Retirement benefits

The amount of money socked away in retirement accounts jumped up 6% with U.S. retirement assets totaling nearly $25 trillion at the end of December 2014.

New Jersey’s public-pension managers are proposing more investment in hedge funds and distressed real estate to protect against risks in the bond market should U.S. interest rates rise.

NAPA’s Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor credential gives advisers a formal means to show they have the expertise needed to serve as a plan fiduciary, or help plan fiduciaries with their responsibilities.

The 401(k) industry may be the next slice of the financial services industry to be targeted by technology disruptors.

At current savings rates, Americans are on track to replace over half of their current income in retirement. Having access to a workplace-sponsored retirement plan, meanwhile, is the No. 1 factor in determining retirement success.

Numerous lawsuits have been filed against employer-sponsored retirement plans in the past few years because plan participants are getting more savvy about things like fees and fiduciary duty, thanks in part to the Department of Labor’s recent focus on both issues.

As American workers are increasingly looking to a new range of employer-sponsored retirement products to help guarantee some securely funded golden years, they may be missing out on the advantages of a system they’ve paid into their entire working lives.

Over the past eight years, 13 pending or settled cases have accused companies of failing to act in the best interests of employees participating in 401(k) retirement plans. In the midst of this, how can employers be sure their retirement funds are safe?

In recent years, a number of states have begun toying with the idea of creating their own retirement systems to help smaller employers provide workers rudimentary retirement savings opportunities.

The still-under-development federal fiduciary standard for retirement advisers has many in the industry genuinely concerned about their ability to continue to serve both employers and individual American savers.

A fiduciary’s decisions around the investment plan menus should be less about what other plans offer, and more about what is in plan participants’ best interests.

Fewer than one in five American workers are contributing to traditional individual retirement accounts, with many pointing to a lack in financial confidence to afford such contributions as one of the biggest reasons for not investing.

A lack of understanding about the benefits of having both an individual retirement account and a 401(k) or 403(b) may help explain why some Americans are not contributing or considering an IRA as part of their retirement strategy.

California's struggling to pay for health care for retired state employees, with an estimated $72 billion in medical costs coming in the next 30 years. Gov. Jerry Brown's solution: Make workers start contributing money to pay for the health care they'll need after retiring.

The funded status of all U.S. multiemployer pension plans dropped from 81% at the end of 2013 to 80% at the end of last year.

Earning less money and a lack of financial knowledge make saving more difficult for women, who are turning to advisers for help, research shows.

Commentary: All retirement plan sponsors should be working with investment advisers who have signed on to their plan as fiduciaries.

Like the Obama administration, agency chair calls for a new regulation that would make brokers put the interests of their clients ahead of their own.

Like the recycling of paper, glass and plastic, the recycling of retirement savings through automated portability benefits everyone and is easy to implement.

The wide range of 401(k) plan fees paid by small plan sponsors and participants might be indicative of the opportunity many such sponsors have to trim those expenses.