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On Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Labor (DOL) released its final Retirement Security Rule—also called the Fiduciary Rule—that it said will “protect the millions of workers who are saving for retirement diligently and rely on advice from trusted professionals on how to invest their savings...
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The new year has brought with it two new genres of Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) litigation, including the first-ever case of an employee alleging a fiduciary breach by the employer’s health care plan practices.
That said, cases involving prudent selection and monitoring of...
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It’s been said that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. But what if it’s a figment of your imagination?
“Crisis” is a word much bandied about these days, most particularly as a label applied to retirement—by foes and fans alike. Indeed, while not so long ago headlines posed that premise as a...
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Coming just days after announcing that it will be acquiring Vanguard's Individual 401(k), Multiple Participant SEP (Multi-SEP), and SIMPLE IRA plans business, Ascensus announced that Mary Torgerson will join the company as its new head of Small Business Retirement.
As a 20-year leader in financial...
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Spring cleaning is well underway. But that need not be limited to closets, kitchens, and garages—it can serve retirement plans and their administrators too. And one such prime function is addressing missing participants.
Missing participants—former employees whose benefits remain in the plan but...
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Wealth management M&A activity “continues to thrive,” with 90 transactions announced during the first quarter of 2024, representing a 20% increase over 2023’s first quarter, according to ECHELON Partners’ 1Q24 RIA M&A Deal Report.
While overall activity was down from the fourth quarter—...
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A federal court decision in an excessive fee case starts off by noting that “the late, renowned attorney-investor Charlie Munger once quipped that ‘the big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting.’”
In case you were wondering, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton goes on to...
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The American Retirement Association has confirmed that the Department of Labor (DOL) will release the fiduciary rule, officially called the Retirement Security Rule, on Tuesday.
Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su will announce the final regulation in a Treaty Room ceremony at 5 p.m.
It was...
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As the SEC ramps up its enforcement of the Marketing Rule’s stricter requirements, a newly released risk alert warns advisers that they are still coming up short in several areas.
Published by the SEC’s Division of Examinations, the alert shares preliminary observations concerning compliance...
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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) guidance to permit bankruptcy trustees to use its Abandoned Plans Program has moved off of the OMB dashboard and is back with the department, signaling the review is complete on the long-awaited release.
A summary description of the proposal explains that the...
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It’s a bit of a surprise. Ted Benna is joining a fintech.
The man who’s (literally) been in the 401(k) space since the beginning is embracing technology in a bid to help close the coverage gap.
For the one or two retirement plan advisors who don’t know, Benna first identified the 401(k) as a...
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Well, here we are again at the end of another workweek … and yet, just look at what has happened to these guys and gals…
By now those of you in a number of Midwest and southeastern states know that we’re looking at not one, but TWO broods of cicadas (Broods XIX and XIII) … and maybe another...
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Even though the Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to pause implementation of its recently finalized climate disclosure rule amid the various legal challenges, members of Congress are still moving ahead in an attempt to revoke the rule.
In an April 17 markup session, the House...
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Relatively few health savings accounts (HSA) are invested, eliminating one of the product’s biggest advantages.
Recent analysis from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) finds that only 13% of accountholders invested their HSAs in assets other than cash, suggesting many consumers need...
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The Green Mountain State and the Centennial State are going to partner in establishing VT Saves, the state-run program that will provide retirement plan coverage for private-sector employees in Vermont whose employers do not.
On June 1, 2023, Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed into law a measure creating...
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Six advisors reveal best practices and secrets to success.
Before becoming an advisor, Matthew Eickman served as legal counsel for plan committees. “So, I had the luxury of being in the room after all the finalist presentations had ended,” Eickman, an attorney who is now national retirement...
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An annual study that assesses Americans’ level of financial literacy finds a strong connection between people's retirement fluency and how financially prepared they are for retirement.
For instance, Americans correctly answered an average of only 40% of the retirement-related questions. And among...
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A national survey of women ages 25 and older, commissioned by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER), finds that for the second year in a row American women report substantial stress.
Compared to 2023, fewer women consider themselves financially...
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Momentum is increasing in Congress to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).
In March, Reps. Garret Graves (R-La.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) called on the House Ways and Means Committee to hold a markup on their bipartisan bill, H.R. 82, the ...
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The IRS on April 16 issued guidance on certain specified required minimum distributions (RMDs) for 2024. It adds that the final regulations it plans to issue related to RMDs will apply for purposes of determining RMDs for calendar years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2025.
The guidance is...
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ERISA consultants at the Retirement Learning Center (RLC) Resource Desk regularly receive calls from financial advisors on a broad array of technical topics related to IRAs, qualified retirement plans and other types of retirement savings and income plans, including nonqualified plans, stock...
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Vanguard and Ascensus have announced a major deal that could potentially shake up the small-business retirement plan market.
According to the April 16 announcement, Ascensus has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Vanguard's Individual 401(k), Multiple Participant SEP (Multi-SEP), and...
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Ongoing economic challenges are changing how Americans are thinking about retirement planning, with nearly 6 in 10 pre-retirees (57%) believing that inflation poses the most immediate challenge to their retirement portfolios over the next 12 months.
And this stress apparently is shifting the...
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Of all the promising provisions in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, one of the most expensive (as the federal government does math, anyway) is likely to be one of the most challenging to implement.
It’s not effective till 2027, so there’s still some time to figure it out—but I’m talking about the new...
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Collective investment trusts (CITs) are a greater focus of attention and activity in the wake of SECURE 2.0, as a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report highlights.
In “Pensions and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs): Investment Issues,” the CRS provides an overview of pension...
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