Retirement education

Workers and retirees know what they should be doing to prepare for retirement but when it comes to action, neither group is prepared.

Now, more than ever, the retirement plan services industry is placing a greater emphasis on in-plan guaranteed income solutions to help employees achieve better retirement outcomes.

Defined contribution plans have become one of the fastest-growing segments of the retirement industry, representing $7 trillion of the $24 trillion in retirement system assets in 2014, and while private companies have been at the forefront of the change, but government entities are following suit, which means DC plans will become even more important in the years ahead.

You may have noticed that there's a new trend sweeping the financial services industry: robo-advisers. These services use algorithms to automate investing, manage individual portfolios and provide financial guidance.

Commentary: Three reasons Individual contracts are incompatible with ERISA plans and how to handle it, according to The Principal’s Aaron Friedman.

There’s room to grow in the investment-only variable annuity space, and educated advisers are the key.

Employers may want to take note of the qualifying longevity annuity contract rules that were put in place last year under the required minimum distribution rules of the Internal Revenue Code.

Continued lawsuits over excessive 401(k) fees are on track to force providers to change the way they deliver products and end a practice that appears to be a “showcase of impropriety.”

Commentary: There isn't one right answer to what a plan should look like, but there’s no harm in asking around to see what other employers consider reasonable.

The amount of money socked away in retirement accounts jumped up 6% with U.S. retirement assets totaling nearly $25 trillion at the end of December 2014.

NAPA’s Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor credential gives advisers a formal means to show they have the expertise needed to serve as a plan fiduciary, or help plan fiduciaries with their responsibilities.

The 401(k) industry may be the next slice of the financial services industry to be targeted by technology disruptors.

As American workers are increasingly looking to a new range of employer-sponsored retirement products to help guarantee some securely funded golden years, they may be missing out on the advantages of a system they’ve paid into their entire working lives.

Fewer than one in five American workers are contributing to traditional individual retirement accounts, with many pointing to a lack in financial confidence to afford such contributions as one of the biggest reasons for not investing.

A lack of understanding about the benefits of having both an individual retirement account and a 401(k) or 403(b) may help explain why some Americans are not contributing or considering an IRA as part of their retirement strategy.

California's struggling to pay for health care for retired state employees, with an estimated $72 billion in medical costs coming in the next 30 years. Gov. Jerry Brown's solution: Make workers start contributing money to pay for the health care they'll need after retiring.

The funded status of all U.S. multiemployer pension plans dropped from 81% at the end of 2013 to 80% at the end of last year.

Earning less money and a lack of financial knowledge make saving more difficult for women, who are turning to advisers for help, research shows.

Like the Obama administration, agency chair calls for a new regulation that would make brokers put the interests of their clients ahead of their own.

Like the recycling of paper, glass and plastic, the recycling of retirement savings through automated portability benefits everyone and is easy to implement.