| | Retirement Plan Sponsors and Advisers of the Year | | Is your company’s retirement plan run
exceptionally well? Is your pension plan well-funded and/or pursuing
interesting strategies (whether active or frozen)? Is your defined contribution
(DC) plan committee focused on fulfilling fiduciary requirements and achieving
successful outcomes for participants? We are now accepting nominations for the
2015 PLANSPONSOR Plan Sponsor of the Year awards. This is an excellent
opportunity for you to tell your story and share you successes with peers. We
are looking for plans of all types—pension, 401(k), 403(b), 457, public DC,
etc.—and of all sizes. You can nominate a plan, or yourself, here.Read more > | | Has your plan been improved by the help of a skilled professional? Has an adviser or consultant helped with defined benefit (DB) plan funding or plan maintenance? What about helping design a defined contribution (DC) plan to improve focus on fulfilling fiduciary requirements and achieving successful outcomes for participants? If you know a superb retirement plan adviser you think is worthy of the 2015 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan of the Year awards, please nominate him or her! Nominations can be made here.Read more > | | | Benefit Briefs | | Employees Misunderstand the Impact of a Savings Delay | | The fifth annual Wells Fargo Middle Class
Retirement study finds that 41% of middle class Americans between the ages of
50 and 59 are not currently saving for retirement. More than one-third of middle class Americans (34%) contribute
nothing at all to a 401(k)
or other retirement account. People often say they’re too financially squeezed to
save, says Joe Ready, director of institutional retirement and trust at Wells
Fargo, but delaying retirement savings is not a great strategy and can have
devastating consequences that participants do not realize. Sixty-eight percent of all respondents say saving for
retirement is “harder than I anticipated.” The difficulty has caused more than
half (55%) to say they plan to save “later” for retirement in order to “make up
for not saving enough now.” Nearly six in 10 (59%) middle class Americans
between the ages of 30 and 49 say they plan to save later to make up for missed
retirement savings, and 27% are not currently contributing savings to a
retirement plan or account. “People really underestimate what that does to
their retirement savings,” Ready tells PLANSPONSOR.Read more > | | A Good Score for Retirement and Health Savings | | Saving for retirement and health care expenses
was a priority for employees of all ages during the first half of 2014, a new
report shows. Millennials in particular seem to be more energized about saving
and investing for the long term, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch
401(k) Wellness Scorecard. The semiannual report suggests increased mobile
access, 401(k) auto-features, and more personalized advice have made employee
benefit plans more valuable and easier to use for the typical participant. The
shifting 401(k) landscape seems to be drawing in younger employees with the
most success. The Scorecard shows nearly 40,000 Millennials enrolled in their
employer’s 401(k) plan for the first time during the first half of the year—a
55% rise from the same six-month period last year.Read more > | | Who Is More Prepared for Retirement? | | In 2013, 19.7% of employees indicated they were
on track to meet their income-replacement goal in retirement, up from 17.4% in
2012 and 16.6% in 2011, according to Financial Finesse. The firm’s annual
research on the state of U.S. employees’ retirement preparedness found retirement
readiness varies significantly by demographics, with women in lower income and
age demographics at higher risk of not meeting retirement goals. In addition,
repeat users of financial wellness programs show significantly more progress in
retirement preparedness than non-users or one-time users.Read more > | | | Economic Events | | On a
seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)
increased 0.1% in September after declining 0.2% in August, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.1% in
September after being unchanged in August.
Real average hourly earnings fell 0.2% in September,
seasonally adjusted. Average hourly earnings were unchanged and the CPI-U rose
0.1%. Real average weekly earnings rose 0.2% over the month.
| | | Market Mirror | | Yesterday, the Dow fell 153.49 points
(0.92%) to 16,461.32, the NASDAQ decreased 36.63 points (0.83%) to 4,382.85,
and the S&P 500 was down 14.17 points (0.73%) at 1,927.11. The Russell 2000
lost 15.98 points (1.44%) to finish at 1,096.87, and the Wilshire 5000 closed
175.49 points (0.86%) lower at 20,307.95.
On the NYSE, 3.3 billion shares traded,
with declining issues outnumbering advancing issues more than 2 to 1. On the
NASDAQ, 2.7 billion shares changed hands, with a near 3 to 1 lead for
decliners.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note slipped 1/32,
increasing its yield to 2.222%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond was down
3/32, bringing its yield to 2.995%.
| | | Rules & Regulators | | CPAs Ask EEOC to Leave Retirement Policies Intact | | The American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants (AICPA) has asked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) to reject staff appeals to investigate and litigate against accounting
firms regarding partner retirement provisions. In a letter to EEOC commissioners, the AICPA said it
understands the EEOC is seeking to expand the scope of the Age Discrimination
in Employment Act (ADEA) by requiring that partners in such firms be treated as
“employees” for purposes of the ADEA. The institute noted that partners agree
to compensation, benefits and retirement terms when signing their firm’s
partnership agreement, and they have the option of choosing to remain employees
rather than becoming partners.Read more > | | Social Security Announces COLA, Wage Base Increase | | The Social Security Administration (SSA) has
announced a 1.7% benefit increase for 2015. In addition, based on that
increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax
(taxable maximum) will increase to $118,500 from $117,000.Read more > | | | Small Talk | | Small Talk: Most Employers Support Minimum Wage Hike | | A nationwide survey by CareerBuilder found a
majority of employers (62%), including 58% of company senior leaders, think the
minimum wage in their state should be increased. Twenty-seven percent of
employers are hiring minimum wage workers in 2014, including 51% of retailers
and 58% of leisure and hospitality firms. Of those employers who currently
employ minimum wage workers, 45% are hiring more minimum wage workers today
than they did pre-recession. Employers currently hiring minimum wage workers
are more likely to support a minimum wage increase than those who are not by an
11-point margin (70% vs. 59%). Only 7% think a minimum wage of $15 per hour or
more would be fair, and 9% do not think there should be a set minimum wage. But,
nearly half (48%) of respondents think a fair minimum wage should be set
between $10 and $14 per hour.Read more > | | ON THIS DATE: In
1890, President Benjamin Harrison
issued a proclamation that extended the northern boundary of Nebraska into the
Dakota territory. In 1915, the first
U.S. championship horseshoe tourney was held in Kellerton, Iowa. In 1915, approximately 25,000 women
demanded the right to vote with a march in New York City. In 1921, in the French town of
Chalons-sur-Marne, an American officer selected the body of the first
“Unknown Soldier” to be honored among the approximately 77,000 United
States servicemen killed on the Western Front during World War I. Once back in
the United States, the Unknown Soldier was buried in Arlington National
Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. In 1929,
the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged, starting the stock-market crash that
began the Great Depression. In 1956,
NBC broadcasted the first videotape recording. The tape of Jonathan Winters was
seen coast to coast in the U.S. In 1958,
Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature. He was forced to refuse the honor due to negative Soviet reaction.
Pasternak won the award for writing “Dr. Zhivago.” In 1976, the rock band Chicago had its
first No. 1 hit with “If You Leave Me Now.” In 1989, Hungary became an independent republic, after 33 years of
Soviet rule. | | SURVEY SAYS: The
CareerBuilder survey mentioned above inspires me to ask, do you think the state
in which you work should increase its minimum wage? If so, what do you think is
a fair minimum wage? You may respond to this week’s survey by 6 p.m. Pacific
time today.Read more > | | 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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