ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Newport Group, a leading provider of retirement and executive benefit plans, announced today that it has completed a year-long initiative designed to help companies and their employees better understand the true costs of their retirement plans.

One year ago, we told our plan sponsors and their advisors that the Department of Labor had issued final regulations for sponsor and participant fee disclosure, said Dennis Sain, Newport Senior Vice President, Retirement Services.

This was an initiative we supported fully and enthusiastically. For many years, Newport has led the industry in fee transparency, and our plan sponsors have consistently recognized this by naming us 'best in class' for both fee disclosure and fee fairness.

Sain noted that Newports year-long information campaign included regular legislative updates to plan sponsors and advisors as the Department of Labor (DOL) changed deadlines, clarified rules, and updated regulations and requirements. These updates included not just newsletters and sample disclosures but workshops and live and recorded webcasts featuring the firms legal experts.

These presentations proved so popular that some of our client and advisor firms requested individual sessions as well, Sain said. Throughout this year in particular, we received a great deal of positive feedback about the effectiveness of our approach. Although much of this was complex information about rules on deferrals, investments, restrictions, costs, and fees, Newport presented it in a way that could be easily assimilated and used by plan sponsors and financial advisors.

The deadline for providers such as Newport to disclose fees to their existing plan sponsor clients was June 29 of this year. Sponsors themselves are required to provide the initial full fee disclosure to their employees by August 30. Sain noted that although this second deadline has arrived, the DOL does not intend retirement fee disclosure to be a one-time event.

In accordance with these new regulations, Newport will be providing plan sponsors and participants with ongoing explanations of individual services and costs, he said. We believe that raising awareness of these issues is a positive development, and one that fits well with Newports long tradition of full disclosure and fee fairness.

About The Newport Group

Founded in 1984, The Newport Group is a leading retirement services firm specializing in the creative design and administration of retirement and executive benefit plans. Through its innovative and customized solutions, Newport is uniquely positioned to satisfy the distinct financial needs of employers and employees, and has done so for hundreds of the countrys largest and best-known companies.

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Newport Completes Year-Long Campaign to Help Raise Awareness of Retirement Plan Fees

The year you get your first full time job is the best time to start saving for your retirement. The power of compound interest will have much more time to work in your favor if you start investing as soon as you start making some money. However, most people in their 20s are way too busy to think about retirement.

Most of us have experienced the starving student lifestyle, and it was not fun. When your first paycheck rolled in, I'm sure you had a list of things to spend it on. Young people these days also have large student loans to contend with, and it's difficult to find any extra money to put toward retirement. I'm sure most new college graduates who just started a new job are not ready to even think of retirement. Most young people are focused on working and enjoying that money when they can.

Here are seven things 20-somethings can do to get ahead:

1. Avoid consumer debt. It's difficult to avoid debt at any age, but it's worth the effort to start out right. While young people often live in the moment and enjoy going out and having a good time, it is very important to spend less than you earn so you can avoid credit card debt. The interest will chip away at your income, and it will be much more difficult to save if you take on more debt.

2. Avoid lifestyle inflation. Most of us are unable to avoid lifestyle inflation after we start making more money. Who wants to drive an old jalopy around when a car dealer is offering a new car with a low interest rate? Spending money is fun and our consumer culture encourages that. However, it's difficult to reduce monthly expenses once they creep up. It's best to avoid lifestyle inflation as much as possible.

3. Grow your income. People in their 20s do not make as much money as older folks, but their compensation has a lot of room to grow. If you work hard, you should be able to get promoted and grow your income quite a bit early on in your career.

4. Sign up for a 401(k) account and start saving. A 401(k) account is a great retirement savings tool. Everyone should sign up even before their first paycheck rolls in if they can. That way your 401(k) contribution is automatically deducted from your paycheck and you won't see that amount in your checking account. This will help with lifestyle inflation because if you don't see the money, you won't be tempted to spend it. Start contributing right away and then increase this amount a little bit every year until you reach the contribution limit.

5. Open a Roth IRA. The best time to contribute to a Roth IRA is when you are in a low income tax bracket. The money invested in a Roth IRA is after tax, but you won't have to pay tax on any earnings.

