Marcia Wagner
Is Your 401k Auto-Enrollment Success Story Incomplete?
The idea of 401k auto-enrollment may be one of the greatest innovations in retirement plan history—or one of its greatest illusions. Few plan design features have done more to increase participation. Yet participation and retirement readiness are not synonymous, and confusing the two may create what can only be described as the Auto-Enrollment Paradox. The […] Read Full Article
What Advice Would The Founding Fathers Give On Saving For Retirement?
The retirement system itself has undergone a revolution. The Congress that oversees retirement policy today would have been unrecognizable to the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. ERISA, enacted in 1974, created a comprehensive fiduciary framework that would have been unimaginable to Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, or Hamilton.
Decumulation Strategies Create New Fiduciary Questions For 401k Plan Sponsors
The reality is that many retirement planning decisions already require participants to evaluate concepts they may not fully understand. That reality raises an important question. Should a plan exclude a potentially beneficial option simply because some participants may find it difficult to understand?
Advisor Shortage Risk Creates New Challenges For 401k Plan Sponsors
Who will attend meetings? Who will prepare reports? Who will respond to participant questions? Who will provide investment recommendations? Who ultimately bears fiduciary responsibility?
Will Cybersecurity Enforcement Change What Fiduciaries Must Protect?
That does not necessarily mean fiduciaries should expect a wave of new regulations. Existing direction may already point fiduciaries toward the safeguards regulators expect them to implement.
Trump IRA Access May Be Solving The Wrong Problem
Trump IRA access may be Washington’s latest attempt to solve the wrong retirement problem. Americans already have access to IRAs. They have had it for decades. Banks offer them. Brokerages offer them. Mutual fund companies offer them. Some firms even offer them with no administrative fee and ultra-low-cost index investments. Yet millions of workers still […] Read Full Article
If Participants Don’t Understand It, Should It Be In Your 401k Plan?
Fiduciaries can follow every step of a prudent process and still end up with outcomes they did not anticipate. That’s not how fiduciary risk is supposed to work. Or at least, not how it used to work.
Saver’s Match Fiduciary Risk Is The Next 401k Fiduciary Trap
Once the regulatory gaps are acknowledged, the issue quickly shifts from theory to action. Plan sponsors are not just waiting for guidance. They are being forced to decide whether to engage with the Saver’s Match at all.
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