A growing number of employers report that their nonqualified deferred compensation plans are offered “to provide a vehicle for retirement savings.”The ninth annual MullinTBG/PLANSPONSOR... Read More
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Plan Optimization
BY John Ortman | 3/24/2015
Americans are currently saving about 50% of the extra money in their pockets resulting from lower energy prices. But don't expect that to last long, advises Fidelity's Claus te Wildt. "... Read More
BY John Iekel | 3/23/2015
Tips on how best to serve clients with target-date funds were the focus of a March 23 session at the 2015 NAPA 401(k) Summit.PIMCO Executive Vice President and National Retirement Sales Manager Sean... Read More
BY Rocco DiBruno | 3/18/2015
In 1985, Back to the Future, starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, was a box office hit. Fox’s character, Marty McFly, went back in time to 1955 when his parents were in high school,... Read More
BY Michael Bushnell | 3/12/2015
Just 2% of all gainfully employed respondents in a recent survey said they would cash out their DC plan’s balance if they switched jobs, but in reality, 45% of all transitioning workers do so.... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 3/9/2015
A recent Reuters article says that assets in collective investment trusts, or CITs, are “surging” as asset managers are using them to “slash” fees, especially in DC plans.... Read More
BY Michael Bushnell | 3/2/2015
When Callan Associates surveyed plan sponsors in early 2014, more than a third of the respondents said they would make changes to their target date funds during the coming year. The firm’s just... Read More
BY Jerry Bramlett | 2/25/2015
In his 2000 book, Irrational Exuberance, Robert Shiller, the Nobel Prize winning economist and Yale University professor, warned of high stock prices just before the collapse of the tech bubble. In a... Read More
BY Nevin E. Adams, JD | 2/24/2015
Over the course of my career, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in any number of “projects,” and to manage more than a few.
Some were explicitly tagged as such at the start, while... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 2/23/2015
While many see target date funds as a blunt instrument, assuming that all people set to retire within a five-year window have the same investment goals, most would also agree they are a better... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 2/17/2015
Plan investment committee members come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes drawn exclusively from staff of the employer sponsoring the plan, sometimes not. More importantly, they are frequently tapped... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 2/12/2015
There has been an enormous amount of discussion in recent months about helping DC participants create a lifetime income stream from their DC savings. At the end of the day, though, all of this... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 2/11/2015
In January, Morningstar analysts upgraded four U.S. mutual fund ratings, downgraded five fund ratings and assigned three new ratings. The upgraded funds are: Boston Partners Long/Short Equity... Read More
BY Nevin E. Adams, JD | 2/10/2015
It has become something of an article of faith in our industry that “leakage,” the distribution of money from retirement accounts prior to retirement, is bad. Bad, of course, in the sense... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 2/6/2015
According to research from Morningstar, expense ratios in open-end mutual funds are showing a downward trend, spurred by the move to index funds as well as lower fees due to break points and savings... Read More
BY Michael Bushnell | 1/29/2015
Exchange-traded funds are growing in popularity, and a new report from Cerulli Associates says that an increasing number of asset managers are finding new ways to incorporate them into their plans... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 1/28/2015
A comprehensive study by PwC projects that ETFs are on track to double to $5 trillion by 2020. A view of what is driving much of this growth helps to shed light on what may lie ahead for the DC... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 1/28/2015
Despite double digit returns for equities last year, the cost of retirement income for 55-year-olds rose dramatically, according to BlackRock’s CoRI indexes. In 2014, the estimated cost of... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 1/28/2015
The ERISA Advisory Council has published its recommendations on facilitating lifetime plan participation. Following up on a series of meetings last year, the Council outlined a series of... Read More
BY Michael Bushnell | 1/27/2015
Stakeholders from every corner of the retirement plan universe agree that increasing participant enrollment is a top priority. Vanguard believes they can solve the participation problem by learning... Read More
BY Nevin E. Adams, JD | 1/27/2015
Will your portfolio soar with the Seahawks, or get punched by the Patriots? That’s what adherents of the so-called Super Bowl Theory would likely predict. The Super Bowl Theory holds that when... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 1/23/2015
Automatic enrollment more than doubles participation rates, at least among new hires, according to a new study. In fact, during the three-and-a-half-year period of the study, the participation rate... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 1/23/2015
While it’s not always true, what happens in the large market usually migrates down market. So, according to a recently released study by Callan Associates of nearly 150 larger plans (most of... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 1/21/2015
As the global markets become increasingly interconnected and the U.S. represents an ever-decreasing share of the world’s capital markets, plan advisors and asset allocators must continue to... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 1/20/2015
Participant transfers closed out the busiest trading quarter of 2014 on a quiet note, according to a new report. In December, there were only two days of “above normal” trading volume... Read More
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