It’s been an amazing year—some good news, but a couple of bumps along the way, some breaking news, some interesting new trends, and of course, some significant changes accompanying the change in Administrations. In light of all that, what were the top 10 NAPA-Net news stories of the year?
Those of us who labor on the web of necessity track the clicks and opens every day—both from the newsletter, and—increasingly—the traffic that comes to our new from other sources.
So, which of 2021’s news stories drew the most traffic? Well, yesterday we shared three of the top 10—here’s the next three:
#7: IRS Announces 2022 Contribution, Benefit Limits
A perennial high-traffic post is the announcement of the changes (or lack thereof) in qualified plan benefit and contribution limits. It’s something we wait for with anticipation, all the more so because the past couple of years it has been published until a week or two later than “normal” (and, as you might expect, we/I get a lot of emails from readers wondering/worried that they had “missed” the announcement).
While there have been years where the shifts were modest (or nonexistent), inflation provided a noticeable bump higher for most, though not all, of the limits. Not that this post required much incentive to draw the interests of readers.
#6: DOL Releases Fiduciary Rule Guidance
The sixth-most viewed story of 2021 dealt with a subject of particularly high interest to retirement plan advisors, and this April posting came shortly after the Feb. 16, 2021 effective date of the Trump administration’s fiduciary rule that, to the surprise of many, if not most, the Biden administration allowed (although didn’t announce its intent until Feb. 12) to go into effect.
This particular post dealt with guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration on fiduciary investment advice for retirement investors, employee benefit plans and investment advice providers. The guidance came in the form of two documents. The first, “Choosing the Right Person to Give You Investment Advice: Information for Investors in Retirement Plans and Individual Retirement Accounts,” included questions a retirement investor can ask when interviewing potential advice providers, background information to help them understand the purpose of each question, and investor-focused frequently asked questions about the exemption.
The second, and arguably more relevant to NAPA-Net readers, was a set of compliance-focused frequently asked questions—with guidance for investment advice providers who are relying, or planning to rely, on the exemption.
Regardless, it drew a lot of clicks—unsurprisingly.
#5: 2022 Social Security COLA Estimated at 4.7%
The fifth most clicked post of 2021 deal with a potential revision of the COLA for Social Security—but this was the first (sort of) official inkling that the recent surge in inflation could also feed into a cost of living adjustment for this essential retirement income source. No small thing, considering that in 2020 that adjustment was a mere 1.3%. Still speculation at this point, but it sure got people’s attention.
Tomorrow—the next group.
