Retirement benefits

In a scenario where retirement income and wealth account for 100% of an investor’s simulated retirement expenses, a model projects that around a quarter of baby boomers and Gen Xers who would have had sufficient retirement income under interest rates at historical averages would run out of money if the current low rates were taken as a permanent condition.

Making connections is as important as ever, though the process is changing considerably.

Wall Street banks collected $215.6 million that Denver’s public schools paid to unwind swaps and sell bonds since the district began borrowing to cut pension costs in 2008. That sum is about two-thirds of annual teaching expenses.

Detroit may run out of cash next month and must cut costs such as long-term debt and retiree obligations, according to emergency financial manager Kevyn Orr’s preliminary plan to improve services and keep Michigan’s largest city out of bankruptcy.

A real opportunity for advisers lies in the ambitions of Gen X and Gen Y Americans, who aren’t planning on postponing retirement — yet.

Laurence D. Fink thinks U.S. employers should be required to put money aside for their employees’ retirement, similar to Australia’s superannuation system.

The Illinois House of Representatives approved a bill designed to repair the nation’s worst-funded pension system by raising contribution levels for state employees and delaying the retirement age.

According to this week’s 401(k) Performance Survey, approximately 5% of 401(k) plans, or 13,811 plans, stopped matching in 2010, and an additional 2% halted the employer match in 2011.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. climbed in New York trading yesterday after profit beat estimates and the insurer’s margins widened.

INTEGRATING 401(k) PLAN ADMIN, PAYROLL

Transamerica’s Stig Nybo author of Transform Tomorrow: Awakening the Super Saver in Pursuit of Retirement Readiness on how building a proper retirement nest egg is a big social crisis.

John Ludwig on how to help employees can increase their retirement savings including auto escalation and auto enrollment.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report in April saying that employees switching jobs often receive guidance by 401(k) companies to roll their accounts into an IRA, even when that might not be the best course of action.

If you’re an advisor or a TPA like we are, you’ll be found.

Americans who work with a financial professional, had a college education and more than $100,000 in household assets are more likely to have a higher financial literacy.

BP Plc was sued by New York City pension funds for at least $39 million in investment losses based on claims the oil company failed to disclose the risks and safety issues leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

How many Doritos are in a serving? For most of us, it's whatever amount is left in the bag. Unless you're raiding your kid's lunchbox snack size stash. Then it might be two bags. While concerns about the amount of nutrition or serving size in that particular snack may be taking it to the extreme, the fact is that government mandated nutrition labels on our food have made more information clearly available about what we are eating than ever before.

A program airing yesterday cited excessive fees and lack of clear guidance for the failure of the 401(k) to prepare Americans for a longer and more costly retirement.

When managing money, the large majority of Americans today are not looking for shortcuts or get-rich-quick strategies, according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2013 Planning & Progress Study.

Recently a number of market observers have suggested banning actively managed mutual funds from retirement plans as a way of increasing participant balances. Their logic is that actively managed funds don't beat market averages or benchmarks often enough to justify their higher fees. Also, it is said that actively managed funds tend to be recommended by advisers who profit from their sale and therefore aren't objective.