Putting Retirement Plan Losses in Perspective

I’m not thrilled with the recent market volatility, and I suspect that you’re not either! Like many, my retirement plan account has suffered, and, as someone in my 50s, this is not great news. However, it has not suffered as much as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (down 25.7% year-to-date, as of 3/…

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SECURE Act Part-Time Employee Provision: Don’t Count Hours Unless Absolutely Necessary!

I recently attended the That 401(k) Conference in Orlando, Florida, where conference moderator, Ary Rosenbaum (who runs the amazing and informative That 401(k) Site), conducted a session on the impact of the SECURE Act. In that session, he stated that one of the biggest administrative issues created…

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Looking to Buy an Annuity? You May Already Have One!

Annuities, a form of investment that can provide a future stream of income payments to their owners, are aggressively marketed in retirement plans. And, it appears that the recent market uncertainties will only exacerbate the situation. While annuities serve as an important component in retirement p…

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How to Delay and/or Avoid Required Minimum Distributions

While the SECURE Act raised the commencement age from age 70½ to 72 for required minimum distributions (RMDs), there are actually a number of other ways that retirement plan participants can delay and/or avoid minimum distribution requirements if they plan ahead. Consolidate pre-tax retirement plan…

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Random Nuggets I’ve Learned from the Internet, 2nd Edition

One of the benefits of constantly consuming retirement-related content is that, even after 28 years in the retirement business (yes, I’m old!), there is still an endless number of things to learn. In the second edition of “Random Nuggets I’ve Learned from the Internet,” I cover some of those.While i…

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Employee Deferral Trivia

A question in our recent SECURE Act webinar concerning a relatively obscure rule in 457(b) plans inspired a look into the absolute maximum that an individual could voluntarily defer into any combination of qualified retirement plans (403(b)/401(k)/457(b)) in 2020. The result was surprising: The 457…

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Decumulation Confusion: Social Security Claiming Strategies

In Part 1 of our decumulation series, we discussed the oft-overlooked topic of decumulation, or the spending of retirement plan assets during retirement years. In Part 2, we explored annuities as a decumulation strategy and the associated confusion for retirees. In Part 3, we examined the 4% rule, a…

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Revisiting the 2019 Retirement Plan Trends

A little over a year ago, I made predictions as to the 2019 hot trends for retirement plan sponsors. So, how did I do? Let’s take a look at how the predictions fared: An increased focus on non-savers — Verdict: No — I’m a bit annoyed that I struck out with this one, as it likely would h…

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The Beginning of the End for Asset-Based Retirement Plan Recordkeeping Fees?

In The Top Retirement Plan Trends for 2020 we discussed the migration of retirement plans from traditional percentage of assets-based recordkeeping fees to per-participant fee structures. By implementing a per-participant model, recordkeeping fees do not snowball as plan assets grow (which only stan…

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For Plan Sponsors with Choice: Is a 403(b) or 401(k) Plan Right?

Some organizations, like 501(c)(3) tax-exempts, have a choice in the type of retirement plan they offer. For many of these plan sponsors, a 403(b) plan makes the most sense; but for some, a 401(k) may be the right choice. Below are some of the primary factors that may help determine which type of re…

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