Fiduciary News

Should adolescent “Stock Market Challenge” games be banned from schools? How can someone learn the important lessons of investing for a lifetime if they’re rewarded for playing a short-term trading game? Are there better ways to simulate long-term investing in a gamified form?
[bpfb_link url=’…[Read more]

What’s your most frustrating story when it comes to 401k employee education? If you’re teaching, tell us the one about the time you thought you nailed the presentation only to find out the audience later failed to act per the lesson. If you’re taking the point of view of the audience, tell us about the time the presenter glossed over – or even ou…[Read more]

Does your 401k plan measure retirement readiness of participants and, if so, how do you measure it? Despite all the noise and rancor about fees and annual investment performance, this is the bottom-line: Are the employees on the right path to be ready to retire? The article contains some thoughts on measuring retirement readiness. What is your…[Read more]

What’s the best way to measure the success of a 401k plan? How we pick 401k benchmarks have changed over the years. What guidelines to select benchmarks do you use today that you didn’t use 10-15 years ago? Can’t remember that far back? Here’s an article highlighted how those guidelines have changed. What do you think?
[bpfb_link url=’ht…[Read more]

How much do retirement savers need to accumulate? What do you think? Is $1,000,000 the number people should be aiming for to live a comfortable #retirement? If not, what are the more important variables? #fiduciary #401k #IRA
[bpfb_link url=’http://nowitcounts.com/do-you-need-million-dollars-in-retirement/’ title=’retirement: It's Never Too Late…[Read more]

Are investors who fail to learn from history doomed to repeat it? We hear millennials prefer to buy annuities than to save in a 401k or IRA and invest directly (and at a lesser cost) in the stock market. Well, this is bad news and good news. The bad news is that those that don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. How many baby b…[Read more]

After decades of relying on “risk tolerance” questionnaires, how do you convince 401k plan sponsors and investors that they’re more dangerous than useful? What horror stories can you share? As the attached link explains, since as early as 1999, it’s been widely known “risk tolerance” questionnaires are, at best, irrelevant and, at worst, misl…[Read more]

How do we stop the BHB myth that claims asset allocation accounts for 93% of investment performance? It’s been a while since major financial service providers have misquoted the infamous Brinson-Hood-Beebower research papers from the late 1980s/early 1990s. We still, however, see individual practitioners and even the some journalists repeating t…[Read more]

Why do you think Target Risk Funds contain less fiduciary liability concerns for 401k plan sponsors than Target Date Funds? Target Date Funds have exploded in terms of popularity. It’s not that they’re proven in any sense of the word. In fact, the economic crash of 2008/2009 exposed their true nature and the potential liability they pose. The…[Read more]

Cross Trading Can Harm Investment Performance. Here’s an article that explains it. Were you aware of it and the implications?
[bpfb_link url=’http://fiduciarynews.com/2014/04/new-401k-plan-sponsor-fiduciary-worry-study-reveals-previously-unpublicized-conflict-of-interest-can-harm-mutual-fund-performance/’ title=’
New 401k Plan Sponsor F…[Read more]

What’s the best way to improve 401k participant fee disclosure? While it may be correct that it does more harm than good, it’s not going away. Our only hope is to make it better.How do you see that happening? Is there something more important than fees to disclose to 401k plan participants?
[bpfb_link url…[Read more]

When it comes to retirement plans, what is more important than fees? As David Huntley, co-editor of the 401k Averages Book explains in the attached article, fees are the be-all and end-all when it comes to value. The DOL apparently shares this opinion. In your mind, what’s more important than fees?
[bpfb_link u…[Read more]

Why a Fee Disclosure? It’s just not working. In fact, does it have any meaning at all, other than to confuse plan participants? It’s one thing to place the burden of discerning the value of fees on the plan sponsor for, after all, that is their fiduciary duty. But why bring the plan participant in it? It’s not like they can do anything about it.
[…[Read more]

How do you solve a problem like revenue sharing? Should revenue sharing stay or should it go? It’s the cousin of the infamous 12b-1, long out of favor and now a target of the SEC. Is there really any difference between revenue sharing or 12b-1? And, if not, then why shouldn’t they be treated the same?
[bpfb_link url…[Read more]

Has the DOL sufficiently defined “best interests” under its new proposal? Or are we going to have to wait for the courts to decide? The DOL is saying let the courts decide. Is that really in the best interests of, well, anyone?
[bpfb_link url…[Read more]

What’s the biggest impediment to saving for retirement? You may be surprised to see what AARP’s David Certner has to say in the attached article. Before you read it, though, tell us what you think it is.
[bpfb_link u…[Read more]

The Evolution of 401k Benchmarks – what are your ideas? How we pick 401k benchmarks have changed over the years. What guidelines to select benchmarks do you use today that you didn’t use 10-15 years ago? Can’t remember that far back?
[bpfb_link url…[Read more]