| Benefit Briefs | Retirement Plan “Help” Helps | Retirement plan participants using certain help
offered with their plans continue to earn considerably higher returns than
those not using help. A study from Financial Engines and Aon Hewitt defines
“Help” as access to target-date funds, managed accounts and online
advice, and finds across all age ranges and a wide range of market conditions,
participants using Help (Help Participants) earned higher median annual returns
than those not using Help (Non-Help Participants). The annual investment
performance gap between Help Participants’ and Non-Help Participants’ median
returns was 3.32%, net of fees over the period from 2006 to 2012. | Putnam Finds Peer Comparisons Boost Deferral Rates | Showing plan participants how well and how much
their best-performing peers save is highly motivating, Putnam Investments
finds. Putnam Investments says the early results from its new “How Do I Compare”
feature, which enables participants in Putnam-administered 401(k) plans to
compare their saving and investing progress with the top savers in their peer
group, are very encouraging. The results, based on nearly 10,000 workers who
have used the feature, found that social comparison helped boost deferral rates
by 28%, from 7.5% of annual income to 9.6%. | | Buyer's Market | RCH Introduces Missing Participant Search Service | Retirement Clearinghouse LLC (RCH) introduced an
Internet-enhanced, comprehensive search service to locate missing retirement
plan participants. Retirement Clearinghouse has enhanced its services by
combining searches of national change-of-address records and commercial
databases with an Internet tracker and social media search capabilities. The
service validates and updates participant data, oversees mailings to last known
addresses, locates missing participants when possible, and helps plan sponsors
meet fiduciary responsibilities. | ShareBuilder 401k Waives Startup Fees | Small business owners and human resources
staffers can save nearly $1,000 in waived 401(k) plan startup fees through a
promotion from ShareBuilder 401k to mark Small Business Week. ShareBuilder 401k
specializes in online-managed 401(k) plans that feature exchange-traded funds
as the primary investment vehicle. The firm says it will waive setup costs for
all new plans beginning Monday, May 12 (the first day of National Small
Business Week) and ending May 23. | | Economic Events | The U.S.
Census Bureau announced that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services
sales for April, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day
differences, but not for price changes, were $434.6 billion, an increase of 0.1%.
from the previous month, and 4.0% above April 2013. Total sales for the February
through April period were up 3.3% from the same period a year ago.
The combined value of distributive trade sales and
manufacturers’ shipments for March, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences
but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,325.7 billion, up 1.0% from
February and up 4.3% from March 2013. Manufacturers’ and trade inventories,
adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at
an end-of-month level of $1,717.2 billion, up 0.4% from February and up 4.7%
from March 2013.
| | Market Mirror | Tuesday, the Dow was up 19.97 points
(0.12%) at 16,715.44, the NASDAQ was down 13.69 points (0.33%) at 4,130.17, and
the S&P 500 increased by 0.80 (0.04%) to 1,897.45. The Russell 2000 fell
12.49 points (1.10%) to 1,121.16, and the Wilshire 5000 closed 18.27 points
(0.09%) lower at 20,079.53.
On the NYSE, 3.2 billion shares traded,
with 1.2 declining issues for every advancing issue. On the NASDAQ, 2.7 billion
shares changed hands, with a nearly 2 to 1 lead for decliners.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note increased 15/32,
bringing its yield down to 2.610%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond rose
31/32, decreasing its yield to 3.445%.
| | Financial Sense | Real Estate Boosts Master Trust Returns in Q1 | The median return of the BNY Mellon U.S. Master
Trust Universe was 1.94% for the first quarter of 2014, the third straight
quarter of positive results. The Universe’s median plan was up 11.65% for the
12 months ending March 31, 2014, driven by strong performance from U.S.
equities. Corporate plans recorded the highest median return (2.59%) in Q1,
followed by endowments (1.91%), foundations (1.81%), public plans (1.78%),
health care plans (1.72%), and Taft-Hartley plans (1.55%). | | Small Talk | Jacob Dethroned, Sophia Still on Top | After fourteen years as the king of the popular
baby name list for boys, Jacob has been dethroned. Noah and Sophia are
America’s most popular baby names for 2013, according to the Social Security
Administration. Noah is the first new boy’s name at number one since 1960 other
than Jacob or Michael, and this is the third straight year Sophia has topped
the girls’ names list. | ON
THIS DATE: In
1796, Edward Jenner, an English country
doctor from Gloucestershire, administered the world’s first vaccination as a
preventive treatment for smallpox, a disease that had killed millions of people
over the centuries. In 1804, one
year after the United States doubled its territory with the Louisiana Purchase,
the Lewis and Clark expedition left St. Louis, Missouri, on a mission to
explore the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. In 1973, Skylab, America’s first space station, was successfully launched
into an orbit around the earth. In 1998,
the legendary singer, actor and show-business icon Frank Sinatra died of a
heart attack in Los Angeles, at the age of 82.
WEDNESDAY
WISDOM: “There is
only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.”—Christopher Morley, American journalist and novelist
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