ARCO Alumni

AWS was featured in the June edition of UK HR magazine The Grapevine. President Cathy Clonts shared the benefits enjoyed by companies with an alumni community from which to source specific talent, "there are cases where someone who left is suddenly needed on a new project and a current employee might not fit the requirement as well. HR can’t talk to everyone but through the network they can see who’s become available". Read the article summary.

AWS was also featured in the Friday May 21 2010 Houston Business Journal HR Focus magazine. Cathy Clonts shared the value former employees can play as boomerang employees and referring quality talent to the organization. The article looked at the top HR Challenges for 2010 including re-establishing loyalty in the workforce, changing legislation, re-establishing job duties and recruiting in a high-tech era.

Unsurprisingly, throughout the recession those remaining employed have had to accept changes such as a more concentrated workload, reductions in development programs and cuts in bonuses and base salaries. This is supported by Kevin Mulligan, president of Ascent Growth Advisors, who further states that “employees that were retained during the downturn were probably asked to accept more responsibilities”.

Kevin believes that one of today’s main challenges during the uphill recovery is to re-establish trust in the workplace. Michael Lamb, senior partner with Korn/Ferry International concurs, suggesting that with so many layoffs, many employees are doing more than one job right now. He asks of employers, “If an opportunity comes an employee’s way, what are you doing to make sure they are not tempted to jump ship tomorrow?”

Exploring the ROTH Conversion Opportunity
By Ted Stanley, Advancial Investment Services

Although 2010 brought about many changes, none may be as important to retirees (pre or post) as the opportunity to convert Traditional IRA accounts to Roth IRA accounts. There may be great tax advantages to consider when thinking of converting your Traditional IRA to a ROTH IRA.

As a provision of the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, the income limitations for converting to a ROTH IRA have been eliminated in 2010. The once-imposed limit for those making over $100,000 in annual income is eliminated and anyone wishing to convert in 2010 can consider doing so regardless of income levels.

There are many reasons to consider the conversation of Traditional IRA or retirement accounts to a ROTH IRA account. The most glaring is possible tax-free income in retirement years. Withdrawals taken from a ROTH accounts generally come out free of income tax.

•Split the Tax Liability over two years. Converting Traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs can be a taxable event and can create tax liabilities. However, taxable income created as a result of the conversion in 2010, can be divided in half and taken in 2011 and 2012. The account holder should have other funds (non-qualified) to pay these taxes. The conversion may not be beneficial if the account owner has to pay penalties for early withdrawals (those under 59 ½) and taxes on the funds withdrawn.
•No RMD. Unlike the Traditional IRA account, the ROTH account has no required minimum distribution. So once an account holder becomes 70 ½ he is not “forced” to take withdrawals which could increase the tax liability in the later years.
•Tax Free Income. In its nature of being a ROTH account, distributions from this account are tax-free, if, a: the owner is over age 59 ½ and b: it has been five years since the conversion.
•Tax free income to Beneficiaries. If the account has been open for five years, beneficiaries can receive tax free income when inheriting a ROTH IRA.