Like a plucky girl from Kansas, retirement plan professionals must face challenges of varying severity on the yellow brick road to retirement security. An expert panel at a May 1 session of the Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA) Annual Conference in Scottsdale, AZ discussed ways retirement... READ MORE

Communicating with participants is bread and butter stuff – a reminder that in the end, benefits administration is about real people. Benefits administrators from two employers in a May 1 session of the Plan Sponsor Council of America’s annual conference in Scottsdale, AZ shared their experiences... READ MORE

The Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program, the state-run retirement savings vehicle for private sector employees in Illinois who do not have access to an employer-sponsored plan, is now being tested by employers that volunteered to participate in a pilot program, Illinois State Treasurer Michael W... READ MORE

With the IRS having rebuffed its recommendation to reconsider the disparate impact on small plans of the new pricing structure for the Voluntary Compliance Program (VCP), the American Retirement Association is recommending changes designed to expand the program and offset that result.In an April 4... READ MORE

What is the best way to increase a household’s affordable, sustainable standard of living in retirement? A recently released paper discusses the relative strengths of saving more and working longer to bring that about.The debate over the merits of working Longer vs. those of saving more is not new... READ MORE

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) on March 1 outlined some of the effects the recently enacted tax reform law had on retirement plans and their participants. Hatch made his remarks at an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) event assessing the impact of the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.Hatch hailed the U.S.... READ MORE

The New Jersey Treasury Department is reviewing responses to its request for information (RFI) from private-sector firms to provide investment products for the Garden State's Small Business Retirement Marketplace. It issued the RFI on Jan. 9 and accepted responses through Jan. 26.The state Treasury... READ MORE

Implementation of the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule has been delayed, and the rule may not have the teeth it originally did. But it would be a mistake to assume that means a complete demise for a new fiduciary standard for advisors. That depends in part on what the Securities and Exchange... READ MORE

The official launch of Washington State’s Small Business Retirement Marketplace “is drawing near,” Washington State Department of Commerce Marketplace Director Carolyn McKinnon has announced. The state Department of Commerce operates the program.The Department of Commerce has reported in a press... READ MORE