| | Industry Insights | | “America Saves Week” states that its objective
is to provide an “opportunity for organizations to promote good savings
behavior and a chance for individuals to assess their own saving status and
‘Set a Goal. Make a Plan. Save Automatically’.” Companies that offer an automatic enrollment feature
with their 401(k) plans are doing their employees a favor, says Rich Rausser, senior
vice president of Client Services at Pentegra Retirement Services. | | | Benefit Briefs | | What That 1% Increase Can Do for Participants | | For those plan sponsors who may be hesitant to
add an automatic deferral escalation feature to their defined contribution (DC)
plans, here’s something to consider. An analysis by Fidelity Investments shows
that for a 25-year-old, a 1% deferral increase—about $33 per month for someone
making $40,000—could result in an additional $200 to $330 per month in
retirement income. “I think the data definitely shows that by making an
automatic annual increase, plan sponsors will benefit many more participants,”
Beth McHugh, vice president of Thought Leadership and Market Insights at
Fidelity in Albuquerque, New Mexico, tells PLANSPONSOR. | | Health care issues may be causing employees to
dial back their saving for retirement, says a new survey. “From virtually
nowhere five or six years ago, health care expenses in retirement today are the
driving anxiety for pre-retirees, now in the same league as having adequate
overall retirement savings to begin with,” say the authors of the most recent
edition of the Mercer Workplace Survey. “It’s not a stretch to acknowledge that
health care issues today have more urgency than before, and that this shift
puts retirement savings under stress.” | | Don’t Know Much About… Investment Options | | About one-third of Americans who participate in
a workplace-sponsored retirement plan say they are not familiar with its
investment options, research finds. The first culprit could be menu
construction, according to David Ray, managing director, head of institutional
retirement plan sales at TIAA-CREF. “A lot of research shows that too many
options are too many options,” Ray tells PLANSPONSOR. | | Workplace benefits are critical to the financial
security of middle-class employees, says a new study. The “Guardian Workplace
Benefits Study” indicates many middle-class employees struggle with achieving
their financial goals, citing “making ends meet” as highly important, with
eight in 10 saying the reduction of debt is their most important goal. Many
focus on “here and now” goals, with only six in 10 saying they are doing well
with regard to saving for retirement and ensuring those savings will last a
lifetime. | | Better Outcomes Through Better Websites? | | Recordkeepers and other retirement plan service
providers are not meeting client demand for online tools and reporting
technologies shown to improve outcomes and ease administrative burdens. That’s
the conclusion drawn by Julia Binder, director of e-business research at the
financial services consulting firm kasina, in two new white papers. Binder’s
research examines both the participant-facing and sponsor-facing Web
capabilities of a list of well-known providers. She tells PLANSPONSOR that,
with a few notable exceptions, the majority of companies her firm examined
could do substantially more with current technology to support both sponsors
and participants. | | | Buyer's Market | | Those with retirement plans and health savings
accounts (HSAs) offered by Wells Fargo can now track account information in a
central online location. Accessing the Wells Fargo website (wellsfargo.com)
will allow these customers to review a full picture of their financial assets
to help with financial and retirement planning, the firm says. The integrated
approach will also let Wells Fargo customers view balances for checking,
savings, and credit card accounts, as we as information regarding outstanding
loans and insurance. | | | Economic Events | | Sales of new single-family houses in January were
at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 468,000, according to estimates
released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and
Urban Development. This is 9.6% above the revised December rate of 427,000 and
is 2.2% above the January 2013 estimate of 458,000. | | | Market Mirror | | Yesterday, the Dow inched up 18.75
points (0.12%) to 16,198.41, the NASDAQ was up 4.48 points (0.10%) at 4,292.06,
and the S&P 500 was virtually unchanged at 1,845.16. The Russell 2000
climbed 7.77 points (0.66%) to 1,181.72, and the Wilshire 5000 increased 23.19
points (0.12%) to 19,818.98.
