Last holiday season my wife gave me a wonderful gift — a Fitbit. It’s a small device you wear or carry all day to count how many steps you take and how many calories you’re burning. I was skeptical to say the least. However, I decided to try it and linked it to my smart phone to monitor my activity... READ MORE

Average 401(k) balances bounced back in April, but it was new money that did the heavy lifting.Older, higher tenured participants tend to have larger balances, and the movement in average balance tends to be more influenced by market moves than contribution flows. Consequently, while the average... READ MORE

Target-date funds continued to receive the majority of new contributions into individuals’ accounts last month, according to the AonHewitt 401(k) Index.In March that meant that $498 million, or 36% of the total contributions, went into TDFs, followed by large U.S. equity funds, which drew 20% of... READ MORE

There are three standards of care applicable today to interactions between financial advisors and their clients — and the DOL’s conflict-of-interest proposal stands to add a fourth.In addition to the so-called “suitability” standard, the common law fiduciary standard and ERISA’s fiduciary standard... READ MORE

The DOL is attempting to rewrite the ERISA fiduciary rules, not only for the $7 trillion IRA marketplace, but in ways that could dramatically affect how retirement plan participants work with their retirement plan advisors. On Thursday, May 7, join two of the nation’s leading fiduciary experts, for... READ MORE

Forget about those stories of retirees longing to extend their working careers — a new survey finds that nearly half of recently retired workers wish they had retired … sooner.The survey of retirees between ages 62 and 70 found that nearly half (46%) wished they had started their retirement sooner... READ MORE

While most participants say they have heard the terms “contribution rate” (82%) and “vesting” (77%), only half (50%) had heard of target-date funds, even fewer (39%) had heard of target-risk funds — and most of those participants don’t understand the terms.As for dollar cost averaging, the... READ MORE

FINRA's Board of Governors decided to move forward with proposed changes to the industry-funded regulatory group's "Communications with the Public' rules at its April 16 meeting. The Board authorized FINRA to publish a Regulatory Notice in the coming months seeking comments on proposed amendments... READ MORE

Wellness programs are all the rage, but if your plan sponsor clients want to get unhealthy workers to participate, they’re going to have to spend some money.According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), firms offering wellness programs should expect to have... READ MORE