Deals & People October 3, 2013

VisionPoint Joins LPL Platforms

VisionPoint Advisory Group joined LPL Financial’s suite of broker/dealer and hybrid registered investment adviser (RIA) platforms to support its commission and private client fee-based business.
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A team of 12 VisionPoint advisers now have access to four LPL advisory services platforms. They include the LPL broker/dealer, advisory, retirement partners and RIA custodial platforms.

VisionPoint, headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa, will also coordinate with LPL’s retirement plan-focused Retirement Partners business to share resources and expertise.

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More information about the agreement can be found here. 

Data & Research October 3, 2013

Interest, Access Linked for Retirement Plans

Nearly three out of four workers likely to be focused on retirement savings have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, according to an updated study released by the Investment Company Institute.
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The study, titled Who Gets Retirement Plans and Why, covers data gathered during 2012, a year in which 74% of workers in categories likely to be focused on saving for retirement had the option to do so through either a defined benefit (DB) or defined contribution (DC) plan provided by their own workplace or through a spouse’s employer.

Survey researchers measured participation among those with access to DC or DB plans at 93%. Results also suggest a strong link between an employee’s savings goals and the likelihood that he or she will work for an employer that sponsors a retirement plan of some type.  

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Other topics covered by the study include qualitative analysis of the reasons why workers save. Among younger and lower-income households, workers are more likely to save to fund education, purchase a home or other significant expenses, or maintain emergency cash on hand. Older and higher-earning households are more likely to save primarily for retirement. 

Among all workers age 21 to 64, the rate of access to employer sponsored plans is 50%. That percentage increases when selecting for older subsets of the population. Access among workers age 30 to 64, for example, is 60%.  

A full copy of the 2012 study is available here.

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