Many people who enjoy their work joke that they’ll never retire or that their spouses won’t let them. Now recent studies suggest that working longer may actually prolong life and improve health. A... Read More
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Plan Optimization
BY Fred Barstein | 6/14/2013
Are we in crisis? The answer is yes — but according to Harvard professor David Laibson, there are some relatively simple solutions if people are willing to act. If people started saving in their 401(... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 6/14/2013
While most small business owners believe that consumers’ concerns about retirement security limits spending and undermines the economy, only 33% offer a retirement plan, according to a recent phone... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 6/13/2013
FINRA issued an informative guide about the risks and rewards of alternative mutual funds, just as some experts are calling for their use in DC plans to mirror DB returns and as individual investors... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 6/12/2013
Plan sponsors and their advisors have the duty to monitor, evaluate and act with prudence regardless of the assets they manage. While substantial resources and information are available to the... Read More
BY John Ortman | 6/12/2013
The U.S. Department of Labor has launched an online toolkit to help employees identify key issues related to retirement planning. The DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration developed the... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 6/10/2013
In the first of a three-part series, blogger Chris Carosa reviews why having too many choices actually hurts participant outcomes. While that’s no secret, Carosa, citing research from Columbia befi... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 6/10/2013
In a white paper prepared by BNY Mellon, retirement head Rob Capone suggests that returns in DC plans lag DB plans because of limited diversity and too high a percentage of assets in equities. The... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 6/7/2013
The SEC has proposed its long awaited rule on money market funds. The rule was instigated as a result of the run on MMFs after the 2008 crisis, when many funds broke the buck. But rather than propose... Read More
BY Lew Minsky | 6/6/2013
A newly released Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA) paper, “Is It Time to Diversify DC Risk with Alternative Investments?” explores the potential for greater inclusion... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 6/4/2013
At last week’s Rand Behavioral Finance Forum, academics, government officials and industry people gathered in Washington to share ideas and research on how behavior finance can help consumers with a... Read More
BY Jim Farley | 6/3/2013
When you really think it through, changing the 401(k) investment approach from participant-directed to offering portfolios selected by the plan sponsor or an investment fiduciary has merit. It allows... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/31/2013
Behavioral science seems to be the most promising way to help address the looming retirement crisis, with auto-plan features having a tremendously positive impact over the last decade. But it seems... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/31/2013
No, it’s not a cash balance plan. EFI, an actuarial firm in DC, has proposed what it call a “Double DB” which replicates the funding scheme in a DC plan but within a traditional DB plan. The Double... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/23/2013
Retail employer plans can be the hardest cases for advisors, with relatively low-paid employees who are not sophisticated about investing or retirement planning. In addition, plan sponsors in the... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/22/2013
While more than one-third of people surveyed by LIMRA are interested in a guaranteed income for life feature within their plan, only 1.8 million participants are using one — representing $2.2 billion... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/21/2013
The $37.8 billion of inflows into long term mutual funds in April were off the pace set in January, which showed record inflows. According to Morningstar, inflows last month were led by taxable bonds... Read More
BY NAPA Net Staff | 5/21/2013
Adoption of the Roth feature in DC plans has grown steadily since its introduction, yet participant adoption remains low. For instance, a recent research report by Vanguard notes that only 9% of... Read More
BY John Ortman | 5/17/2013
When it comes to identifying the main drivers of 401(k) plan leakage, plan loans come in a close second to the cardinal sin, frivolous early distributions (the dreaded Bass Boat Factor). In a recent... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/13/2013
The Wall Street Journal is reporting more interest from big pension funds in riskier or distressed properties being offered by so-called “opportunity” funds. With big funds like CalPERS losing an... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/13/2013
The SEC announced that it is likely to issue new rules requiring some money markets to adopt a floating share price. Thinking they were as safe as cash, investors in money funds liked the $62.5... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/13/2013
While low interest rates may be helping sustain a bull market, they could deplete the assets of Baby Boomers and Gen Xer’s, according to research expected from EBRI. In a simulated model for those... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/9/2013
While recent case law does not suggest that revenue sharing violates ERISA, other court cases like Tibble and Tussey do suggest that fiduciaries have to select the lowest share class available to the... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/6/2013
Though bearish bond managers’ predictions about yield — including from PIMCO’s Bill Gross and BlackRock’s Rick Rieder— have not come to fruition, they still warn about the end of a market bubble that... Read More
BY Fred Barstein | 5/3/2013
According to a study by NYU professor Jeffrey Wugler, the growth of indexing is not just a reflection of the attitude that active managers can’t consistently beat an index, it may actually be... Read More
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