Retirement

Are you making retirement plan decisions using a prudent process? Do you always put the interests of plan participants ahead of the company's when considering plan issues? Here are some best practices related to decision-making and documentation.

In the retirement plan arena, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 was a game changer for defined benefits plan sponsors - it altered the way in which the value of lump-sum offerings was calculated, making lump-sum payouts a more attractive solution for plan sponsors seeking ways to reduce the risks associated with their DB plans.

In an effort to make workplace retirement savings more portable and to help build assets in tax-qualified retirement plans, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service have removed a cumbersome step plan sponsors must take when accepting rollovers from other employers’ plans.

Because alternative investments, such as private equity, hedge funds and real assets, are typically accessed though a limited partnership structure, retirement plan fiduciaries are charged with more extensive due diligence as compared to monitoring daily valued mutual funds or separate accounts.

Benefit advisers need to know how these two long-awaited guidance notices from the IRS will affect their employer clients.

Financial concerns and readiness for retirement remain top worries for Americans, even as many employers are trying to help by offering financial education benefits.

Why trusted advisers should be sharing this growing retirement income strategy with their clients.

By getting employees more directly engaged in their own financial well-being – educating them on their benefits, helping them make the right retirement planning decisions and learning how to tackle financial stress by addressing their own debt and their worries over health care costs – employers are seeing lower turnover and increased productivity.

A booming 2013 stock market pointed to an increase in corporate growth. But the unpredictable nature of corporate pension assets proved to drag down the total CEO compensation pool for the nation’s largest corporations.

A new study shows that people in the workplace have a greater sense of urgency around improving their finances, with 23% reporting high or overwhelming financial stress in 2013 compared to 18% in 2012.