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Jan 2019Decumulation Confusion
Just as the accumulation of sufficient assets is vital to retirement, proper decumulation - or the spending of those assets during retirement - is equally critical. We talk a lot about the former, but not so much about the latter; however as more Baby Boomers age into retirement, this will likely be…
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Jan 2019You Have a Retirement Plan Committee - But Do You Have a Committee Charter?
Retirement plan committees (which are sometimes broken down into separate committees such as an investment committee and/or an administrative committee) serve an important function to ensure that the plan fiduciaries fulfill their responsibilities. While most plan sponsors utilize these committees,…
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Jan 2019Revisiting My 2018 Retirement Plan Trends
A little over one year ago, I made some predictions as to what the hot trends would for retirement plans in 2018. Let’s take a look to see how accurate I was: Next generation auto-enrollment techniques will gain in popularity - Verdict: Unknown. I have not yet seen any studies of 2018 data for tren…
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Jan 2019The Stock Market Soap Opera and Some Basic Math
The volatility of the stock market has become a major news story lately. But, as we well know, there is a tendency for the media to exaggerate. So, is the current stock market “crisis” real - or just a soap opera? And, if the “crisis” has substance, should it cause concern for retirement plan invest…
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Jan 2019Why I No Longer Make New Year’s Resolutions
In a sea of retirement and other savings-related articles about 2019 New Year’s resolutions, you won’t find one from me. Why? Because I hardly ever keep my resolutions, due to the fact that most require concrete actions, and inertia tends to take hold when I get busy. So what did I do instead? When…
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Dec 2018Employee Financial Concerns: How Retirement Plan Sponsors Can Help
Employees have a variety of reasons for why they cannot afford to save (or save more) into their employer’s retirement plan. From student loan and credit card debt, to healthcare costs, there are many obstacles for today’s employees. However, many of these employees can, in fact, afford to save! So…
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Dec 2018A Solution to What Shouldn’t be a Problem? IRS Provides Some 403(b) Universal Availability Relief
Over eight years ago, in a PLANSPONSOR Ask the Experts column, I suggested to plan sponsors that all employees be permitted to make elective deferrals to a 403(b) plan (a concept the IRS calls “Universal Availability”), despite the fact that certain employees could be prohibited from making these de…
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Dec 2018The Proposed Hardship Distribution Regulations: Some Misconceptions
The proposed hardship regulations were issued less than a month ago, but there already appears to be a lot of misunderstanding among plan sponsors and those who work with them. Based on the numerous questions we’ve received these past few weeks, it appears that the biggest misconceptions are as fol…
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Nov 2018Why Now Might Be the Time to Eliminate a Hardship Distribution Provision
In my experience, most of the retirement plans that are eligible to maintain a hardship distribution provision (defined benefit and money purchase plans cannot, and 457(b) plans can only permit distributions for unforeseeable emergencies, which are a different animal entirely) do indeed allow funds …
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Nov 2018Delivering Retirement Benefits to Healthcare and Higher Education Employees
In this week’s Top of Mind, Mike Webb shares some key takeaways from his recent P&I webinar on healthcare and higher education retirement plans.
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