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Retirement Income
Recently, we explored the reasons why small businesses DON’T offer a retirement plan to their workers. But there are quite different—and positive—reasons for choosing to do so.
The obstacles that keep most small businesses from offering a retirement plan to their workers are an assortment of...
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While employers strive to address employees’ evolving needs, the results of a new survey find a disconnect between compensation and benefit offerings and employee preferences.
Franklin Templeton’s Voice of the American Workplace Survey, now in its fourth year, finds that employee expectations are...
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Editor’s Note: This is part II of a two-part series. Part I is available here.
Generation Z is looking ahead and shows a healthy regard and respect for their financial future, long-term. Studies show that they have a strong interest in financial literacy, saving and employer-provided retirement...
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The solvency of Social Security is not a new concern. It’s been on a slow—or, at times, high—burn for more than 40 years. Proposals to address the problem are almost as numerous as the warnings about it; in a recent report, the Congressional Research Service takes a look at the potential impact of...
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It is now possible to offer plan participants in 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) plans the option to treat employer contributions as Roth contributions, under the SECURE 2.0 Act.
More precisely, it is Section 604 of the SECURE 2.0 Act that allows plan participants to elect to have any fully vested...
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A hearing that was billed as “taking a serious look at the retirement crisis in America” with a focus on improving the defined benefit system ended with witnesses agreeing that some reforms are needed, but calling for drastically different measures.
The Feb. 28 hearing was held by the Senate...
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A bill currently before the Georgia legislature would affect the exercise of fiduciary duty regarding the investment of retirement plan assets. The legislation includes a provision that would require a fiduciary to put the interests of participants and their beneficiaries ahead of “nonpecuniary...
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Familiar 401(k) critic Teresa Ghilarducci testified before Congress on Feb. 28, claiming America’s retirement system is “severely broken” and seniors must either “work or rely on the kindness of strangers to dodge the increasing risk of elder poverty."
Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School...
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Just as Congress gets ready to debate whether there is a “retirement crisis,” new survey results from an organization supportive of restoring defined benefit plans finds that Americans are increasingly worried about retirement.
According to the survey results from the National Institute on...
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The states that offer a retirement program for private-sector employees whose employers do not have a new prospective member: Michigan. Legislation has been entered in the state House of Representatives that would create such a program in the Wolverine State.
The Retirement Savings Program Act, HB...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) has gone to court to protect retirement plan assets in a case of alleged embezzlement by a TPA.
The DOL says that an emergency temporary restraining order (TRO) has been issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against RiversEdge...
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Congress’ watchdog agency apparently thinks so. That was one of the recommendations in a newly released report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
A “pension dashboard” could be useful in the United States to help participants track their retirement savings when they change jobs, but...
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Editor’s Note: This is part I of a two-part series.
It’s not unusual for older generations to look askance at their younger counterparts and dismiss them with a harumph at the thought that one day they will come to the fore. But some recent data suggests that in the case of the youngest...
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On Feb. 20, the American Retirement Association (ARA) sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that addressed technical issues affecting certain SECURE 2.0 provisions. It noted a few that are of particular relevance to retirement plan sponsors and advisors.
More specifically, the ARA...
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Amid the recent attacks on the 401(k) savings system, the key Senate committee with jurisdiction over ERISA plans to hold a hearing next week to examine what it describes as “confronting the retirement crisis facing working class Americans.”
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP...
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The solution to the coverage gap lies through small business—but only about a third have been approached in the past year about offering one, according to a new survey.
That’s not exactly a new revelation—any number of surveys and government data throughout the years indicates that the vast...
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The New Mexico Senate is considering a request for a study regarding equalization of teachers’ pensions with those of public employees.
Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo), President Pro Tempore of the New Mexico Senate, on Jan. 18 introduced SM 4, a bill requesting that the Legislative Finance...
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While the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) recovered $1.435 billion in direct payment to plans, participants and beneficiaries in fiscal year 2023, that number has been trending downward for the past few years.
According to a fact sheet released by EBSA,...
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In another of the “what a difference a year makes” cliche, a newly released study finds that, not only did 401(k) balances bounce back from 2022, but other indicators were also trending in the right direction.
Bank of America Retirement and Personal Wealth Solutions’ fourth quarter 2023...
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How well do you (think you) know your significant other?
The passage of time—shared experiences and the process of getting to know each other reveals much—and yet I learned something new about my partner of some four decades just last week!
That brought to mind one of the favorite game shows of...
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