Retirement benefits

Social Security retirement benefits for about 55 million people will go up by 3.6% next year, the first cost-of-living increase since 2009, the U.S. Social Security Administration said last week.

The longer you work, the better, retirement experts will tell you. Plow on until you're 70 and you'll make more, have fewer years of retirement to fund, and collect a fatter Social Security check. But that's not always desirable, or possible.

American workers are becoming more and more pessimistic about their retirement prospects, according to a new survey by Sun Life Financial, but those who have invested in annuities or hold long-term care insurance are decidedly more confident.

FINRA this week issued an investor alert urging the roughly 30% of American workers who are not contributing enough to their 401(k) plans to receive a full employer match to step up their contributions in order to meet their eventual retirement needs.

Independent and insurance brokers/dealers are the strongest sales channels for variable annuities, according to The Insured Retirement Institute’s “2011 Portfolio Construction Dynamics” report. But, generating income throughout these broker/dealers’ clients’ retirement doesn’t come without challenges. The report from IRI — in partnership with Cerulli Associates — explores these challenges and offers insight on how to grow adviser acceptance of variable annuities as a retirement income solution.

Here’s a scenario for you: a group health and wellness client you’ve represented for over ten years approaches you to be his/her adviser on a 401(k) plan. Congrats! You’ve worked hard to position yourself as a valued adviser. No doubt you’d like to reap the fruits of your labor. But your next action is extremely important. It may have not only ethical consequences, but legal ones as well. It is vital that you go forward with a…

A top Labor Department official defended the controversial plan to expand the definition of "fiduciary" to cover people providing advice to retirement plans on a commission-based model, a proposal strongly opposed by industry groups representing independent broker-dealers and advisers.

A significant number of advisers who serve 401(k) plans will ramp up their retirement income planning practices over the next few years, according to a new report from Principal Financial, called the “2011 Best Practices in Retirement Income Planning Study.”

As successful and focused defined contribution retirement plan advisers continue to grow their businesses at a rapid pace, they logically look to hire salespeople to take advantage of the many opportunities coming their way.

Experts agree that taking a loan from your 401(k) plan is rarely a good idea. But research suggests participant loan-taking from 401(k) plans is on the rise, particularly since 2008, when layoffs and financial turmoil left many American workers with nowhere else to turn for funds.

Historically, the retirement industry hasn't been required to publish all fees and expenses associated with 401(k) products. That's about to change.

Whaddaya know? All this time, I thought it was just retirement plan participants who didn’t understand the fees they were paying. Turns out, according to a recent Spectrem Group study, plan sponsors don’t understand plan fees all that well either — only 45% of plan sponsors fully understand their retirement plan fees, according to the report that evaluated some 600 plan sponsors with assets under management of $10 million to $200 million. …

It is certainly not news that most Americans are ill-prepared to retire with 70% income replacement. We can blame high fees, which the press and regulators seem to focus on, and a decade of low or negative returns, but the real problem is that most participants are not saving enough and are not actively engaged in the process of preparing for retirement. Then, some industry professionals are still implying that their services are free. But with sweeping disclosure regulations about to become law, that myth will be quickly debunked. It's time to debunk other myths and tell plan sponsors and participants the hard truth.

The top benefit advisers take their clients' needs very seriously. But Anthony (Tony) Madera, winner of this year's EBA Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year award, seems to take them personally.

Longer life expectancies and the individual responsibility for retirement savings are combining to challenge conventional thinking and to re-shape the relationships between employers and their older employees. Check out five significant practical benefits for plan sponsors.

With investors falling in and out of love with Wall Street at a rapid pace, some financial advisers are finding themselves playing a new role — that of marriage counselor. As financial markets remain in turmoil, couples are getting more anxious as they watch their nest eggs wither.

This week, LIMRA reported variable annuity sales increased 19% to $80.7 billion in the six months ended June 30 compared with the same period a year earlier. Today, the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) echoed the increase, reporting first-quarter sales at $40 billion, up 2% from $39.2 billion in the previous quarter.

Historically, the retirement industry hasn’t been required to publish all fees and expenses associated with 401(k) products. That’s about to change. The Labor Department noticed that the majority of 401(k) plan sponsors are in the dark regarding the fees they’re paying. To add insult to injury, most are under the impression that their plan is free. …

The aging of the U.S. baby boom generation may slow an already weak recovery as boomers sell stocks to pay for retirement, according to research released Monday from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.

Middle-income baby boomers, those earning between $30,000 and $74,000, are vastly underserved in terms of preparing for retirement, according to a new Insured Retirement Institute report, “Middle-Income Boomers and Retirement: Tapping the Significant and Underserved Middle-Income Market.”