Data & Research

Employers place a high value on employee financial literacy, a survey found.

More than half of employers surveyed (55.6%) report that the effectiveness of their benefits communication efforts has improved during the last three years.

More than half of participants surveyed do not understand retirement plan fees, indicating a need for education before the fee disclosure regulation goes into effect this month.  

Some defined contribution participants rely on simple math when deciding how to allocate their plan investments, research indicates.

 The average contribution to Fidelity Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) hit $3,930 in tax year 2011, up nearly 15% from 2007.   

Registered investment advisers (RIAs) with more than $500 million in assets under management, on the other hand, invest more...

U.S. corporate multiemployer pension plan (MEPP) obligations represent a drain on cash flow, particularly for the U.S. supermarket sector, according to a Fitch Ratings report.

Employers continue to spend too little time and fewer resources for helping employees understand their employee benefits, a survey from Unum shows.

Other factors are more important to defined contribution (DC) plan success than fund performance, according to research from Putnam Institute.

Financial advisers consider addressing the issue of Social Security with their clients to be a central and important task, a recent analysis finds.

A study of the large and mega defined contribution (DC) plan marketplace projects assets of custom target-date funds (TDFs) will reach $218 billion by 2016.

Large defined contribution (DC) plans with more than $5 billion in assets are likelier to stay with a recordkeeper for at least seven years, a report found.

Retirement planning is an increasing focus for employees, according to a report.

A LIMRA study of annuity buyers found the top reason consumers gave for buying their annuity is to supplement their Social Security or pension income.

 Roughly half of all U.S. households that control more than a third of U.S. financial assets are attracted to lifetime-guaranteed income—even if returns are low.   

An analysis from the Social Security Administration (SSA) shows how income replacement in retirement decreases over time.

Baby Boomer voters, ages 50 to 64, who are still working are pessimistic about retirement, an AARP survey found.

A true understanding of longevity risk is the needed catalyst for U.S. corporate pension plans to more actively adopt de-risking strategies, according to Prudential.

Although the majority of defined contribution (DC) plan participants say a DC plan is their primary retirement savings account, they are not putting enough in.

Embedding in-plan guaranteed retirement income options in defined contribution (DC) plans is a key solution to improve DC plan participants’ overall retirement preparedness, a white paper asserts.