A federal bankruptcy judge has blocked the claims of several hundred 401(k) participants seeking to recover money invested by their retirement plans with Bernie Madoff’s investment firm. The decision, by Judge Stuart Bernstein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, rejected the claims of some... READ MORE

It is routinely reported that 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every day, and yet surveys continue to indicate that Americans plan to postpone retirement.   This raises the question: are more older Americans working? A recent Wall Street Journal article notes (subscription required) that... READ MORE

With the official report not due until September, a draft report released by the Oregon legislature's Task Force on Oregon Retirement Savings offers a blueprint of a proposed new mandatory auto-IRA program for the state. According to a report in the Oregon Statesman-Journal, the proposal calls for... READ MORE

Despite their lack of retirement savings, a new survey finds that Millennials feel more financially secure than any other age group. Not only do Millennials — those between 18 and 29 years old — feel more secure in their jobs and more optimistic about their current financial situation than... READ MORE

While plan sponsors and workers are not always aligned on issues of plan design, a new survey finds agreement on the number one reason for lack of plan participation — a lack of understanding. According to Deloitte’s Annual Defined Contribution Benchmarking Survey, the most-cited reason by... READ MORE

The U.S. Department of Labor has published a request for information on the use of brokerage windows, self-directed brokerage accounts and “similar features” in 401(k)-type plans.  “We promised employers and other plan sponsors and fiduciaries that we would look into the use of brokerage... READ MORE

NFP reports that it has added 53 new advisors, all members of RPAG, one of the largest independent retirement plan consulting groups in the country.  The announcement comes less than a month after NFP announced that 401(k)Advisors and RPAG have been integrated into NFP, with Vince Giovinazzo and... READ MORE

With the ERISA fiduciary community still absorbing the impact of the Supreme Court’s rejection of the presumption of prudence standard for company stock in retirement plans, a federal appellate court has introduced a new and potentially complicating aspect to consider.  The traditional... READ MORE

The use of assumptions was the focus of a recent report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), which not only highlighted the assumptions used in two separate retirement studies, but illustrated a real problem with their results.  The EBRI report examined two earlier  studies... READ MORE