| | Benefit Briefs | | Living Costs Hinder Focus on Retirement Saving | | Three-quarters of Americans say it is hard to
keep up with bills and save for retirement at the same time, with 43% saying it
is “very hard,” a survey finds. According to results of the BlackRock Global
Investor Pulse Survey, the high cost of living has a particularly acute impact
on investors’ psyche in the U.S. Americans report having to allocate about 42%
of household income to expenses, compared with only 32% among respondents
worldwide. As a result, they have less left over for spending, savings and
investing—including retirement. Many Americans are not necessarily putting
their money in the best places to achieve their long-term goals.Read more > | | | Buyer's Market | | The retirement plan services businesses of
Great-West Financial takes the name “Empower,” effective immediately. Empower
is now the second largest retirement services provider in the U.S. market, with
nearly 7 million defined contribution participants and more than $400 billion
in plan assets, according to Great-West. In an interview with PLANSPONSOR,
Robert Reynolds, president and chief executive officer of Great-West Lifeco
U.S., and Edmund F. Murphy III, president of Empower, said their vision for the
new brand is to make sure plan sponsors and their participants are “engaged in
their retirement plans like never before.”Read more > | | An Inside Preview of Great-West’s New Retirement Brand | | The launch of the “Empower” brand by Great-West
Financial will be closely watched by the retirement services industry.
PLANSPONSOR spoke with industry professionals who had a chance to preview the
brand to hear what sponsors, advisers, and participants can expect to see from
Empower.Read more > | | Aon Hewitt introduced a health reimbursement
arrangement solution that enables companies to more efficiently reimburse
retirees transitioning to the Aon Retiree Health Exchange. The Aon Retiree
Contingent HRA better aligns employer and retiree cost-management objectives
and encourages retirees to make efficient health plan choices in the individual
market, Aon says. It allows employers that are moving retirees to the Aon
Retiree Health Exchange to structure the HRA reimbursement so that it aligns
with actual retiree health care needs.Read more > | | Wilshire Consulting Releases Wilshire Mobile | | Wilshire Consulting announced the launch of
Wilshire Mobile, a new suite of mobile applications (apps) increasing the
availability of important retirement plan data and benefits news for clients. The
mobile tool includes an Asset and Liability Monitor. This app gives clients that
sponsor corporate defined benefit plans the ability to monitor the
funded-status of their plans on a daily, monthly, or quarterly basis. It
provides asset, liability, and funded ratio information over specified time
periods and frequencies, including charting capabilities showing the movement
in these statistics and interest rate fluctuations over time.Read more > | | | Industry Voices | | Insights: Embracing Technology | | The answer, in many cases, to helping people get
on track with retirement savings has been to promote automation. But, as plan
sponsors, have you looked at what the experience is like when a participant
does want to make a proactive change, as infrequently as that might be? Have
you ensured that it is easy to do?Read more > | | | Economic Events | | In the week
ending October 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for
unemployment insurance was 287,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous
week’s revised level, the Labor Department reported. The previous week’s level
was revised up by 1,000 from 283,000 to 284,000. The four-week moving average
was 281,000, a decrease of 250 from the previous week’s revised average.
The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate
mortgage is 3.98%, up from 3.92% one week ago, according to Freddie Mac. The
average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage is 3.13%, up from
3.08%.
| | | Market Mirror | | Thursday, the Dow climbed 221.11 points
(1.30%) to 17,195.42, the NASDAQ was up 16.91 points (0.37%) at 4,566.14, and
the S&P 500 closed 12.35 points (0.62%) higher at 1,994.65. The Russell
2000 increased 9.40 points (0.82%) to 1,155.77, and the Wilshire 5000 gained
120.48 points (0.58%) to finish at 21,005.50.
On the NYSE, 3.3 billion shares traded,
and on the NASDAQ, 2.8 billion shares changed hands, with 1.7 advancing issues
for every declining issue on both exchanges.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note increased 3/32,
bringing its yield down to 2.307%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond was
up 1/32, decreasing its yield to 3.048%.
| | | Rules & Regulators | | PBGC Announces 2015 Premium Rates | | The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
has updated its website with premium rates for 2015. The per-participant flat
premium rate for plan years beginning in 2015 is $57 for single-employer plans
(up from a 2014 rate of $49) and $13 for multiemployer plans (up from a 2014
rate of $12).Read more > | | | Financial Sense | | Institutional plan sponsors lost nearly 1% in
the third quarter of 2014 at the median, according to Northern Trust Universe
data. Longer-term performance remains strong, with one-year returns for all
plan types averaging 10% or greater. Institutional plans within the Northern
Trust Universe suffered a 0.8% quarterly loss due to negative returns in most
investment sectors. Corporate Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
plans had the best relative performance among all plan types with a return of
-0.7%.Read more > | | Returns Not Keeping Pace with Multiemployer Plan Liability | | While aggregate funding levels of multiemployer
plans have nearly returned to pre-crash levels, according to the Milliman
Multiemployer Pension Funding Study, the financial crisis has affected
individual plans in different ways. The median multiemployer funded percentage
of 86% as of December 31, 2013, has nearly recovered to its pre-crash level of
89%. However, the proportion of plans that are less than 80% funded has
increased from 29% to 37%. What is keeping some plans from recovering to the
funding levels trustees and participants would hope for?Read more > | | | Small Talk | | In time for Halloween, CareerBuilder asked
workers to choose from a list of jobs which ones they feel are the most
frightful, or submit their own.Read more > | | ON THIS DATE: In
1517, the priest and scholar Martin
Luther approached the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and
nailed a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that began
the Protestant Reformation. In 1864,
the U.S. Congress admitted Nevada as the 36th state in the Union. In 1892, the book “The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes,” by Arthur Conan Doyle, was published. The book was the first
collection of Holmes stories, which Conan Doyle had been publishing in
magazines since 1887. In 1926, Harry
Houdini, the most celebrated magician and escape artist of the 20th century,
died of peritonitis in a Detroit hospital. In 1941, Mount Rushmore was declared complete after 14 years of work.
At the time the 60-foot busts of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were finished. In 1950, 21-year-old Earl Lloyd became the
first African-American to play in an NBA game when he took the court in the
season opener for the Washington Capitols. In 1956, Rear Admiral G.J. Dufek became the first person to land an
airplane at the South Pole. Dufek also became the first person to set foot on
the South Pole. | | FRIDAY FILES REWIND:
Enjoy this FRIDAY FILES from three years ago that is mostly Halloween-themed.
(Warning: Keep the sound low.)Read more > | | Happy Halloween, and
have a wonderful weekend! | | 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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