Retirement

The Department of Labor has proposed a rule requiring pension plan service providers to offer a guide to help employers navigate disclosures about fees and potential conflicts of interest. Who would it affect and why?

For retirement plan advisers – and the plan administrator community – it remains more than a bit problematic to cope with the prospect of a new threshold of responsibility for the financial decisions of plan participants. Or, having their hands tied and only being able to offer extremely financial guidance, as the case may be.

Even as the April 15 tax deadline looms for individual retirement account contributions, American adults still spend more time selecting a restaurant for a special occasion than they allocate to planning their IRA’s important investments.

Although U.S. workers on a whole are more satisfied with their current financial situation than in years past, most (58%) remain concerned about financial stability in retirement and say they plan to continue working until age 70 or later, a new Towers Watson survey shows.

Commentary: The deadline for discrimination testing has come and gone. If your clients are like many employers, they didn’t do so well.

Commentary: Employer group waiver plans provide a solution for the struggling public sector

While a flurry of recent, presidential-level focus on America’s retirement system might be a good opportunity for dialog on its shortfalls, those in the retirement industry fear that a new era of potential tax grabs is on the horizon.

A new analysis of the 100 largest corporate pension plans finds that retirement coffers bounced back in 2013, reaching record funded-status levels and cutting away at pension deficits that have plagued them since 2008’s financial collapse.

Commentary: Ever-changing interpretations of government regulations have resulted in employers being out of compliance with certain rules and not even knowing it.

Being a retirement plan fiduciary carries a heavy weight and lots of responsibility. Breaches of such responsibilities can result in both civil and criminal action, though the latter is rare and usually the result of egregious behavior. Fortunately, retirement plan sponsors have a growing menu of options to help them manage their fiduciary obligations and offset some of their legal liabilities.