Benna expertly explains why small businesses face nearly insurmountable obstacles when it comes to establishing a 401k, America’s preferred retirement savings vehicle. He then shows how to re-frame existing retirement plan vehicles in a way that small business owners and employees will find more appealing.
Interviews
If you want to understand how sophisticated plan sponsors think, you need to talk to sophisticated plan sponsors. For many years, Dale Neibert served as part of a two-man operation that headed one of the nation’s most sophisticated 401k plans. He explains how this plan sponsor incorporated advance behavioral finance techniques, and how it avoided some of today’s most dangerous fads.
“We have reached a watershed moment for retirement planning and saving.”
“As for as the pre-release discussion of the Trump tax plan, I would just ignore it. It’s short on details, which raises too many questions.”
The retirement world will change, whether the industry wants it to or not. One thing is for sure, though, “financial literacy efforts, while effective for such matters as personal budgeting and proper use of credit, can’t overcome the huge knowledge gap that exists between individual investors and those who stand ready to prey upon them.”
Ted Benna says ERISA/PBGC – not the 401k – killed pension plans and that pensions no longer make sense given our current job-hopping demographics. He also says a lot more in this must read interview.
Oft-quoted professor Pfau also says you can’t turn back fiduciary, Rule or No Rule, and there’s still no easy way to compare reverse mortgage options.
“Millennials seek instant gratification. Putting money away today to live off of forty years from now isn’t nearly as sexy as a trip to Thailand with your girlfriends or tickets to the World Series. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but you’ve got to strike a balance between today and tomorrow.”
Aiken says “There is no turning back” on DOL’s Fiduciary Rule as its momentum is “unstoppable” and regulation is “a lagging indicator.”
The DOL’s Assistant Secretary reveals how she and her staffed learned from initial attempts and why it led to a much stronger Conflict-of-Interest Rule.
