Retirement

How agents can help highly compensated executives save and remain competitive with safe harbor 401(k) by John Ludwig

How many Gen X and Gen Y consumers are saving for retirement? Not nearly enough, according to industry research group LIMRA.

Rental car agency Avis Budget Group puts its 401(k) plan participants in the driver’s seat with access to investment advice.

After inputting age, income and additional retirement savings information, individuals are shown personalized scores that reflect the amount of their retirement savings as a multiple of their annual income.

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.

“As an emerging market, DIAs have experienced significant growth in 2012,” says Joe Montminy, assistant vice president and director of LIMRA annuity research.

Investors with $150,000 to $249,000 in income are especially receptive to learning about annuities, according to a recent Nationwide Financial survey.

“Over the past few years it’s [been] closing the plan, freezing the plan -- now, we’re actually seeing them trying to shed the liability,” Fidelity’s Laurie E. Vance said in Washington.

“Those with an income shortfall are far more likely to be low-income, low-asset households, and they spend down their liquid assets at a far faster rate than households that do not have an income shortfall,” says one expert with the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

“Those with an income shortfall are far more likely to be low-income, low-asset households, and they spend down their liquid assets at a far faster rate than households that do not have an income shortfall,” says one researcher with the Employee Benefit Research Institute.