|
Retirement Made Simpler News
December 17, 2009
Each issue of Retirement Made Simpler News delivers important news, research, updates and more to your inbox. Meet the Organizations
| Forward This Newsletter — And Keep Your Colleagues Up To Date About Auto 401(k) New readers: Sign-up today! |
In the News
Essential Information: Inaugural Financial Capability Survey Results
The FINRA Investor Education Foundation released survey results that measure the financial capabilities of American adults and reveal in detail how Americans save, borrow and plan for their financial future. The National Financial Capability Survey, the first of its kind in the United States, was developed in consultation with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. The release of this survey comes at a critical moment for many American families. The survey found that:
- only 41 percent of parents have set aside money for their children's college education;
- the majority of Americans do not have a "rainy day" fund for unanticipated financial emergencies and are not adequately preparing for their children's college education and their own retirement;
- more than one in five survey respondents use high-cost, alternative borrowing methods, such as payday loans or pawn shops; and
- fewer than half (46 percent) of those surveyed correctly answered two basic questions about how interest rates and inflation work.
Read the Survey
News Release
A Question of Balance: 401(k) Plans Are Being Beefed Up—So Are the Penalties for Failing to Manage Them Well
Thanks to a raft of innovative new products, plan-design changes, and regulatory safe harbors, it is easier than ever to build a low-cost, high-performing 401(k) plan that gives your employees a fighting chance of achieving financial security in retirement, while simultaneously protecting you from missteps that could lead to messy and potentially expensive lawsuits. Automatic enrollment makes it easier to get people into the plans who might have neglected to join in the past. Target-date funds give them an easy way to invest in a professionally managed, diversified investment portfolio. And the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which led to the designation of certain approved types of funds as "qualified default investment alternatives" (QDIAs), offers a fiduciary safe harbor to plan sponsors, allowing them to make investment decisions on behalf of participants who don't make them on their own. CFO.com
 Your Nest Egg’s Monthly Nut—Proposal Asks 401(k) Plans to Provide Retirement-Income Projections
U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Herb Kohl, D-Wis., introduced a bipartisan bill that would require employers who sponsor 401(k) plans and the like to inform plan participants of the projected monthly income they could expect at retirement based on their current account balance. MarketWatch
Want News about Automatic 401(k)s and more? Visit the RMS Media Stream
Resources and Tools
Thinking about Automating Your 401(k)?
Follow these steps
Department of Labor and IRS publication: Automatic Enrollment 401(k) Plans for Small Businesses
Download pdf
Tell Us About Retirement Made Simpler News
What is useful to you? What do you want more of? How can we help you and your organization?
Send Us an E-mail
Search Our FAQs/Ask A Question
|