On the NYSE, 3.2 billion shares traded,
and on the NASDAQ, 2.6 billion shares exchanged hands, with 1.5 advancing
issues for every declining issue on both exchanges.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note and the price
of the 30-year Treasury bond decreased 2/32, increasing their yields to 2.671%
and 3.629%, respectively.
| | | Rules & Regulators | | Helping Low-Income Workers Prepare for Retirement | | Witnesses during a U.S. Senate subcommittee
hearing shared issues and proposals policymakers should consider to ensure the
retirement security of low-income workers. Diane Oakley, executive director of
the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) in Washington, D.C., noted
that with the disappearance of secure pensions, significant retirement security
challenges face Baby Boomers and the upcoming generations of working families.
“A sustained increase in retirement savings is needed to put all Americans on a
path toward financial security,” she said. | | During a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing, a
Treasury official discussed details and the intent of the myRA proposal. According
to J. Mark Iwry, senior advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary
(Tax Policy) Retirement and Health Policy at the United States Department of
the Treasury, Treasury intends to begin phasing in the myRA program by the end
of 2014. “While
obviously not nearly enough to fund a secure retirement, $15,000 may be enough
to ‘prime the pump’ and instill a lifelong habit of continued saving, and
should be enough to make a saver’s account viable in the private sector,” Iwry
said. | | Morgan Stanley, ING Revenue-Sharing Suit Dismissed | | Revenue-sharing payments are not necessarily a
violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), but they are
if not disclosed, a court ruled. In a case alleging revenue-sharing payments
between Morgan Stanley Company and ING Life Insurance and Annuity Company
violated ERISA prohibited transaction rules, the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York found “[f]ee-sharing arrangements or kickbacks do
not in-and-of themselves create a violation, but their non-disclosure does.”
The court said ERISA Section 408(b)(2) does not require invoices of the
payments to be provided, but only a description of the compensation
arrangements. Skin Pathology Associates was informed in writing of the
arrangement between Morgan Stanley and ING and signed off on it. | | | Sponsored message from PLANSPONSOR | | PLANSPONSOR
Plan Sponsors of the Year – Corporate 401(k) – less than $50M
Finalists include COX
SMITH MATTHEWS INCORPORATED, Draper, Inc. and Landsman Development Corp.
Winners in each category will be announced in February and recognized at the
Awards for Excellence dinner. View other categories.
| | | Small Talk | | ON THIS DATE: In 1827,
a group of masked and costumed students danced through the streets of New
Orleans, Louisiana, marking the beginning of the city’s famous Mardi Gras
celebrations. In 1922, in Washington,
D.C., the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for female
suffrage, was unanimously declared constitutional by the eight members of the
U.S. Supreme Court. In 1973, angered
over a long history of violated treaties, mistreatment, and discrimination, 200
members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the tiny hamlet of
Wounded Knee, South Dakota. In 1980,
“I Will Survive” won the first—and last—Grammy ever awarded for Best
Disco Recording. | | SURVEY SAYS: In
case you haven’t noticed from our coverage, this week is “America Saves Week.”
I’d like to know, does your company do any employee retirement savings
education during the week? What can your company do better to encourage
employees to save for retirement? You may respond to this week’s survey by 6
p.m. Pacific time today. | | Share the good news with a friend! Pass the Dash along – and tell your
friends/associates they can sign up for their own copy. | | News from PLANSPONSOR.com
Copyright © Asset International, Inc.,
2014.
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rights reserved. No reproduction without
prior authorization.
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 | FEATURED |
| | Plan Sponsor of the Year Winner: Corporate 401(k) <$50M | | Finalists for the 2014 PLANSPONSOR Plan Sponsor of
the Year Award in the Corporate 401(k): <$50M category are Cox Smith (San
Antonio, Texas), Draper Inc. (Spiceland, Indiana) and Landsman Development
Corp. (Rochester, New York). And the winner is… | | FEATURED |
| | Plan Sponsor of the Year Winner: Corporate 401(k) $50M to $1B | | Finalists for the 2014 PLANSPONSOR Plan Sponsor of the Year Award in the Corporate 401(k): $50M to $1B category are Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP (Washington, D.C.), American Woodmark Corporation (Winchester, Virginia), O.C. Tanner Company (Salt Lake City, Utah), Range Resources Corporation (Fort Worth, Texas) and Vermeer Corporation (Pella, Iowa). And the winner is… |
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