Case Study: Making a Strong Plan Stronger

SRC, a not-for-profit research and development organization, set out to improve their retirement plan benefit, ultimately reducing administrative costs by 54%, streamlining the investment lineup and improving employee communication and education - all without converting recordkeepers

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The Fiduciary Breach Lawsuits: Lessons Learned

Over the past few months, we launched an in-depth exploration into the claims of the fiduciary breach lawsuits. We highlight the issues, the litigation outcomes and the key take-aways for retirement plan sponsors in a recap of the series.

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Defined Contribution Retirement Plan Committee Composition: What Is Ideal?

Thoughtfully establishing a retirement plan committee is the first step in a prudent fiduciary due diligence and risk management process. We explore how to determine who should serve on the committee.

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Chart of the Month: Duration of the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index

Source: PIMCO, Bloomberg Market Observations The Bloomberg Barclays U.S. bond index is a widely used benchmark that most institutional investors, asset managers and investment consultants use to track the performance of the investment-grade bond market. Since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, there …

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Compliance Alert: IRS Announces New Retirement Plan Limits for 2020

On November 6, 2019, the IRS announced the new 2020 retirement plan limits. The applicable cost of living index increased sufficiently, allowing many standard limits to increase for 2020. The elective deferral limit under 402(g), for example, increased by $500 to $19,500. Similarly, the catch-up def…

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Are Negative Interest Rates Coming to the U.S.?

Negative interest rates were originally intended to help boost an ailing European economy and have become widespread. Is it only a matter of time before the U.S. gets sucked into the global trend of negative yielding debt?

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Chart of the Month: U.S. 10-Year Treasury Yields Move Inline with Deteriorating Fundamentals

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Investing.com Market Observations A dominant theme for financial markets in 2019 has been the sharp decline in global bond yields, particularly here in the U.S. After hitting a high of 3.25% last October, the 10-year Treasury yield now stands at just 1.…

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Fiduciary Breach Lawsuit Issues Explored - Topic #5: No Regular Recordkeeper RFP

With more than 100 lawsuits filed against fiduciaries of defined contribution retirement plans for breach of fiduciary responsibility, litigation has plagued the retirement plan industry over the past decade.

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Hardship Distributions are on the Rise: The Issues for Retirement Plan Sponsors and Participants

The number of hardship distributions has been on the rise, since legislation was passed making it easier to take them. Learn why plan sponsors and retirement plan participants should be concerned and what organizations can do to help.

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Chart of the Month: The Probability of a Recession in the Next 12 Months is Rising

While U.S. growth has been remarkably resilient to trade uncertainty, low inflation, and slower global growth, a probability model used by the N.Y. Fed to calculate the odds of a recession in the next 12 months has risen substantially in recent months.

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