The retirement landscape in the US is shifting dramatically as a significant portion of the population approaches the traditional retirement age of 65, a goal many say is increasingly out of reach, according to a new survey by Nationwide. The findings of the survey, which drew responses from around 500 advisors and roughly 2,400 investors, reflect a trend of financial insecurity and the fact that many workers must now work beyond the traditional retirement age of 65.
Elena Barone Chism, Deputy General Counsel, Retirement Policy, at ICI, writes, "Regrettably, the Department of Labor is rushing to finalize a fiduciary advice rule that threatens to roll back that progress. If implemented, the rule would lead to fewer choices in the marketplace and less access to financial advice and guidance -- losses that would fall heaviest on middle-class investors."
The design of a state-facilitated auto-IRA retirement savings program's investment menu, its cost structure, and fee transparency are important enablers of a participant's ability to build high-quality, well-diversified portfolios that will generate risk-adjusted returns over time. This article provides a comparative review of investment design and cost structures.
The DOL recently filed an amicus brief in the pending Home Depot 401k litigation. The DOL summed up a fiduciary's duties vis-a-vis cost-consciousness. At first glance, the issue of reasonable expenses would seem to be fairly straightforward. However, cost issues are arguably potentially more complicated, especially in connection with more complicated investments such as annuities, which often lack the transparency of other investments. As a result, plan sponsors may mistakenly believe they understand an investment and its costs, while closer examination often reveals issues they had not initially considered.
The final rule has been approved by the OMB and may be publicly available as early as May 1. The changes significantly impact both financial professionals and the financial institutions they represent. However, the impact will be greatest on the distribution of annuities, and regulatory attention is particularly focused on fixed-indexed annuities.
ERISA reporting requirements, as well as other retirement plan reporting requirements, can be daunting for plan sponsors and administrators new to the process. This article is an introduction to those requirements and responsibilities.
ERISA's definition of fiduciary encompasses three categories of responsibility or activities concerning an employee benefit plan. In addition to anyone who is specifically named as a fiduciary by the terms of a plan, a person is a fiduciary of a plan to the extent they exercise certain discretionary authority or responsibility. Here is an overview.
If you administer a 403b plan you should be familiar with the term "universal availability." This concept means that, as a general rule, all employees must be allowed to make elective deferrals into the plan immediately upon hire. There are a few limited exceptions to this rule that permit the plan sponsor to exclude certain groups of people, but compliance with these exclusions is often akin to traversing a minefield.
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Collected Wisdom™
Our researchers look for what they think are some of the better resources available to assist you in administering your plan or helping your clients. We group these resources in our COLLECTED WISDOM™ topics to make it easy for you to locate the information you need. Each item in a category contains a summary and date of when it was placed in the group.
We also maintain some older material in these collections for perspective and context.
