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Retirement Income
Living longer is only part of the new old age — and understanding demographics and market opportunity will help fiduciaries better meet retirees' needs, notes Joe Coughlin, Ph.D., founder and Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab.In an interview with Fiduciary News’ Chris...
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Despite taking a beating during a tumultuous period in the markets, America’s retirement confidence proved to be resilient, if not its level of preparation.According to the 26th wave of the Retirement Confidence Survey, the percentage of workers very confident about having enough money for a...
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A recent ruling reminds us of the importance of ensuring that plan beneficiary designations are up to date — and that plans should have a documented procedure for how such changes are to take place.In Becker v. Mays-Williams, 2016 WL 878492 (W.D. Wash. 2016), an employee of Xerox Corporation...
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The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in its latest quarterly report about U.S. financial accounts, provides information on how defined benefit funds fared from a variety of perspectives during the fourth quarter of 2015. The report, “Financial Accounts of the United States: Flow of Funds,...
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When are sequence-of-returns risk and retirement date of concern? Are they issues only after retirement begins and then progresses?Michael Kitces in a recent Nerd’s Eye View blog post defines sequence-of-returns risk as “the fact that even if markets average out to long-term returns eventually, if...
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The good news is that more Boomers used a financial calculator to run a retirement projection last year than the year before. On the other hand… A new report by Financial Finesse notes that 50% of Boomers did a retirement projection in 2015, up (slightly) from 47% in 2014. Unfortunately, this...
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UPDATE, MARCH 14: The provision described below was subsequently withdrawn. For more on that development, click here. The Connecticut Retirement Security Board has taken another step forward with its implementation plan by introducing legislation creating the Connecticut Retirement Security...
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Standard & Poors reported on March 3 that pension funding for the S&P 1500 and S&P 500 fell in February. But there was some good news: the drop was much less than during the previous month.Companies in the S&P 1500 saw their pension funding drop by 1% in February to 78%; funding for...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) is planning to study how retirement planning strategies and decisions evolve — and it would like to know what you think about the effort.The DOL’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) is soliciting comments on the usefulness of a forthcoming information...
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Does a participant who made an early retirement decision based on a plan administrator’s errant benefit projection have a cause of action? Well, as a recent decision details, it can depend on what they claim — and when.In Lebahn v. Owens, No. 14-3244 (10th Cir. 2016), Trent Lebahn, a sales manager...
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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been looking into replacement rates — and it’s got some suggestions for the Department of Labor (DOL).The GAO report, prepared at the request of Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and...
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Pension funds have been confronted with a series of challenges of late, but new research suggests they aren’t taking things lying down.Based on responses from 400 pension professionals in 20 countries over two months, State Street Corporation found that pension funds will look to “own” five...
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There has been a massive shift in the types of retirement plans offered by the Fortune 500 since 1998 — unless you’re talking about hybrid plans. A new report by Willis Towers Watson notes that approximately 90% of Fortune 500 employers that sponsored traditional DB plans in 1998 have changed the...
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Financial factors can certainly influence retirement decisions, but what role, if any, do nonfinancial considerations play?A paper summarizing the work of other researchers published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College notes that if financial considerations drove retirement...
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A new report suggests that while early distributions from retirement plans are a cross-generational issue, it may be a bigger behavioral problem than is widely appreciated.The white paper, published by the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), notes that while less than...
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Small business retirement plans are again under attack. Buried in a Treasury Department proposal to make it easier for large corporations to close their defined benefit plans to new entrants is a provision that will make it harder for small businesses to form new retirement plans or maintain their...
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The IRS has proposed additional limitations on suspension of benefits applicable to certain pension plans under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA).The IRS in RIN 1545-BN24 has proposed regulations that would provide guidance regarding a provision of the MPRA that governs the...
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Most Americans seem to like their 401(k)s — even if they don’t have a 401(k) — and they’re not very keen on government proposals to change them, according to a new survey.In fall 2015, a whopping 88% of households disagreed that the government should take away the tax advantages of DC accounts, and...
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The assets of the nation’s largest retirement funds slid 2.3%, as pension de-risking moves took their toll on corporate DB plan assets.Among the 200 largest plans, DC plan assets crept 1.5% higher to close at $1.81 trillion, while DB plans shed 3.6% to $4.58 trillion. Pensions & Investments...
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Defined benefit plans’ allocation to commodities and returns from those investments fell in 2015, says a recent report.According to Pensions & Investments, the top 1,000 DB plans’ allocation in commodities dropped by 16.2% since 2014. P&I reports that the decline in the Bloomberg Commodity...
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