Technical Resources

My schedule – and aversion to crowds – means that I rarely see a new movie the first weekend it comes out (a rare exception – Avengers: Infinity War).While this means that there are times when I’m the only one in the office the following Monday who hasn’t seen the latest blockbuster (and thus can’t... READ MORE

Private-sector defined benefit plans made “significant” funding improvements in 2017, say recent studies. But the good news doesn’t stop there. Milliman, in its 2018 Corporate Pension Funding Study, bases its findings on an analysis of the financial disclosures of the 100 largest corporate DB plan... READ MORE

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Labor Department is examining whether Wells Fargo has been pushing participants to move money from their 401(k)s into more expensive IRAs at the bank.The report (subscription required), which attributes the story to “a person familiar with the inquiry,” says... READ MORE

The 21st Century is nearly two decades old — so why are we still relying on 17th Century technology for critical participant communications?A generation ago, plan sponsors only had to worry about the annual delivery of a Summary Plan Description. Much has changed since then, but not the mandated... READ MORE

Speculation continues to swirl on whether the Department of Labor will appeal the ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacating the fiduciary rule, but time is running short.At the April 15 opening session of the NAPA 401(k) Summit in Nashville, the Groom Law Group’s David Levine and The... READ MORE

The Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program, a retirement savings vehicle for private sector employees in Illinois who do not have access to an employer-sponsored plan, is now being tested by employers that volunteered to participate in a pilot program. Illinois State Treasurer Michael W. Frerichs (... READ MORE

A recent analysis offers a fresh take on how to motivate individuals to save for retirement: wed technology and behavioral economics. In “How Digital Tools and Behavioral Economics Will Save Retirement,” an article published in the Harvard Business Review, Shlomo Benartzi, Professor of Behavioral... READ MORE

Editor’s Note: Richard Block and Kevin Donovan have been kind enough to revise and correct our previous report on their April 9 Enrolled Actuaries session in which they shared their insights into testing DB and DC plans on a combined basis. The corrected post appears below; many thanks to Richard... READ MORE

While the Securities and Exchange Commissioners were hardly unanimous in their assessment, they voted 4-1 to release for public comment a set of proposals to “enhance the quality and transparency of investors’ relationships with investment advisers and broker-dealers while preserving access to a... READ MORE