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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 7/11/2014
A frequent criticism of the 401(k) design — and one frequently invoked by retirement plan advisors — is that it was “never designed” to provide a full retirement benefit, unlike, as it’s often stated or implied, the defined benefit plan. In fact, these days much of the talk about improving and...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 7/8/2014
My first car wasn’t anything special, other than it was my first car. It was an older model Ford, ran reasonably well, with one small problem — it went through oil almost as quickly as it did gasoline. At first I attributed that to being a function of the car’s age, but as the leakage grew, I...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 6/24/2014
My wife is fond of recounting one of our early dates — the one when we ran out of gas. We were in the heart of a Chicago suburb at the time, not the middle of nowhere, and while the hour was late, I continue to maintain that it was a simple case of my misreading the gas gauge in a relatively new...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 6/9/2014
Much is made these days of the application of behavioral finance and the implications for plan design — that is, the role of choice architecture in helping workers make “better” (if not more informed) benefit decisions. Many, perhaps most, retirement plan advisors have not only embraced these...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 6/2/2014
IRAs have been around a long time – as long as ERISA, in fact.[1. Originally designed as a means to provide workers who did not have employment-based pensions an opportunity to save for retirement on a tax-deferred basis, IRAs have undergone a number of changes over time. The Economic Recovery Tax...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/27/2014
Our first home was in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. As much as we liked the house, we were not the first owners, and there were certain things we wanted to “fix.” The first of these was the family room, where we figured to spend a lot of our time — and which the previous residents had seen fit...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/19/2014
A couple of years ago, my wife and I sat down with an advisor to revisit our financial plan. Having gathered all the requisite information regarding assets, debt, insurance and retirement savings, he turned to me and asked how long I planned to work. Being in a profession that I not only enjoy, but...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 5/5/2014
"Houston, we have a problem." That’s perhaps the most famous line of dialogue[1. Iconic as it might be, the movie’s most famous line, “Houston, we have a problem,” wasn’t an accurate quote. According to NASA audio files, astronaut Jack Swigert first said, "OK Houston, we've had a problem here."...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/22/2014
My eating habits have always tended toward what my mother politely calls “finicky.” Oh, she tried repeatedly over the years to broaden my horizons, but without much success. My wife has similarly tried to expand and improve my dietary choices over the years, but even with the admonition of needing...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 4/7/2014
Over the past several years, a growing amount of attention has been focused on the decumulation of defined contribution plan balances. Much of that focus has, of course, been driven by concerns that individuals won’t have enough resources accumulated to fund a comfortable retirement. More recently...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 3/28/2014
“How do they expect to retire on that?” In the week or so since the 2014 Retirement Confidence Survey hit the streets, I think I’ve heard that question more than any other, both from advisors and reporters alike. “That” in this case is the widely cited finding of the survey that 36% of respondents...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 3/18/2014
We’ve never invested in a vacation home, but for a number of years now, my family has made relatively regular trips to Gettysburg, PA. Though we’ve visited many places over the years, Gettysburg remains special, both because there are places that we know, and have visited many times, and because...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 2/25/2014
I’ve never been very keen on going to the dentist. As important as I believe dental hygiene to be, I’ve come to associate my visits with the dentist with bad things: some level of discomfort, perhaps even pain and a flossing lecture from the hygienist, at the very least. Most of which is readily...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 2/11/2014
I’m not sure exactly when I was introduced to the concepts behind Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion. While behavioral finance has laid claim to the concept of (and means of combatting) inertia in benefit plan design, Newton’s first law of motion (sometimes called “the law of inertia”) — first...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 2/3/2014
On more than a few occasions in my youth, I would misplace some object of importance. Generally it was just something I set aside for just a moment in pursuit of some more interesting endeavor — and sometimes it was something I set down and forgot about until much later. In those situations, I’d...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 1/17/2014
We tried to introduce our kids to money and financial concepts relatively early. We encouraged them to save some of their monetary gifts, let them put the money in the offering plates at church, and provided them with a modest allowance for chores commensurate with their age and abilities. For all...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 1/13/2014
While each situation is different, in my experience leaving a job brings with it nearly as much paperwork as joining a new employer does. Granted, you’re not asked to wade through a kit of enrollment materials, and the number of options is generally fewer, but you do have to make certain benefits-...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 1/6/2014
This is the time of year when in many parts of the country, the weather — and weather forecasters — dominate the nightly news coverage, certainly when the predictions are dire. Having lived in several different parts of the country, I can assure you that the bigger the projected snowfall, the more...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 12/23/2013
People are often grouped into two camps: optimists, who generally see the glass as half full; and those who are more pessimistic, who are said to view the glass as half empty.One of the most commonly cited data points about retirement — and one that you hear people in Washington, DC repeat all the...
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By Nevin E. Adams, JD 12/16/2013
Ask any benefits manager why their organization offers benefits to their workers — or why they offer a 401(k) — and my experience suggests that the reliably consistent answer is “to attract and retain the best workers.” Indeed, as the 2013 Health and Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey (WBS)[1....
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