Retirement benefits

New Year’s resolutions aren’t just for dieters and exercisers. The start of a new year is an ideal time for retirement plan sponsor to assess the effectiveness of their plan. Virtually all plan sponsors have areas that are ripe for improvement.

2014 brought increased emphasis on retirement plans as employers are offering more engaging tools and creating a more holistic view of benefit offerings.

Reflecting on the challenging and exciting changes to employee retirement plans in 2014 - from the myRA to fee disclosure rules - plan sponsors and advisers certainly had their hands full.

When it comes to robust retirement systems around the globe, the U.S. is ranked 19 of 150 different countries, and American business – from lawmakers to employers and plan sponsors – can learn from some of those international success stories.

An eight-year-old lawsuit against aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp., launched by employees who claim the company's retirement plan overcharged them and critically underperformed, hit the Illinois courtroom Dec. 15.

A plan needs to be established for replacing business owners and/or C-suite executives to ensure a smooth transition and to keep the company sustainable and thriving.

A bipartisan, yet controversial, effort to help stabilize the retirement futures for Americans through a substantial reform of the multiemployer pension plan system passed through the House this week.

With a still-recovering economy, weakened retirement plan offerings and the uncertainly of supplemental income in retirement, many workers are opting to stay put, adding unforeseen burdens to employers.

The Supreme Court is slated to hear the Tibble v. Edison case in 2015, which promises to be a landmark ruling for the corporate retirement space.

Commentary: With so much happening at year’s end and again at the beginning of the New Year, columnist John Ludwig shares what plan sponsors be working on.

Low cost, no minimum investment and daily trading are reasons for their increased use over the past 10 years.

Historically, financial planners have advised that retirees could expect to derive their retirement income from three sources: Social Security, corporate retirement plans and personal savings. That might not be the case anymore.

Employers will devote more mind share to retirement programs in the coming year, in part because of increased confidence about compliance with the Affordable Care Act.

Despite great investment returns recently, the nation’s largest corporate defined benefit pension funds have been defenseless against growing liabilities resulting from dropping discount rates.

Lawmakers in Springfield, Ill., decided this week to green light a new statewide private sector retirement program that will consist of individual retirement accounts to be funded by automatic employee payroll deductions.

End-of-year reviews of retirement plan success strategies should also include a candid examination of the job a plan adviser has been doing. Here are some benchmarks to help with that process.

Commentary: Advisers provide great value to colleges and universities, a Transamerica Retirement Solutions survey shows. Brodie Wood shares four specific areas that participants say are of the most value.

Employers are taking a more engaging and firm approach to making sure employees take retirement saving seriously, making use of automatic enrollment and escalation, as well as personalized tools. And both employers and retirement plan providers are noting changes in the savings attitudes of employees.

Employers looking to amplify their employees’ retirement prospects might look to the growing individual retirement account field, as involvement in employer-sponsored retirement plans remains largely unchanged.

With its sights set on maintaining lifetime retirement income for the American workforce, a new final rule from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation hopes to limit any obstacles participants face when rolling over their 401(k) money into traditional pension plans.