Retirement benefits

More and more employers are looking to ensure the retirement readiness and financial wellbeing of their employees, as financial stress has shown to make a significant impact on both the physical well-being of employees and their workplace productivity.

Commentary: Bloviating terms have no meaning to plan participants, who simply want to know if their pensions will be delivered as promised.

Fee disclosure rules may have helped bring 401(k) fees down, but plan sponsors can still do more to ensure they – and their employees – aren’t paying too much.

Commentary: Even though much has changed in the last 10 years, we may still describe the 403(b) market as “wild,” says The Principal’s Aaron Friedman.

Commentary: Many safe harbor IRAs don’t live up to their name and could leave sponsors with unexpected fiduciary liability.

Many believe the DOL has gone about its fiduciary rule-making in the wrong way and fear the rules, as proposed, will do more harm than good.

Industry trade groups and associations flooded the DOL with suggested amendments and revisions to its proposed fiduciary rule, ahead of the July 21 deadline for comments.

Traditional IRA investors showed little reaction to the economic downturn in 2007.

Higher PBGC premiums and a volatile market are catalysts for risk management in DB plans.

Increasingly, employers are expanding wellness programs to include financial guidance. But do these programs go far enough?

Women over the age of 65 are twice as likely as men to live in poverty in retirement because of lower wages, more time spent out of the workforce and lack of access to retirement savings plans.

President Obama this week asked the Department of Labor to propose a set of rules by the end of the year that would provide a clear path forward for states to create retirement savings programs.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have thrown a wrench into the pension de-risking plans of many corporations with new regulations aiming to eliminate the lump-sum payout option for retirees who already are receiving retirement benefits from their defined benefit plans.

As the baby boom generation approaches retirement, employers will need to ask themselves what role a highly experienced, part-time workforce can play in their organization.

Companies are shifting their attention to health coverage for their pre-65 retiree population and exploring the opportunities public exchanges provide this population, now that the Supreme Court has upheld subsides on the federally-facilitated health insurance marketplace.

Millions are covered under employee stock ownership plans, which take a considerable amount of research and planning before implementation.

As the White House kicks off its Conference on Aging this week, one financial services vendor is launching a new education program for its plan sponsor clients focused on creating greater awareness of the nation’s aging population.

Have you seen those new BrokerCheck commercials on TV? With the help of these commercials, FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, would like to motivate anyone looking to hire a financial adviser to visit its BrokerCheck website first to vet candidates.

Commentary: Delivering fee disclosure notices to both plan sponsors and plan participants has helped some plan sponsors to lower their costs, but the various fee disclosures are still difficult for many to understand. With such a national focus on fees, some plan sponsors have taken the opportunity to review and rethink how they handle plan fees.

Failure to identify all retirement plan fiduciaries is just one common mistake employers make that can lead to trouble.