Actions Individuals, Employers and Governments Can Take to Improve Retirement Readiness
Advisers can play a role by encouraging actions by plan sponsors and participants.
Tag: Plan design
Plan Success Beyond the Usual Statistics
High-level averages are often used to talk about the retirement readiness of a given defined contribution plan population, but the numbers can be misleading when it comes to assessing real outcomes for individual employees.
PLANSPONSOR Survey Results Highlight Role of Advisers in Health Care Industry
Nearly 86% of not-for-profit health care entities reported that financial advice in some form is offered to their defined contribution plan participants, compared to 79.4% of for-profit entities.
House Ways and Means Committee Talks Retirement Reforms
A panel of expert witnesses from across the financial services domain discussed shortcomings and opportunities for improvement in the U.S. retirement savings system; they urged House members to embrace bipartisanship and commonsense solutions.
Plan Sponsors Have Questions About Dynamic Default Investments
Progressive plan design features take time to catch on, including the emerging “hybrid QDIA” approach that pairs TDFs and managed accounts; experts say plan sponsors are interested, but they remain unsure about the right way to design and deliver a dynamic default investment.
Strategies to Manage Retirement Plan Loans
Enshrining these in a well-crafted loan policy statement can help plan sponsor clients take control of leakage and excess early withdrawals; like any stated compliance policy, what is written must be followed.
When Auto-Roth Accounts Make More Sense
Janus Henderson research suggests the vast majority of auto-enrollment programs fund only pre-tax accounts; this is despite the fact that for younger, lower-income employees, funding a Roth account may be a more appropriate long-term option.
Setting Defaults and Auto-Escalations Too Low May Undermine their Power
In addition, a person invested in a stable value fund versus someone invested in a target-date fund could end up with a balance as much as 59% lower, BlackRock says.
Fidelity Analysis Shows Advantage of Long-Term Savings
In the past 10 years, the average 401(k) balance has grown 87%, from $56,900 in the third quarter of 2008, Fidelity Investments reports.
ERISA 404(c) Compliance Well Worth the Effort
Frederick Reish, partner in the Drinker Biddle & Reath Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice Group and Chair of the Financial Services ERISA Team, suggests a good way to think about ERISA Section 404(c) is as “a relatively inexpensive insurance policy.”
Companies With Strong Performance Have Quality 401(k)s
Above-average-rated plans are more apt to be found at companies with 20% to 80% higher profitability than are average-rated plans, says T. Rowe Price.
PLANSPONSOR Defined Contribution Survey Open
Sponsors of defined contribution (DC) plans are invited to respond to the annual PLANSPONSOR DC Survey through October 5. The survey is among our largest and most important research project of the year, but we need your clients' help for it to be a success.
Retirement Planning for Business Owner Clients
Many small business owners have only planned for the future insofar as deciding that they will ultimately sell their firms and use the proceeds to finance their retirement; they need expert help from advisers, and so do their employees.
When HR and Finance Get Together, DC Plan Results Follow
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.”
Private Capital Group to Provide Envestnet Technology Platform
The firm will be presenting the tool to its own network of advisers.
Preparing Participants for Retirement Is Sponsors’ Top Concern
To help employees achieve their savings goals, 82% of sponsors are making changes to plan design, and 83% are updating their investment menus.
Small Plans Must Embrace Auto Features, for Employees’ Sake
Employees of small businesses with retirement plans that include automatic enrollment have far higher participation rates across all demographic variables, according to new data shared by Vanguard.
Millennials Benefiting from Retirement Plan Modernization
They are on track to replace 75% of their income, compared to 64% for Americans overall.
Wells Fargo’s Joe Ready Surveys Shifting Retirement Landscape
There is more emphasis than ever before in the DC plan space on identifying the best way to offer a benefit that is not just a to-retirement program, but also a through-retirement program.
DC Plan Loans Require Diligent Management
“Because the Department of Labor views plan loans as investments, they should be treated with the same level of care and scrutiny as any other investment,” says Rob Reiskytl, a partner in retirement consulting division of Aon in Minneapolis.