Retirement benefits

Four principles brokers can follow to successfully break into the DC business.

EBN-EBA Financial Fitness Challenge helps employees become financially healthy.

Forecasting the future through retirement wholesalers

The majority of baby boomers and Gen Xers appear to be looking at their retirement years through rose-colored glasses. More than three in four feel confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, even though nearly 40% of baby boomers and about two-thirds of Gen Xers have less than $100,000 in retirement savings. Moreover, a worrisome percentage —21.7% of baby boomers and 27.8% of Gen Xers — has no retirement savings at all. The grim statistics are the highlights of a report released by the Insured Retirement Institute.

Even as market uncertainty persists, employees using Bank of America Merrill Lynch's automatic 401(k) savings plans are showing they want to stay the course when it comes to positive savings behavior, according to the firm's latest quarterly data.

Retirement plan participants who hand pick their own mix of investment options are generally exposed to greater risk, due to reduced diversification and a tendency to not automatically adjust their portfolios over time, according to research from The Principal Financial Group.

Analysis shows that retirement savings plans are seeing an uptick – even among the younger generation of workers.

Americans express greater concern over the loss of employer-sponsored benefits than about being laid off in a new Gallup poll.

Defined contribution plan sponsors need to do a better job communicating key information to participants, according to a recent survey of plan participants conducted by State Street Global Advisors.

Two new studies amplify the benefits—especially for women—of working with financial advisers, and provide insight into a changing demographic for life insurers.

The Labor Department has sued to restore more than $34 million in assets to two retirement funds of Michigan-based vehicle parts manufacturer Metavation LLC that allegedly were used in violation of ERISA.

Many U.S. employers would like to retain selected Baby Boomers who choose to work beyond age 65, a new survey suggests.

A nearly four-fold increase in custom strategies for target-date fund assets held by 401(k) plans is projected by 2016 compared with the 2011 asset level of $46.4 billion.

With an increasingly youthful workplace come dramatic implications for employee benefits from the standpoint of recruiting and retaining top talent, but the biggest challenge will be tailoring strategies to multiple generations.

More than a third of retirement plan participants admitted that they either “guessed” or “made up” their estimates for how much income they would need in retirement, according to a new survey, while only 30% said they consulted with a professional for help in setting their goals.

Is your workforce going to retire in poverty?

Now, two years since OneAmerica first answered Edward Jones’ request for proposal, the two companies have partnered to offer a new set of retirement solutions for their Edward Jones’ employer clients.

The primary cause of stress, points out James Werner, CEO of Wealth Habit, is finances. With the average employer spending just under 9% of payroll on extended disability absences - most of which are related to stress - Werner believes an increased focus on financial wellness in the workplace has the potential to not only help employees save, but also save their employers "hundreds of thousands, or even billions, of dollars a year."

Private enterprise is limbering up for the 2012 EBN-EBA Financial Fitness Challenge, an online financial-education program sponsored by Employee Benefit News and Employee Benefit Adviser in partnership with Educated Investor, a provider of financial education products. Organizations of all types and sizes, from Walmart to Woodchuck Hard Cider, are taking part in the Challenge, which began last month.

Most experts are predicting massive consolidation among DC record keepers - with the big push just about to begin, especially with four national record keepers representing more than 100,000 defined contribution plans likely to change ownership in the next few months.