowers. The president has said he will pursue another way to cancel student debt after the Supreme Court shot his plan down in June. 

The administration is separately pushing a more generous repayment plan that opponents have described as a "backdoor attempt" to cancel loans.

SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST BIDEN STUDENT LOAN DEBT HANDOUT

The administration announced a plan on July 14 to forgive loans for 804,000 borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans, which have long offered cancellation after 20 or 25 years of payments, but "past administrative failures" led to inaccurate payment counts setting borrowers back on their progress toward forgiveness, according to the department.

"For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness … By fixing past administrative failures, we are ensuring everyone gets the forgiveness they deserve, just as we have done for public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, and borrowers with permanent disabilities, including veterans. This Administration will not stop fighting to level the playing field in higher education," Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement announcing the administration's new plan.

The new plan was announced as a "one-time adjustment" that would count certain periods of past nonpayment as if borrowers had been making payments during that time. The action moved 804,000 borrowers across the mark of 20 or 25 years needed for cancellation and pushed millions of others closer to that threshold.

According to the department, the plan is intended to address a practice known as forbearance steering, where student loan servicers hired by the government pushed borrowers to go into forbearance, a temporary pause on payments due to hardship, even if they would have been better off enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan.

STUDENT LOAN BORROWERS TOOK ON NEW DEBT DURING PAYMENT PAUSE: REPORT

Past periods in forbearance under the one-time fix were also counted as progress toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program offering cancellation after 10 years of payments while working in a government or nonprofit job.

The lawsuit accused Biden's plan of undercutting the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which the Mackinac Center and Cato Institute say they use to employ borrowers who are working toward student loan cancellation. The groups argued Biden's action illegally accelerates progress toward relief, which diminishes the benefit for nonprofit employers.

"This unlawful reduction in the PSLF service requirement injures public service employers that rely on PSLF to recruit and retain college-educated employees," the lawsuit stated.

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The Cato Institute previously sued the Biden administration over the student debt cancellation plan that the Supreme Court struck down, and the Mackinac Center is separately challenging Biden's pause on student loan payments, which is scheduled to end this fall as payments resume in October.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2023

Plan Raise Provides all TSA Non-Executive Employees Compensation Equal to Federal Government's General Pay Scale

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has officially implemented its new Transportation Security Compensation Plan, previously referred to as pay equity for all TSA employees. This plan honors the commitment by Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro N. Mayorkas to invest in TSA's workforce through a modernized pay structure comparable with their colleagues on the federal government's General Schedule (GS) pay scale, regular step increases and a clear progression for pay mobility and growth. Since the inception of TSA, the workforce that secures the nation's transportations systems has been paid at a lower rate than the rest of the federal government.

Today, DHS Secretary Mayorkas and TSA Administrator David Pekoske joined Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security Bennie Thompson (D-MS), American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) President Everett Kelley, AFGE TSA Council 100 President Hydrick Thomas and TSA employees at Ronald Reagan National Airport for a press event announcing TSA's new compensation plan, which went into effect earlier this month.

"Ensuring that every TSA employee is paid fairly, at the same levels as our federal counterparts, has been my top priority," said TSA Administrator Pekoske. "TSA's new compensation plan ensures this, and I want to be clear that we are not going back to the old pay system. Our ability to recruit and retain a vigilant, professional and engaged workforce has been significantly improved by the promise of equal pay, which is now a reality. I am grateful for President Biden, Secretary Mayorkas, Congress and AFGE President Kelley for supporting this effort so that we can continue to meet our mission."

"Fighting for fair pay of the TSA workforce has been one of my highest priorities and I am proud that we have accomplished this critical goal," said Secretary Mayorkas. "Pay equity is an important milestone but it is not a capstone, and I look forward to continuing to support the entire DHS workforce alongside our partners in Congress and across the Administration."

Since the announcement of the new compensation plan back in December, TSA has witnessed a marked decrease in employee attrition levels, a subsequent rise in retention rates and increased applicant interest across various TSA job categories.

• TSA's new compensation plan covers all TSA non-executive employees from Transportation Security Officers (TSOs), vetting and intelligence analysts, inspectors, cybersecurity experts, Federal Air Marshals and canine handlers to management and administrative professionals.
• TSA's attrition rate has dropped 61% since October 2022. Attrition rates in FY19 and FY22 were 18% and 19.1%, respectively.
• 96% of the new compensation plan funding went to individuals who serve on the TSA frontlines, which includes TSOs, canine handlers, Transportation Security Inspectors and Federal Air Marshals.

