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Overall, private-sector employees are more than four times as likely to have access to a defined contribution plan than a defined benefit plan, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The BLS in “TED: The Economics Daily” reports that in its most recent National Compensation Survey...
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Editors’ Note: This is Part III of a four-part series about the importance of aligning the retirement benefits an employer offers with those employees’ interests and needs. Part I is here; Part II is here.
Increasing employees’ financial literacy figures into the effort to better align...
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Gordon Hartogensis’ term as Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) will end on April 30, 2024. The PBGC made the announcement on April 24.
Hartogensis, the first PBGC Director to complete a full five-year term in that office, was nominated in May 2018 by then-President Trump...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) released the Retirement Security Rule, informally known as the fiduciary rule, to great fanfare on Tuesday—including a press conference and White House ceremony.
Now that it’s released, what changes does the final rule make to the proposed rule? Here are eight...
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Nominations are now being accepted for the 2025 ASPPA Leadership Council.
Elected at-large members of the ASPPA Leadership Council serve for one term of four calendar years. Nominees must be credentialed ASPPA members nominated by at least two members to be considered.
Submit a nomination today...
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On April 23, the Department of Labor (DOL) released its final Retirement Security Rule—also called the Fiduciary Rule—that it said will “protect the millions of workers who are saving for retirement diligently and rely on advice from trusted professionals on how to invest their savings.”
This...
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Editors’ Note: This is part II of a four-part series about the importance of aligning the retirement benefits an employer offers with those employees’ interests and needs. Part I is here.
Employers can take a variety of steps to better align their benefits with employees’ needs and interest as...
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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) guidance to permit bankruptcy trustees to use its Abandoned Plans Program has moved off of the OMB dashboard and is back with the department, signaling the review is complete on the long-awaited release.
A summary description of the proposal explains that the...
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The American Retirement Association has confirmed that the Department of Labor (DOL) will release the fiduciary rule, officially called the Retirement Security Rule, on April 23.
Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su will announce the final regulation in a Treaty Room ceremony at 5 p.m.
It was...
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Editor’s Note: This is part I of a four-part series about the importance of aligning the retirement benefits an employer offers with those employees’ interests and needs.
You offer a retirement plan, but participation is not what you had expected.
Why? What’s not to love? After all, retirement...
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An annual study that assesses Americans’ level of financial literacy finds a strong connection between people's retirement fluency and how financially prepared they are for retirement.
For instance, Americans correctly answered an average of only 40% of the retirement-related questions. And among...
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In a discussion at the recent NAPA 401(k) Summit in Nashville, Tenn., Mike Walsh, CEO of Tomorrow, explored the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the advisory and regulatory landscape. He emphasized the rapid advancements in AI technology and the urgent need for the...
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Last week, a new report claimed to find a big jump in a so-called “magic” number for retirement, based on what survey respondents said they thought they’d need. As though they’d know.
It garnered quite a bit of coverage, including an article in The Wall Street Journal (and a comment from none...
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For the IRS, fiscal year (FY) 2023 “was a transitional year,” largely due to funding provided under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and application of technology, according to Commissioner of Internal Revenue Danny Werfel. His made his remarks in the agency’s most recent data book, an annual...
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Vanguard and Ascensus have announced a major deal that could potentially shake up the small-business retirement plan market.
According to the April 16 announcement, Ascensus has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Vanguard's Individual 401(k), Multiple Participant SEP (Multi-SEP), and...
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The Green Mountain State and the Centennial State are going to partner in establishing VT Saves, the state-run program that will provide retirement plan coverage for private-sector employees in Vermont whose employers do not.
On June 1, 2023, Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed into law a measure creating...
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Momentum is increasing in Congress to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).
In March, Reps. Garret Graves (R-La.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) called on the House Ways and Means Committee to hold a markup on their bipartisan bill, H.R. 82, the...
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Ongoing economic challenges are changing how Americans are thinking about retirement planning, with nearly 6 in 10 pre-retirees (57%) believing that inflation poses the most immediate challenge to their retirement portfolios over the next 12 months.
And this stress apparently is shifting the...
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Spring cleaning is well underway. But that need not be limited to closets, kitchens, and garages—it can serve retirement plans and their administrators too. And one such prime function is addressing missing participants.
Missing participants—former employees whose benefits remain in the plan but...
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The IRS on April 16 issued guidance on certain specified required minimum distributions (RMDs) for 2024. It adds that the final regulations it plans to issue related to RMDs will apply for purposes of determining RMDs for calendar years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2025.
The guidance is...
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