Deals & People October 3, 2013

MassMutual Branch Gets New GM

MassMutual Northern California hired Douglas W. Van Order as the Sacramento, California-based financial services agency’s next general manager. 
Reported by

Van Order’s responsibilities include recruiting and developing financial professionals within the Northern California market. He will also coordinate with Robert Fakhimi, MassMutual Northern California general agent, to manage end-to-end agency operations.  

Together, Fakhimi and Van Order plan to recruit 24 financial professionals for MassMutual’s Sacramento office to assist with clients’ growing investment management, insurance and retirement planning needs.

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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.
Reported by

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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