Retirement benefits

Commentary: When talking about the financial security of all Americans, playing politics is unfortunate. Ideologue mentality prevents meaningful dialogue and instead keeps kicking the can down the road, says The Principal’s Aaron Friedman.

Powers granted to shareholders to vote down pay packages for the CEO and other top executives by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act appear to be driving some change in executives’ “golden parachute” protections.

Although they still amount to little more than a blip on the radar screen, income guarantee arrangements incorporated into defined contribution plans are growing rapidly in popularity.

Low-cost lending and credit-establishment services emerge as a new benefit to help employees make better financial decisions.

When the recently proposed fiduciary rules are finalized there will likely continue to be significant differences between how Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and brokers interact with their retirement plan clients from a fiduciary standpoint.

Many assume that a wealthy upbringing is essential for an early retirement, but recent studies show those who plan to retire early were no more likely to describe their family growing up as wealthy/affluent, or financially comfortable, than people who planned to stay in the workforce longer.

Defined contribution plan sponsors remain in regulatory limbo regarding their obligations to maintain detailed documentation surrounding employee 401(k) hardship withdrawals.

In Tibble v. Edison, the Supreme Court did not expound on what a retirement plan fiduciary's duty to monitor entails, which is a bone of contention for ERISA attorneys and 401(k) plan sponsors.

Fiduciary responsibility requires the careful selection of default retirement investments. Benefit advisers can add value with knowledgeable advice on qualified default investment alternatives, including through the use of selection tools.

Although 401(k) plan participation is increasing, employees are not actively managing their accounts.

In the past two years, the corporate pension buy-out market has surged with more than $49 billion in transactions, and that trend should continue unabated as large employers try to shift pension debt off their books.

If the DOL's proposal to impose new fiduciary responsibilities on advisers in the retirement space becomes rule, many financial professionals fearing legal liability could abandon that market altogether, and cut off services to low- and middle-income investors, according to FINRA chief Richard Ketchum.

Suffocating under large loans and with little savings, the majority Gen Xers admit being bogged down with uncertainty when planning for retirement.

Conflicting beneficiary designations for 401(k) plan assets can be tough to sort out when a plan participant dies.

May 29 is 529 Day, a national observance that acknowledges the importance of the college savings tool, but 66% of Americans still don’t understand what 529 plans are.

Trust and education are some of the more favorable characteristics sought in retirement plan providers, as well as key drivers to increasing employee engagement. However, that education is lacking, as most employees have a poor understanding of retirement language.

The surge of small 401(k) account balances is the result of a perfect storm — increasing rates of adoption for automatic enrollment combined with the high frequency of job changes observed in today’s mobile workforce.

DC plan sponsors that take pains to secure competitive institutional pricing for their retirement plans’ investment services to maximize retirement savings for active employees may also have an incentive to do so for retirees.

The recent Supreme Court decision in Tibble v. Edison, though largely favorable to plaintiffs, does contain one silver lining for plan sponsors.

If your retirement plan provider hasn’t yet entered the mobile app market, you could be missing out on an important opportunity to educate your 401(k) plan members.