6. Open a taxable brokerage account. It can be difficult to max out a 401(k) and Roth IRA. If you have any money left over after doing these two things, then consider opening a stock brokerage account. Investing in the stock market can be daunting when you are new to it, but you can start by investing in a low fee index fund. Once you learn more about investing, then you can branch out.

7. Buy income producing assets instead of a new car or other stuff that will break. Think about depreciation before spending money. If you buy a new car, it will be worth much less in a year. If you buy some dividend stocks instead, you will receive dividend income and the stocks might gain in value. Another example of an income producing asset is a house. You can buy a house and rent out some rooms to generate income to help pay the mortgage.

Link:
7 Ways to Prepare for Retirement in Your 20s

AvantiKumar | Aug. 31, 2012

Malaysian telecom Maxis reports steady first half year performance with 3.6 percent year on year revenue growth to US$1.4 billion.

PHOTO - Sandip Das, Maxis Berhad CEO presenting the company Q2 2012 Financial Results; seated: Nasution Mohamed, Maxis Chief Financial Officer.

New data products and services including personal cloud storage and online book stores, as well as a wide range of smart devices, helped Malaysian telco Maxis to record a steady first year with 3.6 percent year on year revenue growth to RM4.4 billion [US$1.4 billion]

Speaking on 30 August 2012, Maxis chief executive officer Sandip Das said the company's steady performance for its first half year results ended 30 June 2012 was helped by strong data and IDD (international direct dialling) growth.

"Since the start of this year, we have launched major market moves across product categories and are encouraged with the response we have received from our customers," said Das.

"As a result, our performance in the first half of the year has been steady despite the tariff wars in the market," he said. "We registered the highest prepaid net additions in five quarters on the strength of the new Hotlink plan launched in March, offered a wide range of globally contemporary data products such as personal cloud storage and online book stores, a wide range of smart devices and made definitive inroads into the migrant market with attractive international calling tariffs."

"Our continued efforts to grow a data-friendly ecosystem has resulted in non-voice revenues climbing up to 45.3 percent of mobile revenues with 62 percent of the revenue coming from Internet and data services," he said.

Original post:
Personal cloud storage, e-books contribute to steady first half year growth: Maxis

LONDON, August 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

A leading personal injury lawyer has blasted the insurance industry for regularly trying to settle claims directly with injured victims for inappropriately low and unfair amounts.

Karl Tonks, an equity partner with Fentons Solicitors LLP, said the practice of defendants and insurers contacting victims and trying to settle claims early for significantly less than their true worth - in many cases before they have even sought legal or medical advice - should be a cause for great concern.

"As a national personal injury firm we handle thousands of claims for people across the country every year," said. "We have noticed a worrying increase in the number of clients who tell us they have been approached by the defendants with what appears to be a very low offer within a few days of their injury. In many of these cases the defendant has subsequently sought specialist legal advice and gone on to receive several times the amount of compensation they were first offered. But it begs the worrying question as to how many other victims are accepting these 'low-ball' offers and being massively under-compensated for their injuries?"

Karl, who is also president of the not-for-profit group APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers), said that at a time when accident victims and their solicitors were consistently being blamed by insurers over the spiralling cost of premiums, insurers need to look closely at their own actions. "It seems massively hypocritical to be constantly pointing the finger at claimants and their lawyers, when they are simultaneously trying to deny those same policyholders the right to a fair level of compensation when an injured person makes an honest, justifiable claim," he said. "People who take out an insurance policy should be able to have faith that when they are unfortunate enough to need to make a claim, the level of compensation will be calculated with their best interests in mind, and not simply the lowest amount that their insurer can get away with."

Following the reforms made to the way personal injury claims will be handled under the controversial Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Bill - which will come into force next year - Karl said he expects more and more cases to be settled earlier.

"The purpose of the reforms was supposedly to speed up the process of making a legal claim whilst reducing the amount it costs to do so," he said. "The reason for the need to do this was laid squarely at the door of accident victims and personal injury lawyers, with allegations of spurious claims and massive success fees making headlines.

"But I would ask the same insurance industry luminaries that are quick to censure lawyers to examine their own practices," he said. "Perhaps they should ask just how many claims they are settling before a victim has discussed their injury with a lawyer and been referred to a medical expert to assess their immediate and, crucially, their future needs."

He said that Fentons Solicitors was seeing a growing number of clients who might have settled their case earlier, but thankfully sought legal advice after they were offered what seemed like suspiciously low amounts of damages.

