Target-date funds’ popularity over the last 10 years has soared, among both plan sponsors and participants, so odds are your plan offers these as an investment option. Their wide acceptance after being designated an eligible qualified default investment alternative for…
The day after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration issued a proposal outlining rules it is considering for lifetime income illustrations in pension benefit statements, retirement industry professionals applauded DOL’s effort but expressed concern about how realistic…
A recent appeals court ruling may increase plan sponsors’ confidence about including and holding company stock in their retirement plans — especially those in the financial services industry. In White v. Marshall & Ilsley No. 11-2660, (7th Cir., April 19,…
Regulatory guidance is closer to fruition that may help 401(k) and 403(b) plan sponsors better educate plan participants on lifetime income options, and may allay their concerns about the expense and legal risk of doing so. On May 8, the…
If it seemed to you that investment and funding decisions for your defined benefit plan in 2012 were at odds with each other, you weren’t alone. In its annual report on DB plans, global employee benefits consultant Towers Watson says…
Education is often the best antidote to negative news about 401(k) plans. With this in mind, several retirement industry spokesmen have provided statistics to defend retirement plan management practices after the recent airing of a TV documentary that may have…
Although many 401(k) plans offer participants loans, a statistic that plan sponsors don’t want to see is the number and size of those loans increasing. But some of them are seeing just that, according to Wells Fargo. A recent study…
Most of the money contributed to traditional individual retirement accounts comes from rollovers, but the choices involved in moving 401(k) savings to an IRA or from one employer-sponsored plan to another should be made easier and more efficient. That’s the…
New guidelines from the U.S. Department of Labor help defined benefit plan sponsors see and report exactly what’s changed for their calculation of pension plan liabilities under Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act requirements. Several changes to…
Fiduciaries of 401(k) plans were reminded by a recent court decision that it’s best not to accept financial consultants’ investment advice for a retirement plan’s assets without careful scrutiny. At the same time the case, which raised other issues important…