Practice

Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) have reintroduced legislation, the Harkin/Kohl Defined Contribution Fee Disclosure Act of 2009, that would require 401(k) plan providers to clearly disclose all of the fees they charge. The senators cite AARP research that shows if a 35-year-old invested $20,000 in a 401(k) plan over 30 years that yielded 6.5% a year and cost 0.5% in fees, their remaining balance would be $132,287, but if the fees were 1.5%, they would have only $99,679, or 25% less.

Debra Ryan, the longtime girlfriend of Samuel Israel III, who was found guilty of swindling Bayou Management hedge fund investors out of more than $400 million, pled guilty Tuesday to aiding and abetting the Israel when he was a fugitive.

The economic turmoil has prompted smaller employers who previously hadn’t considered setting up a 401(k) plan to do so in light of the beaten down values, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Financial planners are spending a lot of time these days trying to allay their clients' fears. Anyone who works with a financial adviser most likely has money in the stock market and, therefore, has experienced steep losses in the past year.

Defined contribution plans have been hammered by dropping equity markets, and this chain of losses has caused a ripple effect throughout the fund management industry.

The Investment Company Institute is pushing for improvements to municipal disclosure, which it generally considers limited, non-standardized and stale.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun distributing $321 million to the two million Alliance Capital investors who were harmed by market timing. This first installment is a total of $46 million, distributed to 300,000 investors.

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services has expanded its sales team by 18, hiring eight regional vice presidents and 10 professionals to man its new internal sales desk. This is a 15% increase in John Hancock’s team supporting advisers selling 401(k)s.

Reports that U.S. Sens. Carl Levin's and Charles Grassley's new bill on hedge fund regulation will force funds to publicize the names of clients are untrue, the senators said.

At a time when lawmakers are considering rewriting financial services regulations, even restructuring the whole system, the new Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary L. Schapiro is planning to prove her agency’s merit by stepping up enforcement and penalties, The Washington Post reports.