| Benefits & Administration | Plan Sponsors Are Getting the Retirement Message | Discussing the results of the firm’s
first-quarter 2015 retirement industry analysis, one Fidelity expert suggested
plan sponsors are seeing real payoffs from popular plan design changes,
especially in the areas of automatic enrollment and deferral escalation. Meghan
Murphy, a director of thought leadership at Fidelity Investments, tells
PLANSPONSOR that the slowly increasing prevalence of automatic enrollment and
automatic deferral escalations is still redefining the defined contribution
(DC) retirement system—nearly a decade after the Pension Protection Act
codified the thinking behind these innovative plan design features. The
snapshot data shows 27.9% of sponsors with plans administered by Fidelity are
running plans that utilize auto-enrollment, another small uptick from the
previous quarter.Read more > | Number Expecting to Rely on Social Security Increasing | U.S. nonretirees are more likely to say Social
Security will be a major source of income in their retirement than they have
been at any point in the last 15 years, according to a Gallup poll. Still,
defined contribution retirement plans top the list of expected major sources of
retirement income. The current 36% of nonretirees expecting to heavily rely on
Social Security is roughly 10 percentage points higher than a decade ago.
Another 48% believe it will be a minor source. Fourteen percent do not expect
Social Security to be a source of retirement funds for them at all.Read more > | Fidelity Reports Record High Retirement Plan Balances | Fidelity’s first-quarter 2015 update shows
retirement plan participant accounts earned marginal growth in the first three
months of the year—just enough to set new record account balances. More than 1
million people increased savings rates within retirement plans and individual
retirement accounts (IRAs) administered by Fidelity during the first quarter of
2015, the firm says.Read more > |
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Retirement a Top Priority Even for the Affluent | Nine in 10 affluent investors, defined as those
with $250,000 or more in investable assets, say their most important investment
goal is retirement related—50% intend to generate income and 41% want to
accumulate savings for their golden years. Just 5% say creating a legacy for
their heirs is a top priority. “Retirement looms large even for
higher-net-worth Americans who recognize the importance of saving and
investing,” says Kathie Andrade, executive vice president, head of Individual
Advisory Services (IAS) at TIAA-CREF.Read more > | | Market Mirror | The Fed
report of a weak economy caused major U.S. stock indices to close lower
Wednesday. The Dow closed 74.61 points (0.41%) lower at 18,035.53, the NASDAQ
lost 31.78 points (0.63%) to finish at 5,023.64, and the S&P 500 was down
7.91 points (0.37%) at 2,106.85. The Russell 2000 fell 12.40 points (0.98%) to
1,246.96, and the Wilshire 5000 decreased 90.17 points (0.40%) to 22,277.02.
On the NYSE,
3.2 billion shares changed hands, with declining issues outnumbering advancing
issues nearly 2 to 1. On the NASDAQ, 2.8 billion shares traded, with a more
than 2 to 1 lead for decliners.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 11/32,
increasing its yield to 2.043%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond decreased
1 1/32, bringing its yield up to 2.757%.
| | Compliance | DOL Sues Bank for Excessive Retirement Plan Fees | A lawsuit filed by the Labor Department alleges
excessive fees were charged to participants in the City National Corp. Profit
Sharing Plan, leading to a breach of federal law and the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act (ERISA). The Department of Labor (DOL) says the fiduciaries
of the City National Corp. Profit Sharing Plan caused the plan to lose more
than $4 million by engaging in self-dealing and conflicted transactions that
enriched themselves and their employer.Read more > | IRS Issues Draft Guide to Electronic ACA Reporting | The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Draft
Publication 5165 outlining the communication procedures, transmission formats
and other rules for returns filed electronically through the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Information Returns (AIR) system.Read more > | | Small Talk | ON THIS DATE: In
1789, in New York City, George
Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States. In 1803, representatives of the United
States and Napoleonic France concluded negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase,
a massive land sale that doubled the size of the young American republic. In 1812, Louisiana was admitted as the
18th U.S. state. In 1938, Happy
Rabbit appeared in the cartoon “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” This rabbit would
later evolve into Bugs Bunny. In 1939,
the New York World’s Fair opened in New York City. The opening ceremony, which
featured speeches by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and New York Governor
Herbert Lehman, ushered in the first day of television broadcasting in New
York. In 1945, in a bunker under his
headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide
capsule and shooting himself in the head. | SURVEY SAYS: This
week, we covered an analysis that showed the number of female, minority and
older workers are increasing. I’d like to know, have you seen a change in the
demographics of employees at your workplace? You may respond to this week’s
survey by 6 p.m. Pacific time today.Read more > | Share the good news with a friend! Pass the Dash along – and tell your
friends/associates they can sign up for their own copy.Read more > | News from PLANSPONSOR.com
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