Paula Aven Gladych

In the past five years, employers have realized just how precarious a position their employees are in when it comes to retirement and they have begun to put plans in place to help get them moving in the right direction.

In light of anticipated new fiduciary regulations from the DOL, employers are becoming more aware of potential conflicts of interest and the importance of protecting employees in their 401(k) plans.

Managing small retirement accounts for employees who no longer work for you can be time consuming, and labor intensive, but there are some employer benefits to keeping past employees’ 401(k) accounts on your books or having new employees roll their past retirement accounts into yours.

Companies that sponsor 401(k) plans need to consider employee demographics when deciding which types of qualified default investment alternative to offer, according to research by Manning & Napier.

No matter how the U.S. Supreme Court rules in Tibble v. Edison International, one thing is clear: employers will need to be more vigilant about the investments they choose for their company-sponsored 401(k) plans in the future to avoid litigation.

Many companies have frozen their defined benefit plans to new hires. Others have abandoned their pensions in favor of a 401(k) or other defined contribution plan. But not everyone is happy with DC plans because they often leave participants to fend for themselves when most have never had to make investment decisions.