In December 2022, Congress approved and President Biden signed the fiscal year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Act, which included funding that ensures TSA employees are paid at the same levels as their federal counterparts. On July 2, 2023, TSA officially transitioned to TSA's Transportation Security Compensation Plan. No employee salary was reduced as a result of the compensation plan. This action further enables the critical national security work that TSA employees do each day to protect the nation's transportation systems. TSA looks forward to working with Congress to ensure that funds are available to support this compensation plan on a continuing basis.

View original content to obtain multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/transportation-security-administration-implements-new-compensation-plan-301887816.html

SOURCE Transportation Security Administration

When a small business owner decides that they wish to establish a 401(k) qualified retirement plan for themselves and their employees, one of the first questions that arises is: "Who will take care of the plan's recordkeeping and administration requirements?"

As the president of a retirement planning firm, I've noticed that many small business retirement plans will appoint the employer as the plan administrator. However, in other cases -- and for good reason -- the employer will appoint a third-party entity, better known as a third-party administrator (TPA), to perform the duties associated with the plan administrator. By appointing a TPA, the employer can outsource the esoteric day-to-day plan administration functions to a qualified third-party. However, the employer does not discharge liability by delegating plan responsibilities to a plan administrator. In addition, a plan administrator may become a plan fiduciary depending on the discretionary control granted.

To comply with the 401(k) plan rules, I believe each 401(k) plan should have a plan administrator. The plan administrator is the person or entity responsible for the day-to-day plan operations and administration. A plan administrator’s day-to-day duties generally involve:

• Deciding when an employee becomes eligible to participate in the plan

• Calculating employee and/or employer plan contribution amounts

• Preparing and filing plan tax forms (i.e., IRS Form 5500)

• Interpreting and explaining plan provisions

• Providing eligible plan employees with notices, information and relevant plan details

• Calculating the plan benefits to be allotted to each individual

To design the appropriate type of retirement plan for your small business and your employees, you should take many factors into consideration. Below are my three key tips for choosing the right TPA for your plan:

Communication is key.

When you're deciding what type of TPA individual or company you wish to work with, it's important to make sure that the TPA has the necessary know-how and planning experience to understand your goals for the plan, which involves factors such as:

• The financial size of your business

• The number of employees

• The age of the owners and key employees

• Who your business wants to benefit with the plan

In my experience, a good communication network between the employer and plan administrator is vital in order to make sure that that the right retirement plan is adopted and has been customized to satisfy your business, investment and retirement goals. As the business owner, you should also develop an ongoing communication channel with the TPA so they can take into account and address any potential changes that could impact the plan and its participants.

Experience and product offerings are fundamental.

Not all TPA companies have the same experience or offer the same plan products. I believe it usually makes sense to work with a TPA company that has experience with the most popular types of qualified retirement plans. A good TPA will help you and your business pick the most suitable plan for you and the business. In addition, I recommend working with a TPA company that can take care of all the important and complex plan administration responsibilities that are generally required by the IRS and Department of Labor (DOL) in order to keep the retirement plan in full compliance, such as:

• Plan customization and design

• Plan installation

• Drafting of plan documents

• Plan enrollment

• Day-to-day plan administration

• Employee communications

• Plan compliance testing

• Governmental reporting

• Plan distributions

• Actuarial services, if applicable

In my opinion, working with a TPA that can handle all the IRS and DOL plan administration requirements, as well as take responsibility for all required plan amendments, is a major benefit for most small businesses. For example, if your small business has steady profits and sufficient funds to use for plan contributions each year, and the business owners are older than most of the employees, a good TPA company would have the experience and know-how to help you consider a defined benefit plan that would allow the older employees to benefit significantly since the contribution formula weighs greatly on the years left until retirement.

Specialization can be beneficial.

Working with a TPA company that is solely focused on plan-administration services can be beneficial for many business owners. There are very complex rules involved in the establishment, operation and administration of employer retirement plans; additionally, there tend to be almost constant plan amendments and employee notification requirements. Therefore, working with a TPA company that focuses solely on plan administration matters often makes the most sense.

