For many defined contribution (DC) plan sponsors, offering target date funds1 as a qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) has become almost expected. A target date fund invests based on a particular date, such as the year of a participant’s projected retirement. For many defined contribution (DC) plan sponsors, offering target date funds1 as a qualified [...]
Like most investors, you may be concerned about outliving your money.. To sustain your savings during retirement, consider strategies that may help address the following four money-diminishing factors: Longer life expectancies In May 2016, scientists attended a Harvard conference to discuss a groundbreaking new idea — fabricating a human genome from scratch. Using a gene-editing [...]
Eighteen years ago, the retirement industry rolled out automatic enrollment to help combat employee inertia, increase participation in workplace retirement plans, and foster higher savings rates. Still, a surprising number of plan sponsors don’t offer it. However, employees say they value defined contribution plans, and they desire automatic enrollment and escalation features. A recent survey [...]
On October 27, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service announced 401k contribution limit and cost-of-living adjustments affecting dollar limitations and compensation thresholds for pension plans and other retirement-related items for tax year 2017. 401k Contibution Limit Increases and Changes The Highlights of Limitations that Changed from 2016 to 2017 For single taxpayers covered by a [...]
Conducting an annual review of your retirement goals and strategy is an ideal way to check that your plans for your financial future remain realistic and on track. With that in mind, taking the three easy steps outlined below will help you conduct your retirement tune-up. Step 1: Review Your Retirement Goals Your first step [...]
DOL Update Participant Fee Disclosure Deadline Extended During second quarter, the DOL released final regulations to permanently extend the annual participant fee disclosure time frame, effective this year. The original regulations require plans to provide a disclosure of plan and investment information, including an investment comparative chart, to participants once every 12 months. The first [...]
401k Supreme Court Update Ongoing Fiduciary Duty to Monitor Plan Investments Under ERISA, the plan fiduciary (typically the plan sponsor or a plan committee) has a fiduciary obligation to monitor plan fees and pay only reasonable fees from plan assets. The DOL has focused significant attention on this fiduciary responsibility through its fee disclosure mandates. In [...]
If you are the sponsor for an employer-sponsored, here are some resources available on the Internet to help you better manage your plan. Internal Revenue Service, Employee Plans www.irs.gov/ep Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration www.dol.gov/ebsa 401(k) Help Center www.401khelpcenter.com BenefitsLink www.benefitslink.com PlanSponsor Magazine www.plansponsor.com Plan Sponsor Council of America www.psca.org Employee Benefits Institute [...]
401k Legislative Update State-Based Retirement Plan Initiatives While Congress has been unable to reach a consensus regarding whether automatic IRAs should be mandated for employers that do not offer retirement plans, a number of states have moved forward on this initiative, passing their own state-based retirement savings programs. Recently, 26 Senators wrote a joint letter to [...]
Take a peek behind the scenes of other sponsors’ retirement plans and you may gain some useful insights into ways to improve your own retirement plan. Some key findings in a recent benchmarking report include: The most common investment vehicle was the mutual fund, which held 46% of 401(k) plan assets. In all but the [...]
