Aon launches ‘PEP,’ with Voya as recordkeeper
The 'pooled employer plan' era has arrived, courtesy of the SECURE Act. PEPs could fundamentally alter the defined contribution retirement savings industry in the U.S.
401(k)/IRA
DOL requests input on ‘pooled’ 401(k)s
Are regulations needed to limit the potential for conflicts of interest and self-dealing among non-employer sponsors of "pooled employer" 401(k) plans, or PEPs? The Department of Labor seeks feedback.
Is Employer-Sponsorship of Plans Suboptimal?
'In the wake of the pandemic, retirement and health insurance coverage are likely to be delinked from employer-provided plans in many countries,' writes Olivia Mitchell, executive director of the...
BlackRock Makes a Bundle (with Annuities)
BlackRock, the giant asset manager, is adding a lifetime income dimension to its LifePath target date funds by partnering with Brighthouse, Equitable and Voya on a service that will...
Protect Your Nest Egg with Options
Advisors can help protect their clients from market drawdowns by purchasing puts on the S&P500 Index, writes our guest columnist, the founder and CEO of DALBAR, which rates the...
Can employers contribute less to their retirement plans?
In the current stressed environment, "employers must take steps to remain in business, which means reducing expenses, including their contributions to their qualified retirement plans," say Wagner Law Group...
Turn 401(k)s into Bond Ladders
Franklin Templeton SVP Drew Carrington says his firm's Defined Maturity Funds, which work like bond ladders, could provide retirement income for 401(k) participants, and could be paired with qualified...
Project LIMA Aims to Solve the Annuity Puzzle
Milliman, the actuarial consulting firm, envisions putting a multi-premium deferred income annuity inside a 401(k) managed account as a way to turn tax-deferred savings into lifetime income. It seeks...
Mike Bloomberg’s Retirement Security Plans
Bloomberg favors a public-option national workplace savings program, modeled on the federal Thrift Savings Plan. Its government match would be paid for with 'a reduction in the tax break...
MassMutual to offer student debt relief program
The program, administered by CommonBond, will be offered to 2.6 million MassMutual retirement plan participants. An estimated 44 million Americans owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, according to...
A Look Back at (and Beyond) the ‘Stretch’ IRA
Under the new SECURE Act, most non-spouses must withdraw and pay taxes on inherited IRA assets within ten years instead of "stretching" the process over (possibly) decades. What will...
The SECURE Act Set To Pass (Finally)
'This is an early Christmas present,' said Melissa Kahn, managing director of the Defined Contribution team at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), in an interview yesterday.
What rollover IRA owners are thinking
59% of US households with traditional IRAs in mid-2019, or 21 million US households, had accounts that included rollover assets from employer-sponsored retirement plans, according to a recent survey by...
Buttigieg’s plan to close the 401(k) coverage gap
The Buttigieg plan would borrow elements of the SIMPLE IRA, the auto-IRAs created in California and Oregon, and existing 401(k)s to ensure that any full-time “middle-earning American worker” can...
Marshmallows and Social Security
Should US retirees delay claiming Social Security until age 70, even if they have to spend savings until then? The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College proposes that...
MassMutual’s vision for Open MEPs (if they become reality)
MassMutual, a manager of multiple-employer retirement plans for affiliated companies since 1989, hopes to manage Open MEPs. Legislation on Open MEPs is stalled in the U.S. Senate.
New safe harbor for electronic retirement plan disclosures
Retirement plan sponsors can now satisfy disclosure requirements by making the information available on a website, Wagner Law Firm experts explain. Photo: Marcia Wagner.
Wide variation seen in British target date funds
Here’s another instance--along with coverage ratios, fiduciary duties of advisors, and the decline of pensions--where the British and American retirement industries share certain challenges.
‘Auto-portability’ gets green light from DOL
Retirement Clearinghouse, creator of a technology by which small abandoned 401(k) accounts would automatically follow their owners to their next plan, has received the permissions it needed to begin...
Your copy of ‘How America Saves,’ small biz edition
The new report, which complements Vanguard's recent 'How America Saves 2019' report on retirement savings in large retirement plans, documents savings patterns among workers in smaller plans.
