In another sign of the importance of DC plans, the Fed reported in its triennial Survey of Consumer Finances that DC plan balances accounted for 61.4 percent of families’ total financial assets in 2010, up from 58.1 percent in 2007, as median net worth declined 38.8% and income declined by 7.7%.... READ MORE

By Thomas D. CloughAccording to a recent study by Alliance Bernstein, only 63% of all plan sponsors consider themselves to be plan fiduciaries. The cases summarized below highlight the DOL’s commitment to a rigorous enforcement of the law and underscore the need for competent guidance on ERISA... READ MORE

The Profit Sharing Council of America (PSCA) has released its 55th Annual Survey of Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plans. The results of the 2012 survey — which reports on the 2011 plan-year experience of 840 plans representing 10.3 million participants and $753 billion in assets — demonstrate continued... READ MORE

It might have seemed like a good idea to offer 401(k) participants a smorgasbord when it comes to designing the right plan to help them retire successfully. But behavioral finance shows us that participants are plagued by inertia and irrationality. Bank of America Merrill Lynch provides a... READ MORE

If you think it’s complicated trying to determine an individual’s retirement funding needs, imagine trying to do so for all American workers.When EBRI modeled the retirement savings gap of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers earlier this year, we found that between 43 and 44 percent of the households were... READ MORE

Providers, and particularly DCIO’s, spend a lot of money on value-add services to help them distinguish themselves and their services above and beyond record keeping administration and money management — much of which has been commoditized. The array of products, services and tools is virtually... READ MORE

Guardian Life has hired industry veteran Stephen Davis to run sales at their retirement plan division, replacing Dale Magner, who departed earlier this year. Most recently Davis was at The Hartford, where he represented their mid market services to advisors. Previously he held a similar position at... READ MORE

Batten down the hatches — a perfect storm lies dead ahead. Election-year politics, a struggling economy, a gargantuan federal budget deficit and the push for tax reform will combine soon, and will create a challenge for the retirement planning industry that we haven’t seen since 1986. That’s the... READ MORE

You may want to put one or both of these upcoming disclosure-related webcasts on your calendar:What Plan Committees Must Do with 408(b)(2) DisclosuresNow that service providers to ERISA-governed retirement plans have provided written disclosures about their services, fiduciary status and... READ MORE

An Investment Company Institute study released last month, “Who Gets Retirement Plans and Why, 2011”, found that nearly three-quarters of those likely to save for retirement have access to a retirement plan through their employer or their spouse’s employer. Of that group, 93 percent participate.... READ MORE

At the annual National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDC) conference in San Diego, Phyllis Borzi, head of DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, opined that public plans should follow private plan disclosure rules even though she has no jurisdiction over... READ MORE