Retirement education

U.S. working adults who seek the help of an adviser are more likely to describe themselves as savers and have less debt than those without an adviser.

Commentary: Stretching a match has strong appeal for companies that have identified a retirement benefit philosophy that prioritizes the ability of its employees to retire with the right replacement ratio.

More and more employers are looking to ensure the retirement readiness and financial wellbeing of their employees, as financial stress has shown to make a significant impact on both the physical well-being of employees and their workplace productivity.

Commentary: Bloviating terms have no meaning to plan participants, who simply want to know if their pensions will be delivered as promised.

Fee disclosure rules may have helped bring 401(k) fees down, but plan sponsors can still do more to ensure they – and their employees – aren’t paying too much.

Commentary: Many safe harbor IRAs don’t live up to their name and could leave sponsors with unexpected fiduciary liability.

Many believe the DOL has gone about its fiduciary rule-making in the wrong way and fear the rules, as proposed, will do more harm than good.

Industry trade groups and associations flooded the DOL with suggested amendments and revisions to its proposed fiduciary rule, ahead of the July 21 deadline for comments.

Higher PBGC premiums and a volatile market are catalysts for risk management in DB plans.

Increasingly, employers are expanding wellness programs to include financial guidance. But do these programs go far enough?

Women over the age of 65 are twice as likely as men to live in poverty in retirement because of lower wages, more time spent out of the workforce and lack of access to retirement savings plans.

As the baby boom generation approaches retirement, employers will need to ask themselves what role a highly experienced, part-time workforce can play in their organization.

Companies are shifting their attention to health coverage for their pre-65 retiree population and exploring the opportunities public exchanges provide this population, now that the Supreme Court has upheld subsides on the federally-facilitated health insurance marketplace.

As the White House kicks off its Conference on Aging this week, one financial services vendor is launching a new education program for its plan sponsor clients focused on creating greater awareness of the nation’s aging population.

Commentary: Delivering fee disclosure notices to both plan sponsors and plan participants has helped some plan sponsors to lower their costs, but the various fee disclosures are still difficult for many to understand. With such a national focus on fees, some plan sponsors have taken the opportunity to review and rethink how they handle plan fees.

Failure to identify all retirement plan fiduciaries is just one common mistake employers make that can lead to trouble.

There are more ways for defined contribution plan participants to gain access to professional investment management than by defaulting them into target-date funds or using a separately managed account.

The DOL’s proposed definition of fiduciary advice remains worrisomely broad, according to financial and legal experts who are calling upon the industry to flood the DOL with letters of concern about the rule’s possible implications.

Plan sponsors’ loyalty to their retirement service providers is slightly down year-over-year, presenting an opportunity for advisers to advocate for their clients.

Commentary: The term ‘fiduciary’ is often hard to define and can be interpreted in many ways, so it begs the question: How can plan sponsors best fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities in the context of a mandatory distribution program?