| Benefits & Administration | Cost of Retirement Income Jumped in 2014 | A sharp rise in lifetime income costs means many
workers in their 50s and early 60s are less financially prepared for retirement
than they were 12 months ago, despite 11% gains in equity markets over the same
time period. Even a strong 14% return for the average 55-year-old retirement
investor examined by BlackRock couldn’t keep pace with the relative increase in
lifetime income costs.Read more > | | PLANSPONSOR Research | 2014 PLANSPONSOR DC Survey: Plan Benchmarking | The difference between price and value is a
fundamental concept in finance and represents an important lesson for investors
to learn. It may be great to find a $5 watch, but the deal is less compelling
if the thing doesn’t tick. As managing principal at Retirement Benefits Group
in Irvine, California, Gary Josephs is often called on to discuss how the
price/value question applies to employer-sponsored benefits, especially in
regard to defined contribution (DC) retirement plans. He says the retirement
plan industry’s reinvigorated focus on fees has been a positive development
overall for plan participants, leading to better prices and greater
transparency. However, there is sometimes a tendency for plan sponsors to
overlook the best value in search of the lowest price.Read more > | | Products, Deals & People | A Financial Wellness Program with a Human Touch | Carolyn Schneider, senior vice president of
human resources at Capella Healthcare in Franklin, Tennessee, is concerned
about the prospects for retirement for Capella employees. A couple of years
ago, Schneider was attending a women’s conference where Alexa von Tobel, CEO of
LearnVest, a financial education provider based in New York City, was
presenting. Schneider turned to Capella’s chief financial officer, who was also
attending the conference, and said, “This is something we need for employees.”
She says she felt LearnVest’s financial wellness program was not only a great
product but a way for the organization to meet its fiduciary responsibilities
to employees in a way that is cutting edge.Read more > |
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Pinnacle Plan Design says it has expanded into
the New York market with the addition of Susan Feit as a consulting actuary. Feit
will join the firm’s New York office and will be responsible for the design and
administration of defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) retirement
plans.Read more > | | Industry Voices | Industry Voices: Multi-Asset Credit | The Pete Seeger song that became a hit during
the 1960s in a cover version by The Byrds, “Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything
There Is a Season),” may seem to have little relevance to the world of debt
investment. But when it comes to the management of Multi-Asset Credit (MAC)
portfolios, the underlying message holds true—there is a time to be in each
asset class and a time to leave. With a MAC approach, plan sponsors and other
institutional investors empower managers to create portfolios that seek to
achieve an attractive total return by investing in all sectors of the fixed
income market.Read more > | | Economic Events | In the week ending January 17, the
advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment
insurance was 307,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week’s revised
level, the Labor Department reported. The four-week moving average was 306,500,
an increase of 6,500 from the previous week’s revised average.
The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate
mortgage is 3.63%, down from 3.66% one week ago, according to Freddie Mac. The
average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage is 2.93%, down from
2.98%.
| | Market Mirror | The European
Central Bank on Thursday launched its most aggressive effort to date to revive
the region’s ailing economy, which sent major U.S. stock indices into positive
territory. The Dow closed 259.70 points (1.48%) higher at 17,813.98, the NASDAQ
jumped 82.98 points (1.78%) to 4,750.40, and the S&P 500 added 31.03 points
(1.53%) to finish at 2,063.15. The Russell 2000 climbed 24.12 points (2.07%) to
1,190.37, and the Wilshire 5000 gained 332.36 points (1.56%) to end at
21,685.03.
On the NYSE,
3.2 billion shares traded, with advancers outnumbering decliners nearly 4 to 1.
On the NASDAQ, 2.8 billion shares changed hands, with 2.6 advancing issues for
every declining issue.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note slipped 1/32,
bringing its yield up to 1.876%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond
increased 15/32, decreasing its yield to 2.443%.
| | From the Magazine | Insights: Plan Procrastination | We often talk about inertia among participants
and about employing plan design elements to overcome any lack of engagement
with the plan—automatic enrollment and automatic deferral increases being prime
examples. Now, though, it seems there might be such a thing as sponsor inertia
as well.Read more > | | Small Talk | ON
THIS DATE: In 1849,
English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive
a medical degree. It was from the Medical Institution of Geneva, New York. In 1907, Charles Curtis, of Kansas, began
serving in the United States Senate. He was the first American Indian to become
a U.S. Senator. He resigned in March of 1929 to become U.S. President Herbert
Hoover’s Vice President. In 1922, at
Toronto General Hospital, 14-year-old Canadian Leonard Thompson became the
first person to receive an insulin injection as treatment for diabetes. In 1957, toy company Wham-O rolled out the
first batch of aerodynamic plastic discs known as Frisbees. In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon
announced that Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the chief North Vietnamese
negotiator, initialled a peace agreement in Paris “to end the war and
bring peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.” In 1983, the A-Team debuted on NBC. In 1989, surrealist artist Salvador Dali
died in Spain at age 84.
And now it’s time for FRIDAY FILES!
| How can this driver be so calm during such a close
call?Read more > | Super Bowl party stereotypes. (The volume gets
loud at times with this video.)Read more > | In Slaton, Texas, Ira Keys
has saved every penny since he was 17 years old—literally. According to
KCBD-TV, Keys said it was at that age his father told him, “Whatever you do
son, save your money.” Keys said he didn’t have a lot of money back then, so he
started saving pennies and has continued to save them. The 81-year-old recently took his
collection—weighing about 500 pounds—to the bank, where it took employees more
than an hour to count them. The total was $816.
In Near Eastside, Indiana, a
32-year-old woman lost control of her car and struck a Hardee’s restaurant. She
claimed she only drank two be.ers, but a brea.thalyzer registered her blood
alc.ohol content at 0.168—twice the legal limit in Indiana. The woman was hired
late last year to help run the campaign to repeal Indiana’s ban on Sunday alc.ohol
sales at grocery, liq.uor, convenience and drug stores.
| This is definitely a fail for this tow truck
driver.Read more > | In DeBary, Florida, an 83-year-old
woman drove herself and her 87-year-old husband to the hospital to be treated
for injuries received in a fight—with each other. The husband had bruising and
cuts to his left forearm, which he was said were caused by his wife grabbing
him and “clawing his arm with her fingernails,” the Daytona Beach News-Journal
reports. The wife, listed in court records as at 4 feet 11 inches tall and
weighing 88 pounds, according to the news report, had the left side lens of her
glasses missing, severe bruising and numerous bloody skin tears to both
forearms, an abrasion on her left cheek and bruising on her upper chest near
her neck and collarbone. She was charged with battery on a person older than 65—a
felony. Both the husband and wife declined to give
statements, saying they did not remember the incident or the reason they were
arguing.
In Toledo, Ohio, police
tried to stop a motorist, but he sped up and led them on a chase. During the
pursuit, the man rammed through the gate of a parking lot, which happened to be
the parking lot of a prison. He followed the facilities driveway around the
perimeter, but it just ended up back in the parking lot. The motorist is facing
several charges.
In Aberdeen,
Scotland, the oldest woman in the country recently celebrated her 109th
birthday. Asked for the secret to her longevity, the woman told the UK’s Daily
Mail, “My secret to a long life has been staying away from men. They’re just
more trouble than they’re worth.” She added, “I also made sure that I got
plenty of exercise, eat a nice warm bowl of porridge every morning and have
never gotten married.”
Have a good weekend,
everyone! | 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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