"In one recent case, a client was contacted by the defendant's insurer and was offered 500 to settle her claim in full," he said. "After engaging the services of a specialist lawyer, she settled her case for more than 37,000.

Read more:
Insurers Must Stop Trying to Settle Claims With Unfair "low-ball" Offers

WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

ExaGrid Systems, Inc., the leader in cost-effective and scalable disk backup solutions with data deduplication, today announced that it has published over 300 customer success stories, which can be found on the companys website making ExaGrid the first and only backup vendor to reach this impressive milestone, and only IT vendor with 300 published testimonials for a single product solution. These published stories combined with customer video testimonials comprise a library of published customer endorsements, which is larger than all competitors combined. This further underscores ExaGrids superior product capabilities, value delivered, customer support model, and commitment to customer satisfaction. Each two-page customer success story includes the persons name, title, and a personal quote.

The University of Northern Iowa is the 300th customer to publicly share its selection of and success with ExaGrids disk backup with data deduplication solution. As a state-supported university of approximately 13,000 students, and ranked among the nation's top 650 undergraduate colleges and universities in the Forbes' 2011 annual ranking of top colleges, the universitys IT department understands the importance of maintaining records and data in a safe, secure and disaster resistant environment.

Prior to switching to ExaGrid, UNI had been backing up its data to a large, onsite magnetic tape library using a chargeback service model to the university system. The IT organization backed up data files, Oracle RMAN backups and Microsoft SQL backups for its clients using Symantec NetBackup, with an average of three months retention and the ability to restore the last 30 daily backups. With a goal of offering advanced services and increasing efficiency, the IT department needed to replicate data off-site for increased data protection. A recent reduction in IT personnel led UNI to realize its previous shuttling of tape to offsite locations was not possible. The IT department also realized that data stored at both locations could be lost in a disaster due to their proximity to one another. The university needed to send data offsite more frequently and move away from tape to improve business continuity.

After getting pricing from another vendor and discounting them due to sticker shock, the IT department chose ExaGrids disk backup solution with deduplication because of the scalability of its GRID-based architecture, fast restores and price.

Supporting Quotes:

About ExaGrids Technology:

The ExaGrid system is a plug-and-play disk backup appliance that works with existing backup applications and enables faster and more reliable backups and restores. Customers report that backup time is reduced by 30 to 90 percent over traditional tape backup. ExaGrids patented zone-level data deduplication technology and most recent backup compression reduces the amount of disk space needed by a range of 10:1 to as high as 50:1 or more, resulting in a cost comparable to traditional tape-based backup.

About ExaGrid Systems, Inc.:

ExaGrid offers the only disk-based backup appliance with data deduplication purpose-built for backup that leverages a unique architecture optimized for performance, scalability and price. The combination of post-process deduplication, most recent backup cache, and GRID scalability enables IT departments to achieve the shortest backup window and the fastest, most reliable restores and disaster recovery without backup window expansion or forklift upgrades as data grows. With offices and distribution worldwide, ExaGrid has more than 4,500 systems installed at more than 1,400 customers, and over 300 published customer success stories.

Original post:
ExaGrid First Company to Publish a Record 300 Disk Backup Customer Success Stories

By Peter Pham - August 30, 2012 | Tickers: AMD, AAPL, ARMH, INTC, MSFT | 0 Comments

Peter is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

Highly successful companies are not accidents. One does not just wish billions of dollars in revenue, high profit margins and streamlined operations into being. Intels (NASDAQ: INTC) management prides itself on being at the right place at the right time; from strategic decisions to rewarding and nurturing their employees, all of these details are prioritized. After reporting record annual revenue at the end of 2011 of $54 billion, Intel was quick to realize that the management should not be complacent but rather made decisions for promotions and rotations quickly.

But Intel is at a bit of a crossroads as their focus as chip designers has always been about producing more IPC (instructions per cycle). Their chips reveal a form of myopia that has them slightly behind the curve as the world of computing shifts away from discrete PC units to devices that are more an extension of us. While that transition takes place, however, Intel will rely on its core strengths of design efficiency and manufacturing to carry them while new products designed around power management are developed.

