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Defined Contribution Plans
Witnesses testifying before a House panel agreed that more needs to be done to address the current retirement savings coverage gap, but they diverged on what those solutions should entail.
The June 23 hearing, “Examining Pathways to Build a Stronger, More Inclusive Retirement System,” before the...
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The who, what, when and how many of retirement plan committees, as well as some best practices.
It’s been said that a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours, but advisors know they are an essential element in assuring prudent retirement plan operation and administration. In...
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Editor’s Note: This is the second of a four-part series concerning a recent ASPPA webinar by Kelsey Mayo, ASEA Director of Regulatory Policy and Partner at Poyner & Spruill LLP, in which she took a look at the basics about plan freezes and terminations in the context of current circumstances...
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Rollovers from defined contribution plans to IRAs increased by more than 12.6% in 2020, according to a recently released study.
The Secure Retirement Institute estimates that rollovers from DC plans to IRAs totaled approximately $623 billion in 2020, up from the $565 billion transferred in 2019...
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Plan design features, such as auto-enrollment, auto-escalation and target-date funds, helped DC plan participants stay the course and improve retirement outcomes, according to the most recent edition of the firm’s How America Saves study.
The adoption of automatic enrollment has more than tripled...
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That said, workers say that they would rather have a boosted 401(k) match than a raise, given their choice of benefit options, according to a new survey.
Eighty percent of respondents agree that the traditional idea of retirement is no longer accurate for most people’s expectations or experiences...
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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) newly released Spring 2021 regulatory agenda confirms that a fiduciary rule rewrite is in the works and provides other key insight for the department’s regulatory plans for the coming months.
Fiduciary Rule Recast
The 10-year saga of the fiduciary rule will...
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In May, the heads of two key congressional retirement policy committees—Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), Chair of the House Committee on Education & Labor Committee—sent a letter to the U.S....
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While market volatility certainly affected retirement savings in 2020, new research shows that participants saved more, account balances grew and plan sponsors remained steadfast.
“Reference Point,” T. Rowe Price’s annual benchmarking report, reveals that the overall average pretax deferral rate...
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Each year, the IRS asks for input on the retirement benefits items (and relative priority of such items) to be included on the Priority Guidance Plan. Here’s the American Retirement Association’s response regarding the 2021-2022 Priority Guidance Plan—in priority order.
The ARA list of items...
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There’s an old adage that investors should “Sell in May and go away”—in order to avoid the summer market doldrums—but what about the average 401(k)?
Well, as it turns out that May was a good, though not a great, month for the markets—but a bit better for the average 401(k) account.
Despite some...
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The Securing a Strong Retirement Act (SSRA)—a.k.a. SECURE 2.0—is wending its way through Capitol Hill. The measure contains a wide range of provisions that would affect retirement saving, plans and participants. A recent Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA) webinar zeroed in on some key...
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A plan fiduciary—and their outsourced investment consultant—are being sued for a “self-serving” fund swap that is alleged to have cost participants more than $100 million to date.
This time it’s plaintiff Maggie Thomson[1] (on behalf of some 42,000 participants in the $1.4 billion Caesars...
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Editor’s Note: This is the first of a four-part series concerning a recent ASPPA webinar by Kelsey Mayo, ASEA Director of Regulatory Policy and Partner at Poyner & Spruill LLP, in which she took a look at the basics about plan freezes and terminations in the context of current circumstances and...
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Legislation backed by the American Retirement Association that would “make improvements so that more organizations and small businesses can participate in multiple employer plans (MEPs)” has been introduced in the U.S. Senate.
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and James...
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In what may be their final act teaming up on retirement security legislation, the bipartisan duo of Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) on May 21 reintroduced their Retirement Security and Savings Act (S. 1770).
Like the previous version introduced in the last session of Congress, the...
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Decumulation—spending down retirement savings—is, of course, ultimately the end result of a lifetime of saving for retirement. But how that is done can be an issue; a recent blog entry argues that education and how automatic features are used are key to responsible withdrawals.
In “Withdrawing...
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A class action involving a $1.6 billion 401(k) plan has been fast-tracked to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for a ruling on an issue of emerging concern in ERISA excessive fee litigation.
The case involves three participant-plaintiffs—Mary K. Boley, Kandie Sutter and Phyllis Johns...
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Mistakes in complying with reporting requirements happen; they may even be all but inevitable. And when they do take place, corrective amendments are a way to fix those errors. A recent ASPPA webinar took a look at some of them.
“Plan document failures are always considered significant,”...
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Amid ongoing questions surrounding the use of private equity investments in professionally managed funds within 401(k)s, a senior Department of Labor (DOL) official confirmed that the department is conducting stakeholder outreach to assess the issue.
Speaking May 10 at the first day of EBRI’s...
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