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Jun 2019What is Happening to "Traditional" Retirement?
Know someone who retired at age 65 and lived out their golden years in paradise with no cares in the world? Well, I used to know people like that, but most of them are dead. While the growing FIRE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) movement is throwing the traditional age of retirement out the w…
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Jun 2019Retirement Lessons from the Four Seasons
Sorry to disappoint classical music fans out there, but, rather than Vivaldi, we are discussing the other Four Seasons. You know, the ones that were one of the best-selling musical groups of all time and also one of only two American groups to have hits both before and after the British invasion (th…
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Jun 2019Giving 403(b) a Bad Name
I was speaking recently to a 401(k) practitioner who does not work with 403(b) plans. When I explained that my primary practice was 403(b), he responded: “Why do you work with those terrible high-fee annuity plans?” I had to explain to him that the segment of 403(b) to which he was referring, the pu…
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Jun 2019Addressing the Affordability of Retirement Savings
Generally, the reason that employees fail to save for retirement is not because they don’t know the benefits of retirement savings. And, for the most part, it is not because they don’t believe in saving for retirement (although there are some with this mindset). No, the primary reason that people d…
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May 2019Retirement Plan Outcomes: The Missing Puzzle Piece
Most retirement plan sponsors, particularly large ones, have spent quite a bit of time and effort ensuring that their plans can survive an IRS Audit, DOL investigation, and/or litigation by closely reviewing investment arrays and fees. However, there is one simple and straightforward topic that has …
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May 2019The Future of Retirement Plans
In our Revamping Retirement podcast, we have been addressing the evolution of the retirement plan landscape over the past 25 years. And a lot has changed - from technology, plan design and investments, to, of course, fees. But what might the next 25 years have in store for the future generation of r…
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May 2019Something New I Learned from the DOL
Even after 27 years in the retirement plan business, there is hardly a week that goes by where I don’t learn something new - and the past few weeks have been no exception! Recently, Greg Needles of Morgan Lewis and I had the distinct pleasure of sharing a podium with Preston Rutledge, head of the E…
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May 2019Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs): Why I’m Not a Fan
For regular blog readers, it’s no secret that there are certain retirement plan provisions which I could live without. While strides have been made over the years, in my opinion, the laws governing retirement plans remain needlessly complicated and have many unnecessary provisions. Required Minimum…
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May 2019The Stock Market Darlings: Then and Now
In the recent episodes of our Revamping Retirement podcast, we have discussed the changes in retirement plans since I started working for Cammack Retirement Group way back in December of 1991 (yes, I’m old!). As you may imagine, things are quite different - from plan design, to investments, to techn…
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Apr 2019Why do Employees Cash Out their 401(k)/403(b) When They Leave?
I was talking to a retirement plan participant the other day who had terminated employment with his employer and had a small amount in his 403(b) plan - not so small that it would be automatically cashed out (if the plan had a cash-put provision), but not a giant amount, either. The employee’s first…
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