Client Service

The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies makes suggestions in a new report for how employers can take steps to enhance retirement security for workers.

While college savings and student loan debt aren’t typically an area of focus for retirement plan advisers, new survey data suggests a few simple reminders can be a big help to clients; this is especially true when it comes to filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

The adviser is in a good position to remind widowed individuals to continue to think about and plan for the long-term financial future—difficult as that may be after the loss of a spouse.

The consulting firm says that few plan sponsors pay close attention to how their employees allocate their retirement savings.

The Segal Group suggests nine steps plans can take, starting with creating an information security policy.

According to Josh Cohen, a big part of PGIM’s strategy as a DCIO provider is to foster conversations across plan sponsors’ own organizations, “presenting them with a framework for frank and practical discussions between the HR and finance functions.”

Mercer offers recommendations for retirement plan sponsors to search for missing participants.

Contributing more than the minimum required for 2017 by the September 15 deadline will result in a higher deduction for plan sponsors, and continuing to accelerate funding in the future can minimize PBGC costs, improve funded status and mitigate higher required contributions in coming years.

The company will offer a lump-sum distribution window to certain participants and transfer certain retiree assets to a group annuity.

Morningstar suggests individuals and their advisers should focus on strategies that can maximize retirement savings, regardless of planned retirement age.

Asked what they look for in an adviser, Millennials say experience, followed by someone with similar demographic qualities as themselves.

Plan participants in the 50 and up age group are thinking about the transition to retirement because it is on the horizon, while the younger age groups are more preoccupied with budgeting and managing debt.

A new “Cost of Long-Term Care” analysis published by Moll Law Group underscores the fundamental difficulty of planning for the health care unknowns faced by all retirement savers.

A Fidelity survey has found a link between employee debt and productivity and health issues.

Nearly two-thirds of advisers say their clients expect advice on health care costs in retirement, and 34% say their clients would likely leave them if they didn't help them estimate and plan for out of pocket health care costs in retirement.

Adding education about managing debt to advisers’ offerings will increase their competitiveness as well as the effectiveness of clients’ DC plans, LIMRA SRI says.

“We need to think about benefits in the way employees view them,” Benz Communications’s Engagement Strategist Megan Yost said during a webcast.

The health care plan and the health savings account are not the same thing; while the employer has some administrative responsibilities, the HSA belongs wholly to the employee and is portable.

It would also be good for them to include emerging markets equities, target-date funds, alternatives, international bonds and specialty bonds.

A new report published by Cerulli Associates draws out participant perspectives on the topic of DC plan decumulation, revealing that many of those leaving the work force feel “generally clueless” about how to manage their nest egg.