Retirement

Commentary: Research shows that the financial services industry remains the least trusted business, according to blogger Jerry Kalish. However, people trust business overall to innovate and change, more than the government. Here’s how you can start to build trust back.

A new study finds that retirement readiness among the baby boomer generation continued its decline in key confidence measurements that look at whether the age cohort was comfortable with covering medical expenses and income needs when they exit the workforce.

As hopeful evidence that a half-decade of retirement savings doldrums may finally be over, a new examination of employee 401(k) participation suggests workers are back on the savings path – and increasingly using HSAs as a new form of long-term financial planning.

Retirement plan sponsors and their consultants are attentively following the Supreme Court today as it hears oral arguments in Fifth Third Bancorp v. Duddenhoeffer, a case that has implications for the retirement plan industry’s fiduciary standard in employee stock ownership plans.

Typically thought of as the employees’ responsibility, plan sponsors should actually facilitate all aspects of required minimum distributions – from alerting participants about them to activating the fund withdrawal.

Overall, state public-sector pension programs continue claw out of the unfunded liabilities that have buried them since the financial collapse, as the total pension debt was over $1 trillion at the close of the fiscal year 2012.

Current regulations don’t require a retirement plan provider’s investment advice be in the best interest of plan participants, but most employers want that to change, an AARP study finds.

A new analysis finds that retirement coverage in the private sector remains a “serious problem” for plan sponsors and employees despite previously reported high levels of access to retiree options, according to researchers from the Center of Retirement Research at Boston College.

Fewer than a third of plan sponsors measure the effectiveness of their defined contribution plan’s investment offerings by evaluating if projected participant income replacement ratios are being met at retirement, finds a new poll from SEI.

Self-directed brokerage account windows in 401(k) plans have always been controversial. Recently the Department of Labor indicated it intends to provide additional guidance on the use of brokerage account windows. Experts believe it is likely to be unfavorable for proponents of brokerage windows for several reasons.