Newsdash Insight on Plan Design & Investment Strategy from PLANSPONSOR
January 9th, 2015
Benefits & Administration
Research Supports Use of Auto Investing Solutions
Research from the Columbia Business School concludes that retirement plan investors may do better to check their portfolios less often and leave investment decisions to others. The research model predicts that given the choice, most people prefer to stay inattentive to their portfolios, and this makes them more willing to choose an investment solution that automatically diversifies and rebalances their portfolios or to pay for a professional portfolio manager.Read more >
Actuaries Grade Retirement Systems, Reform Proposals
The American Academy of Actuaries has released grades for major retirement systems and public policy proposals. The group evaluated how well public and private retirement systems—and proposals to reform them—meet the needs of participants, sponsors and other stakeholders. Of the five systems and proposals that were graded, the academy bestowed its highest marks on retirement legislation proposed last year by former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin and a Canadian government pension system.Read more >
Products, Deals & People
New hire R. Evan Inglis is tasked with providing deep technical expertise for Nuveen Asset Management to further develop the firm’s proprietary pension analytics and risk models.Read more >
In an effort to step up its support of retirement plans sold to government entities, MassMutual’s retirement services has added three managing directors: Kelly Bush, Pete Ganey, and Richard Snyder. The three will support sales of defined contribution (DC) retirement plans in states, countries and municipalities.Read more >
Economic Events
In the week ending January 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance was 294,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 298,000, the Labor Department reported. The four-week moving average was 290,500, a decrease of 250 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 290,750. The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 3.73%, down from 3.87% one week ago, according to Freddie Mac. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage is 3.05%, down from 3.15%.
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