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The U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation may start providing new services to help plan sponsors spend less time identifying, locating and corresponding with missing plan participants. The agency is seeking public comment until Aug. 20 on several aspects of administering a missing participants program when terminating individual account plans, according to a June 21 Federal […]
Most U.S. small business owners think the country’s lack of retirement readiness threatens business and the economy, yet that concern doesn’t necessarily translate to concrete action to address it, a new survey has found. Only about one-third of small-business owners offer a retirement plan for their employees, according to “Poll Report: Small Business Owners’ Views on […]
If your plan has been considering adding “in-plan guarantees” to the menu of retirement savings options you offer, new research finds an appetite for them among U.S. defined contribution plan participants. Although the actual market for these instruments in the United States is still limited, the guarantees, which give employees an opportunity while still working […]
Requests for proposals are overtaking more informal referrals and industry networking as the most common way for retirement plan sponsors to select their advisers. But this increasing popularity is not universal — some plans on the East Coast still have not fully embraced RFPs, a new survey found. And cost wasn’t the main driver for […]
Concerns about the effect of lump-sum retiree distributions on the funded status of defined benefit pension plans with ongoing obligations to future beneficiaries were prominent as members of the ERISA Advisory Council tackled issues of “derisking” at a June 5 open meeting at the U.S. Department of Labor. There was high interest in the topic […]
Target-date funds’ popularity over the last 10 years has soared, among both plan sponsors and participants, so odds are your plan offers these as an investment option. Their wide acceptance after being designated an eligible qualified default investment alternative for automatically enrolled new participants seems likely to guarantee their ultimate presence in most plans. A […]
The day after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration issued a proposal outlining rules it is considering for lifetime income illustrations in pension benefit statements, retirement industry professionals applauded DOL’s effort but expressed concern about how realistic the proposal’s formulas are. In the recently released advance notice of proposed rulemaking, EBSA is […]
A recent appeals court ruling may increase plan sponsors’ confidence about including and holding company stock in their retirement plans — especially those in the financial services industry. In White v. Marshall & Ilsley No. 11-2660, (7th Cir., April 19, 2013), the presumption-of-prudence defense again was upheld when retirement-plan participant plaintiffs appealed a 2011 district-court ruling, […]
Regulatory guidance is closer to fruition that may help 401(k) and 403(b) plan sponsors better educate plan participants on lifetime income options, and may allay their concerns about the expense and legal risk of doing so. On May 8, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking […]
If it seemed to you that investment and funding decisions for your defined benefit plan in 2012 were at odds with each other, you weren’t alone. In its annual report on DB plans, global employee benefits consultant Towers Watson says that in 2012, once again there were many investment contradictions for U.S. DB plan sponsors: […]