If you think it’s complicated trying to determine an individual’s retirement funding needs, imagine trying to do so for all American workers.When EBRI modeled the retirement savings gap of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers earlier this year, we found that between 43 and 44 percent of the households were... READ MORE

Providers, and particularly DCIO’s, spend a lot of money on value-add services to help them distinguish themselves and their services above and beyond record keeping administration and money management — much of which has been commoditized. The array of products, services and tools is virtually... READ MORE

Guardian Life has hired industry veteran Stephen Davis to run sales at their retirement plan division, replacing Dale Magner, who departed earlier this year. Most recently Davis was at The Hartford, where he represented their mid market services to advisors. Previously he held a similar position at... READ MORE

Batten down the hatches — a perfect storm lies dead ahead. Election-year politics, a struggling economy, a gargantuan federal budget deficit and the push for tax reform will combine soon, and will create a challenge for the retirement planning industry that we haven’t seen since 1986. That’s the... READ MORE

You may want to put one or both of these upcoming disclosure-related webcasts on your calendar:What Plan Committees Must Do with 408(b)(2) DisclosuresNow that service providers to ERISA-governed retirement plans have provided written disclosures about their services, fiduciary status and... READ MORE

An Investment Company Institute study released last month, “Who Gets Retirement Plans and Why, 2011”, found that nearly three-quarters of those likely to save for retirement have access to a retirement plan through their employer or their spouse’s employer. Of that group, 93 percent participate.... READ MORE

At the annual National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDC) conference in San Diego, Phyllis Borzi, head of DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, opined that public plans should follow private plan disclosure rules even though she has no jurisdiction over... READ MORE

Female wealth managers now manage an average of 5% more assets than their male counterparts, according to Fidelity’s 6th annual Broker and Advisor Sentiment survey. Behavioral finance research shows that women take less risk than men and are more realistic, while men tend to be more confident and... READ MORE

By Timothy D. Rice Our industry is notorious for churning out large reports for investment committee meetings that, for all intents and purposes, are thrown by the wayside an hour or two after the committee meeting. For our firm, the decision to “go green” in other aspects of our business was an... READ MORE

Now that plan sponsors realize that 401(k) plans will the primary vehicle that most of their employees will rely on to finance their retirement, a recent survey by Towers Watson outlines how behavior has changed — especially regarding plan design, communication, fees and retirement income. Though... READ MORE

It’s campaign season — do you know where your proposed regulation is?The pending regulation from the DOL that would expand the definition of investment advice and fiduciary status with respect to retirement plans has disappeared down a rabbit hole that magically appears in Washington every four... READ MORE

As you may have heard, there’s an election coming up in about a month. In a video shot just before the first presidential debate, NAPA’s Executive Director and Washington insider Brian Graff explains his take on the presidential campaign as it enters the stretch run, the likely political balance in... READ MORE