December 6th, 2017

Tax Bill Passed By Senate Backs Off 457(b), 403(b) Plan Changes It appears some last-minute amendments have largely removed controversial provisions from the Senate’s version of tax reform legislation that would have had a big impact on governmental 457 and nonprofit 403(b) plan sponsors. Read more > The Courts Differ on Vicarious Liability When advising plan sponsors about their fiduciary responsibilities, we often discuss their ongoing duty to prudently select and consistently monitor outside service providers—viz., by attending to their fees and performance. This discussion typically occurs with respect to external service providers, such as retirement plan advisers, recordkeepers, investment advisers, third-party administrators, investment managers, etc. Read more > Sponsors’ Fiduciary Awareness Deteriorating Even though essentially all plan sponsors are fiduciaries, 49% do not think they bear this responsibility, AllianceBernstein found in a survey. This is up from 37% of plan sponsors who said they are not fiduciaries in 2014 and 30% in 2011. Read more > Assessing U.S. Retirement Allocations in a Global Context MFS data show that relative global growth trends have held steady since 2012: Developed economies have hovered between 0.5% and 2% gross domestic product growth while emerging economies have ranged between 3.5% and 5% over that time. Read more > MOST READ ARTICLES 1 Warn Your Clients: Don’t Abuse Coronavirus Hardship Withdrawals 2 Home Depot ERISA Lawsuit Clears Dismissal Motions 3 A New World and New Opportunities for Alpha 4 AutoZone ERISA Suit Clears Motion to Dismiss 5 Intel Now Faces Consolidated Suit Over Alternatives in TDFs

Sponsored message from Voya Financial Dr. Shlomo Benartzi on How New Research Supports Setting Higher Default Rates for Participants. Click to view. Read more > Tracing the Evolution of Financial Firms’ Home Page Design In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Corporate Insights has published data tracing the digital evolution of financial firms’ home page design, 1996 through the present. Read more > Benchmarking Managed Accounts A critical question for advisers to ask when suggesting managed accounts to a plan sponsor client is whether it will be possible to benchmark the performance of potentially numerous different managed accounts in a consistent way across the plan population. Read more > Market Mirror Tuesday, the Dow lost 109.41 points (0.45%) to finish at 24,180.64, the NASDAQ decreased 13.15 points (0.19%) to 6,762.21, and the S&P 500 was down 9.87 points (0.37%) at 2,629.57. The Russell 2000 closed 15.65 points (1.02%) lower at 1,516.76, and the Wilshire 5000 fell 114.56 points (0.42%) to 27,292.55.   The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 5/32, increasing its yield to 2.356%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond increased 18/32, bringing its yield down to 2.737%.

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