Wealth management

The DOL for 2015 has appointed five new members to its ERISA advisory council tasked with investigating and advising the Obama administration on subjects affecting employee benefit plans.

New Year’s resolutions aren’t just for dieters and exercisers. The start of a new year is an ideal time for retirement plan sponsor to assess the effectiveness of their plan. Virtually all plan sponsors have areas that are ripe for improvement.

2014 brought increased emphasis on retirement plans as employers are offering more engaging tools and creating a more holistic view of benefit offerings.

The Supreme Court is slated to hear the Tibble v. Edison case in 2015, which promises to be a landmark ruling for the corporate retirement space.

Low cost, no minimum investment and daily trading are reasons for their increased use over the past 10 years.

Historically, financial planners have advised that retirees could expect to derive their retirement income from three sources: Social Security, corporate retirement plans and personal savings. That might not be the case anymore.

The IRS has issued new guidance amending the safe harbor explanations for notices that plans must provide to recipients of eligible rollover distributions, offering benefit advisers and their employer clients some clarifying guidance on how to proceed with communications.

While it’s on the DOL agenda for January, many in the industry anticipate additional postponements before the new rule is released.

Employers looking to amplify their employees’ retirement prospects might look to the growing individual retirement account field, as involvement in employer-sponsored retirement plans remains largely unchanged.

While 401(k) plans may not be the perfect retirement plan vehicle, they do have a number of important attributes that most probably take for granted.

Plan sponsors see a growing need to use technology in retirement plan communications, with the majority saying they will increase their use of technology to deliver information to employees over the next two to three years.

Millennials are not saving enough to take full advantage of their employer’s 401(k) company match, but benefit advisers say there are many tools employers can use to turn this trend around and engage the younger generation.

Plan design plays a significant role in the success of a 401(k) plan, and there are opportunities for design to be catered to better suit employee needs and retirement objectives.

As retirement confidence among employees remains low, small business owners and their workforces may even be less prepared due to the scarcity of formal retirement education and established retirement savings plans to help this demographic.

Knowing all sides of a client’s benefits plan helps both retirement and health benefit consultants make better recommendations.

The nation’s largest corporate defined benefit pension plans continue to experience woes as their collective funding statuses dwindle due to unsavory interest rates.

A relatively small number of easily fixable problems can make a big difference in many 401(k) plans. Check out this list from EBN's retirement blogger Robert Lawton to see if your 401(k) plan can be improved.

Amid today’s rapidly changing benefits landscape, employers are increasingly called to become more informed plan fiduciaries overseeing decisions about their plan’s qualified default investment alternatives. Three main components hold particular importance to help employers make reasonable QDIA decisions and fulfill ERISA obligations.

The IRS last week announced new adjustments for retirement plans, including for 401(k) deferrals, contributions and benefits, and the amount of compensation counted for plan purposes beginning in 2015. Here’s what you and your employer clients need to know.

As more and more employers analyze their ever-growing pension obligations, Boeing and Hartford Financial Services Group are the latest companies to use the lump-sum payment tactic to limit their liabilities.