| Company Stock Can Still Be a Prudent Investment | A recent court decision put fear in defined
contribution plan sponsors about offering company stock in the plan lineup, but
it can still be a prudent investment if they keep in mind certain
considerations.Read more > | | Products, Deals & People | As part of National Save for Retirement Week,
Lincoln Financial Group has introduced a retirement education and communication
program. The “Let’s Go!” program is available for retirement plan sponsors to
use with participants. The program includes a comprehensive suite of materials
and a dedicated website with several interactive features.Read more > | Investment Product Launches for the Week | BlackRock launches impact equity funds, and
Schwab reveals money market fund changes.Read more > | FingerCheck, a time and attendance software
provider, has introduced new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)
tools for employers. For small to midsize businesses that employ close to 50
employees, in order to help employers keep their full-time employee count under
the ACA threshold, FingerCheck provides free labor reports they can run to
determine if their company qualifies as an applicable large employer by taking
into consideration their full-time equivalents.Read more > | Retirement Industry People Roundup | This week brings promotions at T. Rowe Price and
Wilshire Consulting, as well as third-party administrator acquisitions.Read more > | | Sponsored message from BlackRock | A New Framework for DC: Getting participants’ future in focus A new holistic framework for understanding risk across an entire DC plan.Read more > | | Economic Events | THE ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: Tomorrow,
the Census Bureau will report about housing starts for September. Thursday, the Labor Department will
release its initial claims report, and the National Association of Realtors
will issue a report about existing home sales for September. | | Market Mirror | U.S. stock
indices closed mostly higher Friday, as investors mostly focused on the latest
company earnings news, the Associated Press reported. The Dow gained 74.22
points (0.43%) to finish at 17,215.97, the NASDAQ was up 16.59 points (0.34%)
at 4,886.69, and the S&P 500 increased 9.25 points (0.46%) to 2,033.11. The
Russell 2000 slipped 0.47 points (0.04%) to 1,162.30, and the Wilshire
5000closed 78.96 points (0.37%) higher at 21,280.38.
On the NYSE,
3.2 billion shares traded, with 1.4 advancing issues for every declining issue.
On the NASDAQ, 2.7 billion shares changed hands, with a slight lead for
decliners.
The price of
the 10-year Treasury bond was down 5/32, increasing its yield to 2.035%. The
price of the 30-year Treasury bond decreased 11/32, bringing its yield up to
2.885%.
WEEK’S
WORTH: For the week ending October 16, the Dow
finished 0.77% higher, the NASDAQ climbed 1.16%, and the S&P 500 gained
0.88%. The Russell 2000 finished 0.26% lower, and the Wilshire 5000 increased
0.58%.
| | From the Magazine | Just out of Reish: Monitoring Call Centers | Plan sponsors need to know what their service
providers are saying to participants about distributions and rollovers. At the
least, this is good risk management. But it may also be a fiduciary duty.
Sponsors, which typically act through their plan committees, select the
recordkeeper as a service provider and the call center as one of the services.
As a result, plan committees have a fiduciary duty to monitor those services.Read more > | | Small Talk | ON THIS DATE: In
1765, in the U.S., The Stamp Act
Congress met and drew up a declaration of rights and liberties. In 1781, British General Charles Lord
Cornwallis surrendered to U.S. General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia.
It was to be the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War. In 1937, “Woman’s Day” was
published for the first time. In 1944,
Marlon Brando made his debut in the play “I Remember Mama” on
Broadway. In 1960, the United States
imposed an embargo on exports to Cuba covering all commodities except medical
supplies and certain food products. In 1983,
the U.S. Senate approved a bill establishing a national holiday in honor of
Martin Luther King, Jr. | Last week, I asked NewsDash readers, “Which
candidates in the running for the Republican and Democratic nominations are you
familiar with, and if you could ask the candidates one question, what would it
be?” Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton is the candidate most familiar to
responding readers (95.5%), followed by Republican candidates Jeb Bush, Chris
Christie and Donald Trump (each selected by 93.3% of respondents). Getting both
parties to work together was the top theme in the questions readers would pose
to the candidates. “Are you able to answer a question with a single sentence?” is
an example of some of the less agenda-related questions. After reading the
questions, I learned about the Kobayashi Maru test. There was much concern
expressed in comments left by responding readers about the quality of
candidates who are running—“If Donald Trump wins, I will move to Canada,” one
reader said—and the “mess” our government is in. However, some readers
expressed pleasure with having candidates with non-political histories. Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who
said, “This has been the most entertaining race I can remember. Can’t wait for
the next debate!” Thank you to all who participated in our survey!Read more > | Editor’s Note: In
Friday Files last week, we reported about an aunt that sued her young nephew
because she broke her wrist when he jumped into her arms at a birthday party.
The aunt and nephew have both appeared on television to explain that home owners’
insurance wouldn’t pay for her injuries, so to get financial help she needed to
go to court. She couldn’t name the insurance company in her complaint, so she
had to sue the family. The family was aware and supportive. | 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 > |
|