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| Benefit Briefs |
| Does Your Plan Support Drawdown Strategies? |
| If one of your retirement plan participants
wanted to establish a drawdown strategy for retirement income, could she
assemble an appropriate strategy using the tools and resources available to
your plan? That is a question posed in a Sibson Consulting Spotlight about new
rules for qualifying longevity annuity contracts (QLACs) in defined
contribution (DC) plans. Sibson says the issuance of the final rules warrant DC
plan sponsors revisiting their plan’s role in helping participants manage the
future drawdown of their accumulated savings and the associated longevity risk.
A review should start with measuring how well the plan supports the participant
drawdown process today. Richard Reed, Defined Contribution Practice Leader with
Sibson Consulting in Boston, tells PLANSPONSOR the first place he thinks plan
sponsors should start their review is with their recordkeepers.Read more > |
| Employees can take small steps to boost their
retirement savings, says ICMA-RC, a nonprofit independent financial services
provider of retirement plans. An online resource, rolled out for National Save
for Retirement Week, includes the “Small Change, Big Savings” interactive
calculator, which shows how small steps like packing lunch or skipping morning
latte can add up over time. Taking lunch to work three times a week instead of
eating out could mean savings of more than $9,000 over seven years with a 5%
investment return, according to the site.Read more > |
| Higher Ed. Institutions Focus More on Retirement Readiness |
| Higher education institutions that offer a
403(b) or Roth 403(b) plan are adopting practices that lead to a greater focus
on participants’ retirement readiness, a survey finds. According to a research
report released by Transamerica Retirement Solutions, “Retirement Plans for
Institutions of Higher Education,” more 403(b) plan sponsors in the higher
education market are working with plan advisers, implementing automatic
enrollment features and streamlining retirement plans. The research found 55%
of institutions with an exclusive arrangement with a single retirement plan
provider monitor the retirement readiness of their plan participants, compared
to 23% of institutions that work with multiple providers.Read more > |
| The COUNTRY Financial Security Index, regularly
updated with survey data from about 1,000 adults working in the United States,
shows nearly half of individuals (47%) do not keep track of their monthly
discretionary spending whatsoever. Also, a majority (51%) rate their financial
security as just fair or poor. When asked about their biggest financial fear,
not being able to retire comfortably was the most common worry.Read more > |
| Retirement Savings Conversations for Each Generation |
| National Save for Retirement Week is an
opportunity for retirement plan sponsors to get plan participants to focus on
retirement savings issues. “[Employees] trust and expect their employers to
help them, to get them in a sound financial place, to give them advice, and to
provide them debt management tools,” says Christine Lange, head of digital
strategy for retirement solutions at Voya Financial. She stresses the
importance for employers to help retirees in each generation—Millennials, GenX,
and Baby Boomers—prepare for retirement so they can retire with dignity and
continue to generate income.Read more > |
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| Buyer's Market |
| MassMutual Expands Taft-Hartley Service Team |
| MassMutual’s retirement services group has added
several members to its Taft-Hartley retirement plan client service team. The
hires include three new relationship managers and two new sales consultants,
and MassMutual’s Taft-Hartley staff is now made up of eight relationship
managers and five sales staff dedicated to Taft-Hartley plans.Read more > |
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| Industry Voices |
| Industry Voice: Boosting Retirement Readiness at Career Stages |
| All plan participants have a unique savings
story. Some may be entering the workforce for the first time. Others may be in
between jobs or changing jobs. Many are in the middle of their career,
advancing in their roles or near retirement. Plan sponsors have the opportunity
to take a closer look at their participant base and provide a retirement plan
program that encourages savers to take actions through all career stages. Plan
sponsors can enhance engagement by connecting with participants at specific stages
and help them navigate their career from start to finish.Read more > |
|
| Economic Events |
| After a modest decline last month, existing-home
sales bounced back in September to their highest annual pace of the year,
according to the National Association of Realtors. All major regions except for
the Midwest experienced gains in September. Total existing-home sales, which
are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums
and co-ops, increased 2.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.17 million
in September from 5.05 million in August. Sales are now at their highest pace
of 2014, but still remain 1.7% below the 5.26 million-unit level from last
September. |
|
| Market Mirror |
| Tuesday, the Dow was up 215.14 points
(1.31%) at 16,614.81, the NASDAQ climbed 103.40 points (2.40%) to 4,419.48, and
the S&P 500 gained 37.27 points (1.96%) to finish at 1,941.28. The Russell
2000 closed 17.88 points (1.63%) higher at 1,112.85, and the Wilshire 5000
increased 394.05 points (1.96%) to 20,483.44.
On the NYSE, 3.3 billion shares traded,
with advancing issues outnumbering declining issues more than 4 to 1. On the
NASDAQ, 2.7 billion shares changed hands, with a more than 3 to 1 lead for
advancers.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 8/32,
bringing its yield up to 2.220%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond decreased
15/32, increasing its yield to 2.991%.
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| Rules & Regulators |
| Saxon Angle: ERISA’s Greatest Achievements |
| Over the last 40 years, it has become clear that
two of ERISA’s greatest achievements are the trust requirement and the
applicability of the act’s fiduciary standards. Without these legal
requirements, the U.S. retirement system would not be nearly as secure and
protective of employee interests as it is today.Read more > |
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| Sponsored message from Vanguard |
How America Saves
Jean Young, Senior Research Analyst at the Vanguard Center for Retirement Research, shares insights into a report on Vanguard 2013 defined contribution plan data.Read more > |
|
| Small Talk |
| ON
THIS DATE: In 1746,
the College of New Jersey was officially chartered. It later became known as
Princeton University. In 1797,
Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump. He made the jump
from about 3,000 feet. In 1836, Sam
Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the
Republic of Texas. In 1883, The
Metropolitan Opera House held its grand opening in New York. In 1939, the first televised pro football
game was telecast from New York. Brooklyn defeated Philadelphia 23-14. In 1950, the Los Angeles Rams set an NFL
record by defeating the Baltimore Colts 70-27. It was a record score for a
regular season game. In 1961, Chubby
Checker appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and performed “The
Twist.” In 1962, U.S. President
Kennedy went on radio and television to inform the United States about his
order to send U.S. forces to blockade Cuba. The blockade was in response to the
discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island. In 1986, U.S. President Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 into
law. The act widened the tax base and eliminated a variety of ways to reduce
taxable income, including restricting pension and IRA deductions. It modified
the required minimum distribution (RMD) rules to state that participants must
begin taking their distribution by April 1 of the year after they reach 70.5
years of age.
WEDNESDAY
WISDOM: “The best
way to predict the future is to create it.”—Peter Drucker,
management consultant who authored several book
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| 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 > |
| News from PLANSPONSOR.com
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2014.
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