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Portal Conductor, Columnist: Nevin E. Adams, JD
Nevin is the former Chief Content Officer and Head of Retirement Research for the American Retirement Association. One of the retirement industry’s most prolific writers, these days he’s “retired,” which means he writes less, but continues to keep his eye on developments in, and threats to, the nation’s private retirement system.
In addition to helping guide the agenda development for the NAPA 401(k) Summit, he’s also the “Nevin” in the Nevin & Fred podcast (along with renowned ERISA attorney Fred Reish), offering irreverent, but relevant perspectives on the critical issues confronting plan sponsors, advisors, and retirement industry professionals.
Article Index
By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/18/2014
Much is said and written about the demise of DB plans, but a recent House subcommittee hearing was focused on ways to help sustain the programs still in place. The hearing — held Sept. 17 by the Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee of the House Committee on Ways & Means — was largely devoted to...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/17/2014
Apparently the ghost of Mitt Romney’s IRA continues to haunt Capitol Hill — and, if the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has his way, retirement savings will be on the tax reform agenda. During the 2012 presidential election campaign, the subject of Romney’s $100 million IRA was a hot...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/15/2014
In response to concerns that tomorrow’s retirees will run short of money, we are often told to save more, to work longer, or — as often as not these days — to work longer and save more. Certainly working and saving longer can do wonders in terms of stretching your retirement nest egg. It...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/15/2014
With employer stock holding no longer “presumed” to be prudent, a federal appeals court has vacated the dismissal of a stock drop suit against Lehman Brothers, re-opening the case. Last week, Reuters reported that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York vacated the October 2011...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/12/2014
Pension plan sponsors got some much-anticipated guidance from the IRS on Sept. 11. The good news: The IRS has provided a number of options as part of the guidance on pension funding stabilization under the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014 (HATFA). The bad news: Most plans will...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/11/2014
When it rains, it pours — in a single week we now have an announcement of a second congressional hearing on retirement plan issues. Both hearings are slated for next week. This time the focus is defined benefit plans. Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Select Revenue...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/8/2014
A class action lawsuit brought by plan participants, a retiree and a plan fiduciary claims that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway broke a promise it made as part of an acquisition agreement not to cut benefits. The lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, says...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/5/2014
Have you heard this one? “Only about half of working Americans are covered by a workplace retirement plan.” Sure you have. It’s a statistic that is widely cited and reported, both in the mainstream press and on Capitol Hill. It comes from a reliable, objective source (the U.S. Census Bureau’...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/5/2014
The cost of living when you retire is greatly influenced by the cost of where you’re living when you retire. While many wind up retiring where they lived previously, it’s a factor that advisors — and those they advise — should consider in retirement planning. While many factors enter into...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/5/2014
A new report from the Federal Reserve finds that while retirement plan participation remained relatively flat over the past three years, the median and average value of those retirement plan accounts rose “substantially,” according to the report. The 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF)...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/4/2014
Odds are, over the years you’ve been asked to do some “weird” things by your boss — and maybe you’ve found yourself in the position of making some odd requests of your staff. But in the “so you think you’ve been asked to do weird things” vein, OfficeTeam recently asked administrative...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/3/2014
Earlier this summer the Treasury Department issued new regulations encouraging longevity insurance within DC plans and IRAs — but will that make a difference? A recent blog post by Steve Utkus, principal and director of the Vanguard Center for Retirement Research, explains that longevity...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 9/2/2014
August looks to have been a good month for 401(k) participants. For individuals in the EBRI/ICI database during the month, the average account balance rose 4.4% for participants ages 25-34 with one to four years of tenure (and consistent participation since 2012), while the average account...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 8/29/2014
Pensions were not on my mind in 1974, certainly not on Labor Day of that year. While I was pondering my new college textbooks, President Gerald Ford, less than a month in that role, signed into law the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 — better known to most of us as ERISA....
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 8/28/2014
A new report offers a global perspective and some key findings on the challenges and opportunities of various retirement markets. The study, published by consultant Ernst & Young, was based on more than 80 interviews with pension and retirement professionals in 18 countries across the...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 8/28/2014
The Department of Labor has offered some "friendly" advice to the U.S. Supreme Court as it considers a review of a high-profile 401(k) fee case. In a "friend of the Court" amicus brief filing, the DOL said it thinks that the high court should weigh in on the statute of limitations issue...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 8/28/2014
A federal bankruptcy judge has blocked the claims of several hundred 401(k) participants seeking to recover money invested by their retirement plans with Bernie Madoff’s investment firm. The decision, by Judge Stuart Bernstein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, rejected the claims of some...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 8/28/2014
What happens to executive retirement benefits when employers close or freeze their defined benefit pension plans? What if that plan is a hybrid or cash balance plan? And what does that mean for advisors? Consultant Towers Watson recently conducted an analysis of how Fortune 200 companies in...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 8/25/2014
It is routinely reported that 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every day, and yet surveys continue to indicate that Americans plan to postpone retirement. This raises the question: are more older Americans working? A recent Wall Street Journal article notes (subscription required) that...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 8/25/2014
It doesn’t take a lot of deep thought to determine the primary drivers of fees that are still largely based on asset size, but a new report takes a look at the “all-in” fees for 401(k) plans, and what drives — and doesn’t drive — those trends. The study, released by Deloitte and the...
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