June 9th, 2015

Affiliated Funds Bias Affects Participants’ Accounts A Pension Research Council working paper suggests there is significant favoritism toward affiliated funds displayed by mutual fund companies that act as service providers to 401(k) plans. According to the report, researchers found affiliated funds are more likely to be added and less likely to be removed from 401(k) plan fund menus. Read more > Bill Seeks More Digital Retirement Plan Communication A bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives from Colorado, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania last week introduced legislation they hope will “modernize the way employers communicate important retirement information by allowing plan sponsors to automatically opt participants into electronic delivery of documents.” Read more > Settlement Reached in Fannie Mae Stock Drop Suit U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has preliminarily approved a settlement between the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and a group of retirement plan participants who claim the firm held onto company stock when it was imprudent to do so. Affected participants will receive $9 million, less attorneys’ fees and settlement expenses. Read more > MOST READ ARTICLES

Electronic Disclosure Rules Are So Last Century Employers that offer defined contribution retirement plans are required to distribute a host of statements and disclosures quarterly as well as annually, a process many plans would prefer to do electronically. But current rules stand in the way, according to “Improving Outcomes with Electronic Delivery of Retirement Plan Documents,” a new SPARK report. Read more > PSNC 2015: Solving the Retirement Crisis The world as we know it ends in 2030. According to Brock Johnson, president of retirement solutions for Morningstar Inc., this is when the Baby Boomers will be aging, Generation X will be starting to retire, and Social Security will be depleted. What’s more, he said, the U.S. doesn’t seem to be able to revamp its retirement system in a meaningful way to cut off these challenges. Read more > The Emo Aspect Could Be Hurting Adviser Performance Over the past five years, packaged portfolios have outperformed adviser-driven portfolios, says new research from Cerulli Associates. Read more > Global Retirement Partners Teams with Financial Finesse Global Retirement Partners has taken another step to differentiate its adviser alliance network by implementing a full suite of financial wellness and education services from Financial Finesse.  Read more > New Executive Director Joins SPARK In his new role, Timothy Rouse will assume day-to-day responsibilities for managing the organization. He will represent the SPARK Institute’s mission on behalf of its members to a wide range of industry professionals, and key constituencies such as regulators, legislators and media. Read more > EPIC Advisors Names New President After joining EPIC Advisors in 2004 and most recently serving as director of sales and strategic partnerships, Manuel Marques has been appointed as president of the retirement plan advisory firm. Read more > Stadion Expands Its Sales Team Stadion Money Management announced it has hired four new sales executives to meet financial advisers’ growing demand for its investment products. Read more >

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