The 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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​Something 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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Required 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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The 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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Why 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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Why Auto-Enrollment is Always a Good Idea

Auto-enrollment has seen increasing adoption among plan sponsors of retirement plans. And for good reason: It is hard to find a reason why auto-enrollment is a bad idea! Yet, there have been some concerns. Some plan sponsors worry about the disruption auto-enrollment may cause employees. Since empl…

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A Conversation About Financial Wellness

At the recent 2019 PLANSPONSOR/PLANADVISER Excellence in Retirement Awards Dinner, I had the opportunity to discuss financial wellness with fellow advisers at a pre-dinner roundtable. Here are some of the key takeaways from that session: “Financial Wellness” is not the best term to use - People do …

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It’s Never Too Late to Start Saving

J. Money, who runs the uber-popular Budgets are Sexy personal finance blog, received a note from a reader that confided he: “just started saving at the ripe old age of 52 - so crazy. I am a late bloomer." Truth be told: while I started saving for retirement in my early 20s due to my job, other savi…

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Recordkeeper Financial Wellness Portals: My Personal Experience

As you might imagine, I access the website of my own retirement plan from time-to-time - not so much to check on my personal account, but to see the latest and greatest participant offerings from the recordkeeper. Upon my latest visit, I noticed that there was a “financial wellness” tab. As Top of M…

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The Best Reason to Save for Retirement

One of the most popular excuses as to why someone can’t save for retirement (right behind, “I can’t afford it”) is: “Retirement is so far off in the future; I could be dead by then.” This “living for today” mentality generally entails the premise of enjoying life to the fullest - which, apparently m…

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