|
| Benefits & Administration |
| Insights on Retirement Plan Stranded Accounts |
| A study from Retirement Clearinghouse and Boston Research Technologies explores the scope of the mobile workforce missing participant problem with retirement plans. The study found 11% of stranded accounts had a stale address, and there were 1.42 stranded accounts per participant. Thirty-one percent of these accounts had balances less than $10,000, and 73% had less than $100,000. According to the study report, the strongest predictor of an account not being lost was the respondent’s knowledge of how to contact the company holding the account; accounts held by respondents who reported being able to do this were almost seven times less likely to be lost. Seventy-eight percent of missing participant account holders are employed—meaning they could have a new retirement plan to which they could roll over their stranded balances.Read more > |
| Majority of Women Under 40 Do Not Have a Financial Adviser |
| Seventy percent of female financial advisers say women investors are underserved as a broad demographic group, Edward Jones learned from a survey conducted during its third Annual Women’s Conference. This reinforces findings from the Center for Talent Innovations that discovered 75% of women under the age of 40 do not have a financial adviser. This amounts to $5 trillion in under-leveraged assets, Edward Jones says.Read more > |
| Confusion About HSAs Remains Default Employee Position |
| A new joint report by the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute and Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) finds only 51% of Americans believe they are knowledgeable about health savings accounts (HSAs). However, many Americans are flatly unaware that they can use their HSA assets accumulated in their working years to pay for health care and long-term care expenses in retirement. “In fact, two in five Americans mistakenly believe that balances must be spent by the end of the year, or be forfeited,” researchers warn. LIMRA SRI and IRI find those who do not discuss HSAs with employees acknowledge they have insufficient expertise with HSAs. Nearly all advisers and employers surveyed say they would like to learn more.Read more > |
