Retirement planning

Plan sponsors must continue to offer automatic plan features and do a better job of vetting target-date funds.

The sheer number of modest, inactive 401(k)s — along with the friction in the industry that makes it difficult to seamlessly transfer the balances from plan to plan as participants change jobs — is causing a lot of undue stress.

Employees often don’t save enough, and few utilize auto-escalation.

A new survey looks at trends in fees and investment options — and shows there’s lots of room for improvement.

Plan sponsors must continue to offer automatic plan features and do a better job of vetting target-date funds.

With the goal of improved participant outcomes, a simplified approach using straightforward language could be more attractive to employees.

A U.S. District Court has ruled that Edison International failed in its fiduciary duty by including high-fee retail share mutual funds in its 401(k) plan when lower-fee institutional ones were available.

Pre-retirees should have Medicare or health insurance in place to cover their medical costs, along with a well-maintained investment portfolio.

Retirees who under-reported their income to avoid taxes will also get smaller retirement benefits than they deserve.