Wealth management

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.

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.”

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.

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

At current savings rates, Americans are on track to replace over half of their current income in retirement. Having access to a workplace-sponsored retirement plan, meanwhile, is the No. 1 factor in determining retirement success.

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.

Fortune 500 companies are increasingly asking their CEOs to tie their personal wealth more substantially to that of their shareholders.

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

How many of your employees will be short of money in retirement if they ignore the prospect of requiring long-term care? Answer: All of them.

Commentary: It’s time to start thinking outside the box and considering life insurance and fixed indexed annuities as alternative investments or sub investment classes within fixed income for retirement plans.

Some employees can’t even afford to wait for their next paycheck to arrive, and for them there’s a new app for that – assuming their employer is willing to go along with it.

The patchwork of marriage laws across the country imposes an administrative and financial burden on employers, says a recent amicus brief filed on behalf of large employers in an upcoming Supreme Court case.

Commentary: Distant financial needs are rarely addressed by workers on their own, which is why employers should enhance retirement education to make up the deficit.

Illinois’s remedy for the state’s worst-in- the-nation $111 billion pension-funding shortfall was disliked by lawmakers who voted for it, the new governor who inherited it and public employee unions who sued to void it.

Consumers Union, the owner of Consumer Reports, agreed to eliminate the March 15 deadline for approval of an employment contract that includes an adjustable pension plan employees had bargained for in 2013.

As corporations continue to freeze or eliminate defined benefit plans, American workers may be getting increasingly concerned about their financial security in retirement and looking for guaranteed income options.