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When a new hire joined a U.S. Fortune 500 company in 1998, there was about a 59% chance he or she would be offered a traditional or hybrid defined benefit (DB) pension. As of 2017, that likelihood dropped to 16% in the same group of employers, according to a new Willis Towers Watson (WTW) retrospective […]
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 passed by Congress on February 8 and signed the next day by President Trump didn’t change retirement savings taxation or contribution limits, but it did bring good news for some plan activities.
Nearly 25% of full-time employees in the U.S. do not receive benefits, such as health insurance, retirement savings plan, or paid vacation, from their employers, according to a new survey by Clutch, a B2B research firm. These findings suggest that by not offering a benefits package, businesses risk losing out on top talent during the […]
The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) in late 2017 launched another way for terminated defined contribution (DC) retirement plans to locate missing participants and make it more likely that they receive their benefits.
If your workers are like other Americans, they’re worried about their financial health. As Andrew S. Zito notes on the Employee Benefit News website, a recent Bankrate survey found that many Americans can’t come up with $500 for an emergency. Moreover, a survey by PriceWaterhouseCoopers suggests employers could be losing money due to productivity declines […]
Many employees with health savings accounts (HSAs) are failing to capitalize on the full potential of these tax-advantaged accounts, according to a recent study by Willis Towers Watson (WTW).
The financial well-being of U.S. employees reversed direction this year following several years of steady improvement, according to a new survey by Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory, broking, and solutions company. The biennial survey also revealed a large increase in the number of employees who say their financial woes are negatively affecting their lives […]
The second half of 2017 brought devastating hurricanes to several areas of the Southern U.S. and Puerto Rico. In recognition of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, the U.S. Congress provided for both retirement plan hardship distribution tax relief and more generous plan loan rules for participants whose primary residences were damaged in one of the […]
Retirement plan compliance priorities for Fiscal Year 2018 released September 28 by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) indicated the agency’s Employee Plans (EP) unit will emphasize analyzing plan failure trends, refine outreach, and other communications about noncompliance, and enhance its knowledge management program. In an era of doing more with less, the IRS has shifted […]
In this article, we’ll look at some of the key benefits 401(k)s provide to both employees and employers, as well as some important practical considerations. Many thanks to Arris Murphy, J.D., Contributing Editor to BLR’s The 401(k) Handbook, from which the material for this piece originated.