Retirement

Lawmakers in Maryland and Wisconsin are working to make retirement plans more readily available to private sector employees. Their efforts follow recently enacted California legislation that requires employers to contribute 3% of a worker’s salary to a retirement account.

Chad Parks, CEO of The Online 401(k), debuts his film, “Broken Eggs,” which follows real Americans’ financial realities and retirement savings hardships.

The 5,800 U.S. employees of BlackRock, Inc. do get a nice side benefit to their company’s vast reputation for financial management: They have a holistic financial wellness program that most of us could only dream about.

Despite its reputation for money management, financial giant BlackRock, Inc. recognized that its own employees still needed help making the right decisions about retirement and health care savings.

Employer-sponsored defined contribution plans – the fundamental core of retirement funds for about 80% of the full-time workers in the nation – need some alterations that will help boost plan participation among the part-time workforce and smaller employers, as well as offer better ways for workers and employers to contribute, according to a white paper released last week.

While the intent of DOL fee disclosure regulations was to benefit retirement plan participants, results indicate there is much left to be desired. Employees have no idea what to look for or what their 401(k) fees even mean.

Baby boomers and Generation X households improved their overall retirement income last year thanks to employer-sponsored 401(k)-type plans and gains from the financial and housing market, new data indicates.

Commentary: When it comes to qualified domestic relations orders, plan sponsors and their financial professional partners need to ensure they have a robust and detailed process that can actually work, says The Principal’s Aaron Friedman.

The “retirement crisis” facing America, a phrase coincidentally coined by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, is a growing concern for defined contribution plan sponsors looking to provide a continued source of income to current and future retirees. As a direct result, the New York-based asset management shop said Wednesday that its CoRI Indexes can help to alleviate participants’ fears of running out of money.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision to hear arguments over Fifth Third Bancorp v. Duddenhoeffer – a case that questions whether it’s prudent for companies to offer employee stock ownership within 401(k) investment schemes – will be front and center for retirement plan sponsors this spring.