NewsDash – July 24, 2014

July 24th, 2014

Benefit Briefs

Education Helps Participants Do the Match Math

Data-driven examples can help participants understand just what they’re giving up when they don’t contribute enough to meet the match, according to results of a TIAA-CREF survey. More than three-quarters of Americans who have matching contributions save enough to receive the full employer match. However, only 72% of women contribute enough to receive the full employer match, compared with 82% of men, and only 64% of those earning less than $35,000 annually do so.

Buyer's Market

Prudential Names New Stable Value Leader

Prudential Retirement has promoted Gary Ward to the firm’s stable value organization. Ward served previously as head of the Prudential Retirement investment-only stable value business. He now reports to Jamie Kalamarides, senior vice president and head of Prudential Retirement’s institutional investment solutions group. Ward oversaw more than $75 billion in institutional account values in his previous role in with Prudential.

Newport Group Opens Chicago Office

The Newport Group, a national provider of retirement and executive benefit plans, has opened an office in the Chicago area. This new facility will support multiple business lines and provide consulting services to sponsors of retirement and executive benefit plans.

Pavilion Global Markets Ltd. added Michael Young and Brian Berg to its transition management team as part of an effort to expand its service offerings in the United States. They will work to expand Pavilion’s transition management services among U.S. retirement plan sponsors, Taft-Hartley plans, endowments and the investment consultant community. Both were most recently with BNY Mellon’s beta and transition management team.

Market Mirror

Wednesday, the Dow closed 26.91 points (0.16%) lower at 17,086.63, the NASDAQ was up 17.68 points (0.40%) at 4,473.70, and the S&P 500 increased 3.48 points (0.18%) to 1,987.01. The Russell 2000 gained 1.96 points (0.17%) to finish at 1,158.11, and the Wilshire 5000 gained 37.80 points (0.18%) to finish at 20,010.60. On the NYSE, 3.22 billion shares changed hands, with 1.37 advancing issues for every declining issue. On the NASDAQ, 2.74 billion shares traded, with 1.02 decliners for every advancing issue. The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 1/32, increasing its yield to 2.468%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond dropped 8/32, bringing its yield to 3.265%.

Rules & Regulators

SEC Adopts Money Market Fund Reform Rules

New Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule amendments establish structural and operational reforms aimed at addressing “run risks” in money market funds. The new rules build upon earlier reforms adopted by the SEC, circa March 2010, that were designed to reduce the interest-rate, credit and liquidity risks present within money market fund portfolios. The SEC says that when it adopted the 2010 amendments, it soon after recognized that the recent financial crisis raised additional questions of whether more fundamental changes to money market funds might be warranted.

Financial Sense

PLANSPONSOR Profile: L’Oreal

The cosmetics giant’s human resources (HR), compensation and benefits director Ben Marks discusses its auto-enrollment and benefits strategies. “It is important to understand the needs of your employees, which benefits are most valuable, particularly for different groups, and integrate that into the reward strategy,” the U.K.-based Marks says.

The World At Large

U.K. Regulator Launching Auto-Enrollment Compliance Test

The Pensions Regulator is piloting a “comprehensive suite” of tests to enable payroll specialists to check their automatic enrolment data. The tests are being designed with payroll providers, with a view to being made available online early next year. The regulator’s Head of Industry Liaison Neil Esslemont told an audience in London the tests will be for “payroll software providers to test data to check their auto-enrollment processes’ compliance.”

Small Talk

ON THIS DATE: In 1911, American archaeologist Hiram Bingham got his first look at Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca settlement in Peru that is now one of the world’s top tourist destinations. In 1969, at 12:51 EDT, Apollo 11, the U.S. spacecraft that had taken the first astronauts to the surface of the moon, safely returned to Earth. In 1982, the Rocky movie franchise produced its second No. 1 pop hit when Survivor’s “Eye Of The Tiger” began a six-week run atop the Billboard pop chart.

SURVEY SAYS: Not this week.

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