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While traditional and Roth IRAs play a key role in household balance sheets, representing 36% of household financial assets among those owning them, new research also reveals that rollover activity, which helps many Americans preserve their retirement savings, has fueled recent individual... READ MORE
Is your approach to retirement planning truly client-centered? That's the (big) question presented during an interactive session on Feb. 26 at the 2024 NTSA Summit in San Diego, where it challenged audience members to rethink and refine their strategies actively. Speakers Kevin McAtamney, National... READ MORE
To address retiree concerns about running out of money in retirement, MetLife announced that it is working with Fidelity Investments to offer a fixed immediate income annuity through Fidelity’s new retirement income solution. The availability of the MetLife Guaranteed Income Program through... READ MORE
Sometimes the most mundane details can be overlooked—which, for a plan, entails risk. In fulfilling the myriad responsibilities attendant to offering and running a plan, a retirement plan committee can be a great help.  Navigating increasingly complicated benefits administration—and against a... READ MORE
It wasn’t high costs or 401(k)s—necessarily—that ended the corporate pension plan’s reign, but rather ERISA itself. A recent paper from John Langbein, Yale Law School’s Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Legal History, argued that the 1974 landmark law's structure made defined benefit (DB)... READ MORE
A bill currently before the Georgia legislature would affect the exercise of fiduciary duty regarding the investment of retirement plan assets. The legislation includes a provision that would require a fiduciary to put the interests of participants and their beneficiaries ahead of “nonpecuniary... READ MORE
While employers strive to address employees’ evolving needs, the results of a new survey find a disconnect between compensation and benefit offerings and employee preferences. Franklin Templeton’s Voice of the American Workplace Survey, now in its fourth year, finds that employee expectations are... READ MORE
Well, here we are again at the end of yet another workweek … and another month … yet, just look at what happened to these guys and gals… In Ave Maria, Florida, an unnamed couple encountered a whole new (and uniquely Floridian) golf hazard … and yes, we have video…  Why do we do leap day?   While... READ MORE
Coachella shocked concertgoers at the appearance of a surprise performer—iconic rapper Tupac Shakur—on the final day of the hipster music festival in 2012. Shakur, killed in a hail of gunfire while stopped at a red light in Las Vegas over 15 years earlier, danced, sang, and responded as a... READ MORE
Final changes to the Department of Labor’s popular Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP) are apparently on the horizon, according to recent comments made by a senior agency official. Speaking Feb. 27 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Retirement Summit, Principal Deputy... READ MORE
The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced a new Investment Management Division Director to replace William Birdthistle, who will be departing the agency March 8. Upon Birdthistle’s departure, Natasha Vij Greiner, currently the Deputy Director of the Division of Examinations, will be... READ MORE
The ink was barely dry on the denial of a motion to dismiss the suit, when American Airlines filed a motion of summary judgement, claiming that “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the [movant] is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Where We’ve Been Participant-plaintiff (... READ MORE
A hearing that was billed as “taking a serious look at the retirement crisis in America” with a focus on improving the defined benefit system ended with witnesses agreeing that some reforms are needed, but calling for drastically different measures. The Feb. 28 hearing was held by the Senate... READ MORE
If 85% of the market asks for something, you’d better provide it.  I know. Common sense, right? And yet, plan sponsors have, year in and year out, ignored what survey after survey of participants say they want. And advisors—most of them, anyway—have been co-conspirators in this avoidance. I’m... READ MORE
Familiar 401(k) critic Teresa Ghilarducci testified before Congress on Wednesday, claiming America’s retirement system is “severely broken” and seniors must either “work or rely on the kindness of strangers to dodge the increasing risk of elder poverty." Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School... READ MORE
A big plan has struck a big cash settlement in an excessive fee suit involving the use of proprietary investment products in its 401(k) plan. The suit was brought by a number of plaintiff-participants relating to the management of the New York Life Insurance Company Employee Progress-Sharing... READ MORE
ERISA consultants at the Retirement Learning Center Resource Desk regularly receive calls from financial advisors on a broad array of technical topics related to IRAs, qualified retirement plans and other types of retirement savings and income plans, including nonqualified plans, stock options, and... READ MORE
Even with other ongoing financial struggles, retirement savers ended the year on a positive note with improved market conditions and consistent contributions helping boost average account balances to their highest level in nearly two years. Indeed, according to the latest data from Fidelity... READ MORE
Just as Congress gets ready to debate whether there is a “retirement crisis,” new survey results from an organization supportive of restoring defined benefit plans finds that Americans are increasingly worried about retirement. According to the survey results from the National Institute on... READ MORE
Litigation that involved a multiple employer plan (MEP), merging plans, a 3(38) investment advisor, a plan sponsor—and at one point an advisor (NFP)—has been resolved in favor of the fiduciary defendants, while reminding us of the value and importance of a prudent process in target-date fund... READ MORE
Last week we explored the reasons why small businesses DON’T offer a retirement plan to their workers. But there are quite different—and positive—reasons for choosing to do so. The obstacles that keep most small businesses from offering a retirement plan to their workers are an assortment of... READ MORE
To further support growth and education, Voya Financial has announced the expansion of its Employee Success and Education team with the addition of a new Managed Account Specialist team.   Voya notes that year-over-year growth in its managed account solutions is up 28%. And with education being a... READ MORE
A new study finds that an increasing number of women are feeling financially prepared for retirement thanks to their growing involvement in financial planning. According to the study from Bryn Mawr Trust, gone are the days when women asked others to handle their financial planning, as only 1%... READ MORE
The plan document is not a suggestion; it’s a roadmap to compliance and competent and effective administration. But it’s not always given the regard it deserves—which can imperil a plan and those whom it ultimately was written to serve.  Oops Robert M. Kaplan, Director of Technical Education at... READ MORE
What's in the episode? ‘Retirement provocateur’ Kathleen Kennedy Townsend played an instrumental role in the debate over retirement issues, resulting in significant policy ideas. A founder of the Georgetown University Center for Retirement Initiatives, the 40-year political veteran and former... READ MORE

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