Wealth management

The survey found that two out of three Millennials expect to retire by the age of 65, although nearly 70% have not started planning or saving for retirement.

If interest rates remain low, more than one in four baby boomers and Gen Xers — who otherwise would have had adequate retirement income — are projected to run out of money in retirement.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch reports 207 plans with auto-increase features, up 9.5% from the end of last year. Participants in those plans also rose, by 9.3%, from 115,703 to 126,537.

Just one in-nine employees nearing retirement are confident in their ability to pay health care expenses.

A 65-year-old couple exiting the workforce in 2013 is estimated to need $220,000 to cover health care costs throughout their retirement, an 8% decrease from last year’s $240,000.

Guest blogger Adam Miloro maintains the issue concerning 401(k) loans continues to be the lack of education surrounding them. It’s true there are certain situations where taking a loan from one’s retirement plan could make sense, he writes, but for many employees loans signify a much larger problem: living beyond one's means.

“We may be jumping the gun,” says one expert. “While there is cognitive decline with normal aging, if we pull out people with brain disease, there’s not enough of a decline for us to worry about older peoples’ ability to make financial decisions.”

More than a third of Americans say they don’t feel financially secure, according to a survey from Unum. Moreover, the number of those who feel “not at all secure” is up from the last year. Women, meanwhile, feel more financially insecure than men.

In a scenario where retirement income and wealth account for 100% of an investor’s simulated retirement expenses, a model projects that around a quarter of baby boomers and Gen Xers who would have had sufficient retirement income under interest rates at historical averages would run out of money if the current low rates were taken as a permanent condition.

At the end of 2012, $1.3 trillion was held in the U.S. in ETFs, which got started 20 years ago by State Street Corporation. The ability to trade shares in the funds as if they were shares of stock has made them an increasingly significant part of equities.

A new Fidelity Investments study finds that noticeably more mothers than fathers have had comprehensive conversations about savings, planning and retirement with their adult children.

Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, plans to introduce legislation this year to require businesses that don’t offer a pension or 401(k) plan with a company match to automatically enroll workers in a so-called USA Retirement Fund.

Men and women are equally likely to say that they and/or their spouse have saved — or are currently saving — for retirement. And they are almost as likely to indicate that they have tried to calculate how much they will need to save for a comfortable retirement, with 45% of women and 47% of men claiming to have tried to make that calculation.

Baby boomers are bucking the trends of generations before them, according to research released this week from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. When it comes to what they will pass on, 72% cite values and life lessons as most important, while just 32% said financial and real estate assets.

The Fidelity Investments findings show that average balances in small business retirement savings plans increased 20% since 2007, and jumped an average of 64% over 2008 when balances were generally at their lowest point.

Nearly three out of five retirees say they retired earlier than they expected, according to a survey of retirees and pre-retirees conducted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Just one in nine pre-retirees, meanwhile, is completely confident in their ability to pay for their health care retirement expenses.

Less than half (42%) were aware that that their take-home pay would decline this year due to the recent elimination of the payroll tax holiday by Congress. The awareness was greater among men.

Studying a plan sponsor with 200,000 participants and a 25% annual turnover rate, BRG found that departing employees with personalized start-to-finish help from impartial counselors cut cashout rates in half and saved an estimated $6 million in costs.

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers has introduced legislation that would make it easier for workers to repay loans or withdrawals they take from their 401(k) plans, drawing praise from the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries.

Americans’ confidence in their retirement savings remains at record low levels, according to a survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.