Fiduciary News

Here is what some other media sources have said about FiduciaryNews.com:

“Will the Pandemic Give MEPs and PEPs a Boost?” (American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries, June 15, 2020):

In “Will COVID-Related 401(k) Plan Shrinkages Push Companies to Pooled or State Solutions?,” a recent entry in Fiduciary News, Christopher Carosa takes a look at what the situation may portend for 401(k) plan consolidation… Carosa notes that there were similar reactions during the Great Recession, and that while retirement plans did not undergo a significant consolidation then, the situation could be different this time… Carosa argues that state-sponsored plans “have an advantage today” because there are few MEP options right now… And recent regulatory and legal developments could lay the groundwork for the expansion of MEPs and PEPs, Carosa suggests… the changes the SECURE Act and new regulations will bring the shortcomings of state-sponsored plans into sharper relief. “Unless state-sponsored efforts can defy the stultifying reality of any political process, they are unlikely to pivot fast enough to overcome the fast-paced offerings coming from the private sector,” Carosa writes.

Paul Sippil: RetirementRacket, May 18, 2015, “Response to an Article Criticizing 401(k) Plans”:

“Chris Carosa’s thorough and objective article about the debate over the tax advantages of 401(k) plans is far more informative.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who is genuinely interested in hearing a wide range of informed opinions on the subject.”

Investment Company Institute: ICI Daily, July 3, 2012, Top entry in the “In the News” section:

“401(k) Plan Sponsors and the Mutual Fund Expense Ratio Wild Goose Chase,” Fiduciary News  (07/03/12) Carosa, Christopher – Many in the 401(k) industry have expressed concerns about mutual fund expense ratios, but Christopher Carosa call such worries “overly simplistic—and false—analysis [that] may thwart the Department of Labor’s efforts to level the playing field among 401(k) investment products.” He calls the Investment Company Institute’s response to a recent article published by Fortune magazine “on point and damaging,” citing specifically ICI’s response that “within a given investment category, fund fees can vary because of differing investment focus or style (e.g., among equity funds, foreign equity fund fees tend to be higher than domestic equity fund fees) and differing services included in the fund fees.” Carosa says that the most recent research “shows if you remove loads and 12b-1 fees, actively managed funds perform just as well as the index,” a fact that appears to have been missed in the Fortune article. Carosa concludes that “any talk of mutual fund expense ratios only diverts attention away from the true issue at hand—what are the true costs of those non–mutual fund products that make up nearly half of all 401(k) investments?”