Mastering Management

The technology industry is so competitive and changes within it so rapid that it requires tremendous precision in making deals leading to mergers and acquisitions. This is one area that Intel has down cold. Developing strong partnerships and purchasing companies that they have worked in the past is Intels process. In essence, doing business with someone is the best form of due diligence. In this context, purchasing 15% voting rights in ASML was of great significance as it would help Intel lower the cost of manufacturing 450mm wafers, thereby streamlining production as the competition moves from 300mm to 450mm wafers.

Managements efficiency has allowed them to fend off the odd challenge by rival AMD (NYSE: AMD) over the years by using size to their advantage and executing at a consistent level, making AMDs margin for error very small. Moreover, the top management and executives encourage the middle management to seek ideas and suggestions from those closest to the market in order to develop products thatll help them acquire first mover advantage with each chip generation.

To develop specific solutions within a market a functional team is set up for the development of any particular product or venture in the pipeline. A functional team at Intel is made up of the technical departments needed for the job at hand. Having functional teams at the product development stage is designed to get the maximum out of the expertise team members have. But this structure retains the flexibility to form cross functional teams for more complex tasks. Product development and product ownership is the same thing at Intel in that the person that generated the idea becomes a part of the product development cycle. Allowing people to see their ideas through to the end is an important part of maintaining employee loyalty.

The Current Conundrum

Even though the management at Intel has worked exceedingly well in making the organization the giant in the chip manufacturing industry, management has not taken any backup measures considering the macroeconomic problems surrounding the economies across the world. There are a number of challenges on the horizon: rising costs resulting in margin erosion, shifting computing tastes which de-emphasize their x86 i-series Core CPUs in favor of ARM Holdings-based (NASDAQ: ARMH)SoCs.

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Managing Intel’s Way

BOUCAN CARRE, Haiti The people who live in this part of Haitis Central Plateau need more of pretty much everything that makes life safe, comfortable and predictable.

Three-quarters of families do not have enough food and two-thirds do not have access to clean water. Thirty percent of households are headed by women, and 40 percent of children are not in school. One in four children is unvaccinated, and half are underweight. About 80percent of houses do not have latrines, and 60percent of farmers do not own the land they cultivate, according to a survey of 5,200 families in the commune, or county, of Boucan Carre.

Is it realistic for people to make headway against so many problems on their own? Several centuries of poverty would suggest the answer is no.

Would a personal assistant help? An experiment here may answer that.

Half of the communes 10,000 households are being assigned a household development agent a neighbor who will work as a health educator, vaccinator, epidemiologist, financial analyst, social worker, scheduler and advocate all at the same time. With the agents help, a family will assess its needs and come up with a plan to make things better.

The idea is to forge a relationship from the get-go, said Maryanne Sharp, an official at the World Bank, which is overseeing the $4million project. We want the family to say, Yes, we own the plan and we will work on these objectives on this timetable.

The other 5,000 households will function as a control group, continuing as they have, scrounging out a living in one of Haitis poorest and most isolated places.

In two years, the families will be resurveyed and their children and houses reexamined. If those with agents are doing better, then the strategy of coaching people out of poverty may be expanded to the whole country.

The experiment, aided by Haitis Health Ministry and run by two charities, Zanmi Lasante and World Vision, acknowledges several realities of life here.

One is that fixing just one of a poor familys many problems say, access to medical care or substandard housing may not make much difference. The second is that house calls are the most efficient way to reach people in rural areas. The third is that finding help in a place where more than 900 nongovernmental organizations operate and provide 70percent of the health care can be daunting and confusing.

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Personal coaches help Haitian families try to get out of poverty

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire -08/30/12)- The BC Chapter of the American Marketing Association (BCAMA) introduces the new Board of Directors for the 2012/2013 season. The BCAMA, founded in 1955, has been lead by a group of volunteer BC-based marketing professionals who balance their volunteer positions with the already challenging demands of career and personal life. They are dedicated to providing exciting programs and new initiatives that our BCAMA members and supporters value.

The 2012/2013 BCAMA Board of Directors:

Steve Kim - President

Steve is the President of Boilingpoint Group, and has over 13 years of expertise in strategic marketing, communications and business development gained from his experience within the media, entertainment, and technology sectors.

Sarah Clayton - President Elect

Sarah is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Regent College, where she works with an in-house marketing team to forge new innovative marketing paths in a competitive higher education industry.

