Practice

NEW YORK - Many financial advisers are feeling extremely guilty for failing to protect their customers from the 30% equity drop in 2008, but it will take more than remorse to earn clients' forgiveness.

The growing trend for companies to suspend or even eliminate 401(k) matches in this recession will inevitably translate into fewer people contributing to their retirement savings, writes Rockefeller Foundation Associate Vice President Janice M. Nittoli in an editorial in The Wall Street Journal titled, “Now Is No Time to Skimp on Retirement Plans.”

Great-West Retirement Services has launched an updated set of target-date funds that it believes will address some of the problems that were found with target-date funds in 2008.

The retirement centers of E*Trade, Fidelity and Ameritrade are the most complete of 14 leading brokerages, according to a new report from Corporate Insight.

A Connecticut bill that would have imposed transparency and licensing requirements on hedge funds failed to be signed into law Wednesday when the House of Representatives ran out of time to vote on the measure.

After so many 2010 target-date funds came up short last year, Prudential Retirement investigated how they might be improved, and decided that including retirement income guarantees would be a key benefit. They would freeze the asset allocations of target-date funds five or 10 years prior to retirement, in exchange for guaranteed income.

Financial Engines has improved its 401(k) advice services with the launch of the Financial Engines Retirement Plan, a personalized statement that addresses each investor’s savings, investments and retirement income needs.

Although the Securities and Exchange Commission is not requiring fund companies to begin producing summary prospectuses until Jan. 1, some fund companies, including the Guinness Atkinson Funds, have already started to equip investors with the plain English, four-page documents.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the members of its newly created Investor Advisory Committee. The committee’s mission is to give investors a greater voice in the regulator’s work.The 15-member panel will advise the Commission about matters concerning investors in the securities markets; provide investor perspective on current, non-enforcement regulatory issues; and be a source of information and recommendations to the Commission concerning its regulatory programs from the point of view of investors. The committee will be co-chaired by Richard “Mac” Hisey, president of AARP Financial and AARP Funds, and Hye-Won Choi, senior vice president and head of corporate governance for TIAA-CREF.

Older workers are much less confident about the outlook for their retirement security than they were two years ago, according to a survey of 2,200 workers by Watson Wyatt. Understandably, those with a pension plan are far more confident than those handling their own retirement savings through a 401(k).