Healthcare

What do plan participants say they need to make better use of their retirement? Some answers, from a recent State Street Global Advisors survey, offer insights that can help advisers work with their clients on member education efforts.

Probably you. The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) is moving forward in its quest to define who is a fiduciary for various client/adviser transactions.

New York City’s police pension won’t sell about $10 million in gun-related holdings, the president of the biggest officer union says.

Express Scripts, however, says the decline was offset by an 18.4% rise in spending on specialty medications. The aggregate trend for 2012 was a bump of 2.7%, similar to that of 2011.

Many employer plan sponsors are expressing a high level of interest in adding Roth 401(k) in-plan conversions as an option to their 401(k) plans in 2013. The recently passed Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 made it possible for retirement plan participants to convert existing 401(k) plan balances to Roth 401(k) balances, whether or not the participant is distribution eligible.

The challenges confronting many retirement plan advisers are familiar.

New 401(k) loan transactions were down approximately 5% year-over-year, and total hardship and in-service withdrawals were down nearly 8%, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s most recent 401(k) Wellness Scorecard, released Thursday.

Life Technologies, a California-based medical research and life sciences company with more than 10,000 employees, shifted its workforce to a CDHP in 2010. Benefits leader Carole Mendoza says the education and communication effort for the change ran the gamut from bathroom newsletters (the old “porcelain press”) to blogs, webinars and social networks.

In 2025, three in four working Americans will be Millennials. By helping them manage stress and anxiety in their 20s and 30s with EAPs, they’ll be more productive and better-equipped to assume leadership positions down the road.

Pressure is growing to change incentives for retirement savings as U.S. lawmakers look for revenue, and top earners may pay the price.