Darrell Hadden - Immediate Past President

Darrell started Graphically Speaking over 20 years ago. As President, he has seen the company evolve from being the largest presentation graphics company in the Pacific Northwest to the second largest web developer in Greater Vancouver.

Kerry J. Plowman - Vice President Elect

With over 10 years of experience in marketing, Kerry founded WestCoast Internet Marketing to help small and medium sized business expand their reach into target audiences using inbound and outbound marketing technique, with a focus on lead generation and results-driven marketing strategies.

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BCAMA Introduces 2012/2013 Board of Directors

http://www.chinaeducationresources.com

VANCOUVER, Aug. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - China Education Resources, Inc. ("CER") (CHN.V) (CHNUF), a leading technology provider of online learning, training courses and social media for teachers, students and education professionals, announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2012. All figures are expressed in U.S. dollars.

China Education Resources generated gross revenues of $1,824,968 in the second quarter of 2012. This is compared to gross revenue of $1,103,954 for the same period in 2011. The loss of the second quarter was $177,321 as compared to a loss of $398,431 for the same period in 2011.

During the six months ended June 30, 2012, the Company generated revenue of $4,362,780 as compared with $3,271,740 for the same period in 2011. The profit attributable to the owners of the Company for the period was $433,518 as compared to $45,560 for the same period in 2011.

Q2 of 2012 financial highlights include:

Online products revenue of $739,416 generated during the second quarter of 2012 as compared to $303,438 during the same period in 2011;

Text book sales revenue of $1,085,552 generated during the second quarter of 2012 as compared to $800,516 during the same period in 2011.

"We are very pleased with our increasing revenues in our Q2 2012 results, particularly for the digital textbook sales which have started to generate revenue." said Chengfeng Zhou, CEO, China Education Resources. "We are utilizing our internet platform and educational social network together with our existing online/offline products which will provide blended comprehensive education resources and services to teachers and students. Our goal is to strengthen our position as the leading provider of digital educations services to China's K-12 sector."

With the successfully launched digital textbook program, CER is being approached by educational publishers to develop and provide digital supplementary materials to students through our school platform.

In collaboration with China's education administrators and experts, China Education Resources has been helping to transform the curriculum of the world's largest educational system. Recognizing the need to address education reform changes, China Education Resources has created educational tools and curriculum for China's entire kindergarten through twelfth grade system. The Company is playing an integral part in transforming China's educational system through helping to convert the existing educational system from a memory-based learning system to a creative thinking and interactive approach. Presently, China Education Resources has over 1 million kindergarten through twelfth grade teachers registered through its Web portal. For more information, please visit http://www.chinaeducationresources.com or call (604) 331-2388.

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China Education Resources Inc. Reports Q2 2012 Financial Results

67 WALL STREET, New York - August 30, 2012 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Education Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.

Topics covered: Enrollment and Retention Trends - Regulatory Risks - Chinese Education Growth Catalysts - For-Profit Institutions - Online Content Distribution

Companies include: China Distance Education Holdings Limited (DL) and many others.

In the following excerpt from the Education Report, the CFO of China Distance Learning discusses the outlook for her company for investors:

TWST: Please introduce our readers to China Distance Education with some history and an overview of the company today.

Ms. Wei: China Distance is a company that was founded in 2000. Today, we are the largest online education company in China

based on the number of paid enrollments on a yearly basis.

We were founded by our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Zhengdong Zhu. The year 2000 was the year of the dot-com. He founded a dot-com company, but at that time he did not believe in the free-content model. He thought that if you were to make money on the Internet, you should offer something that people are willing to pay for. His background was in wireless communication, so he has a strong background in technology, which led him to establish the company chinaacc.com. The name in Chinese means China Online Accounting School.

So he founded the online accounting school in 2000 to offer accounting test-preparation courses and continuing education courses for people who want to pass various accounting exams to obtain certificates or designations for career advancement and for people who want to continue to satisfy continuing education requirements to keep their designations.

Apparently he did something right, because by 2003 the company had grown to over 50,000 annual paid enrollments, and we became cash flow positive that year. From that year on, we've never had a year when we either lost money or were cash flow negative.

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Wall Street Transcript Interview with China Distance Education Holdings Limited (DL) Chief Financial Officer Ping Wei