Using a TPA service from a company that focuses on other primary business services, such as payroll or financial advisory, may come with disadvantages. However, for the self-employed person or small business with no employees that has a solo 401(k) plan, also known as an independent 401(k) or self-employed 401(k), a specialized TPA company is not essential because of the lack of employer administration requirements. For larger businesses, since the employer remains liable for all plan administration responsibilities, choosing a TPA company that focuses solely on TPA and plan-related services is often the smart choice.

I believe that establishing a 401(k) plan for one’s business can end up being an extremely financially rewarding decision for the business owner and his or her employees. Furthermore, I've found that establishing a 401(k) plan for a business is often helpful in retaining key employees and could offer important business tax deductions, in addition to providing important retirement benefits to all plan participants.

However, to make sure that the retirement plan the business adopts will be customized to satisfy the business owner’s business, investment and retirement goals, I believe it is often best to work with a TPA company whose business is solely focused on providing retirement plan services. For the self-employed person or small business with no full-time employees seeking to establish a solo 401(k) plan, finding the right TPA firm is not as crucial due to the lack of plan administration requirements. Whereas, if you are thinking of establishing a 401(k) plan and have decided to hire a TPA company, I believe you should make sure that the TPA company you select has the relevant experience, know-how, product offerings and expertise to take care of all the retirement plan establishment, operation and administration service requirements.   

The Biden administration launched a major revision to its income-drive repayment (IDR) enrollment website this week to make it easier for student loan borrowers to enroll in IDR plans. The updated enrollment form is being beta tested as the government gets ready to bring student loan borrowers back into the repayment process. The revamped enrollment form is designed to use data the government already has about borrowers to speed up the enrollment process. Signing up for IDR using the new form is meant to take around ten minutes. It is one way the administration is encouraging borrowers to enroll in the new Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan.

The return to repayment comes after more than three years of paused student loan bills. Interest on federal student loans will resume on September 1, with payments due in October. The Biden administration wants to do as much as possible to smooth the return to repayment, particularly after the supreme court decision striking down the administration's debt forgiveness plan that would have eliminated up to $20,000 in student loans for millions of borrowers.

What Is Income-Driven Repayment, And What Does The SAVE Plan Do?

Income-driven repayment plans are designed to adjust borrowers' monthly payments based on income and family size, helping protect those with low earnings from unaffordable student loan bills. The new SAVE plan replaces the Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) option and is more generous than prior IDR options for many borrowers, particularly for those with only undergraduate debt.

Some borrowers could see their payments cut in half under SAVE. Crucially, borrowers with a payment that is less than the interest accruing on their loans will not see the unpaid interest added to their loan balance. This is the first IDR plan that prevents negative amortization, which can lead to ballooning loan balances. Advocates have long sought the elimination of negative amortization.

The regulations creating the new plan don't entirely go into effect until July 1, 2024, but the Biden administration plans to implement parts of the SAVE plan early to help lower borrowers' payments. One element that will be implemented early is raising the income threshold to qualify for a $0 payment to 225% of the federal poverty guidelines. This change means a single person enrolled in the SAVE plan must earn over $32,805 a year ($67,500 for a family of four) before their payment is more than $0. The Department of Education estimates that over 1 million additional borrowers will qualify for a $0 payment under the plan.

How Does SAVE Move Help Borrowers With Debt Forgiveness?

Borrowers enrolled in SAVE with relatively small loans will see the path to debt forgiveness sped up. Borrowers whose original loans were $12,000 or less will receive forgiveness after 120 payments (equal to 10 years). Borrowers with more than $12,000 on their initial loan balances will need to make payments for an additional year for each $1,000 they borrowed above $12,000. The maximum timeframe to receive debt forgiveness will be 20 or 25 years of payments.

For many borrowers, it will make sense for them to enroll in the SAVE plan ASAP. The Biden administration has said it will provide a 12-month-long return to repayment onramp during which no one who misses payments will be considered delinquent, put into default, or have missed payments reported to credit bureaus. However, interest will accrue on loans if the borrower is not making payments. Borrowers who put off starting payments during the onramp will have a higher total loan balance once the onramp period ends.

The new website is meant to launch fully sometime this month. Anyone who applies during the beta testing period will not have to re-submit their application.

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