Retirement benefits

Investors can expect limited options or higher fees in their retirement plans as brokerage firms are evaluating their pricing structures to comply with the fiduciary rule.

Millennials and baby boomers fret over how they will pay for their golden years and are eager for answers from employers.

Plan sponsors need to be especially focused on not only the expenses they pay, but also how they pay them, says columnist John Ludwig.

Employer anxiety about offering you a 401(k) plan is rising rapidly, and for potentially good  and expensive  reasons. Class-action lawyers are targeting a wider variety of alleged breaches of fiduciary duty in retirement offerings and suing a broader range of entities, including college and university 403(b) plans.

Morgan Stanley and its board were accused of mismanaging the firm’s 401(k) retirement plan and costing its employees hundreds of millions of dollars by picking inappropriate and costly investments, some of which were managed for the firm’s own profit.

Employers are still reluctant to offer insurance-backed products, says Willis Towers Watson consultant Bill Dewalt.

Lawsuits have been filed against eight private universities sponsoring defined contribution code Section 403(b) and 401(a) retirement plans

One way is to open a health savings account as it offers tax-free withdrawals that people can use to cover a portion of their insurance premiums.

Last week, yet another slew of private retirement plan managers became the target of class-action lawsuits. This time it was a bunch of universities: Yale University, NYU, MIT, and other schools have been sued for failing to properly oversee their employees’ retirement plans.

The company’s new retirement program, Spark 401k, aims to boost small business participation and ease challenges those employers face in offering workers DC plans.