Should enrollment meetings be limited to 10 minutes or less? A paper authored by Diversified makes a strong case. New employees can be burnt out after days and maybe weeks of new employee orientation, so a 45 minute meeting reviewing plan features like loans, distribution and especially investments... READ MORE

While the fiscal cliff negotiations are putting tax incentives for retirement savings on the front line, 11 members of Congress have voiced their support for the employer-based retirement system by co-sponsoring a “Sense of the Congress” resolution introduced Dec. 6 by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-... READ MORE

In what is shaping up to be a seminal case addressing whether states can change and reduce their unfunded pension liabilities, Rhode Island state officials asked the courts to dismiss challenges by state employee unions to planned reforms in the state’s pension system. With an estimated $1.4... READ MORE

The U.S Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration announced Dec. 11 a proposed rule and related class exemption that will make it easier for Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustees to distribute assets from bankrupt companies' retirement plans. The proposal would allow Chapter 7... READ MORE

Mistakes are an important part of the employee learning process, but they definitely represent risk to a financial services practice. How you train and manage your employees, including how you handle their mistakes, improves the return on your human capital investment in them and reduces the risk... READ MORE

With more money moving to passive strategies, there’s a subculture that falls under the rubric of “Smart Beta.” Smart Beta generally refers to non-market-cap-weighted, systematic strategies that aim to add value by improving returns and/or providing lower volatility compared with the market-cap... READ MORE

How does a company reduce their 401(k) match without decreasing or eliminating it? IBM found a way: by holding it until the end of the year — which means that people other than retirees who leave before the Dec. 15 trigger date don’t get a match that year. While IBM employees are unhappy, the... READ MORE

How times have changed. When the market was booming in the 1990s and parts of the 2000s, investors looked for ways to increase returns. Now, based on an online survey of 3,400 people age 55 or older conducted by AIG and Ken Dychtwald of Agewave, it seem that over 80% of investors seek safety. The... READ MORE

Americans are both curious and competitive, which ING is trying to leverage to help them save more for their retirement. New research data loaded on their INGCompareme.com website allows people to see how they are doing compared with peers across the country on a wide range of saving, spending,... READ MORE