Retirement planning

Wholesale changes are in store for both pension and 401(k) plans, according to a survey of 140 financial executives by Prudential Financial and CFO Research Services.

Putnam Investments has unveiled the industry’s first absolute-return target-date funds, which will combine both conventional investing strategies with absolute-return methods that seek to mitigate market volatility.

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services has formed a distribution partnership with Edward Jones that makes Hancock’s 401(k) platform, complete with the Guaranteed Income For Life feature, available to the brokerage’s 12,000 financial advisers.

President Obama outlined a series of initiatives the federal government would take to help people boost their retirement savings, including allowing them to direct tax refunds, pay raises and unused vacation pay to their nest eggs.

In the eight months since their launch in January, Putnam Investments' new family of absolute-return mutual funds has attracted more than $400 million in new investments and, according to the firm, is on track to top $1 billion by the end of the year.

These firms topped the list of the best variable-annuity websites for advisors in a new survey by kasina.

On the eve of “401(k) Day,” Sept. 11, themed “Make Wise Choices” this year, the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council issued a statement praising the 401(k) as “an island of stability during the current economic crisis.”

Commonwealth Financial Network will require advisers to earn credentials in fiduciary practices or retirement planning as part of its new Retirement Plan Consulting Program.

Morningstar is offering advisers in-depth research reports for 20 of the largest target-date mutual fund series, based on five components making up the “five P’s”: People, Parent, Performance, Portfolio and Price. A pared-down version is also available to individual investors.

President Obama outlined a series of initiatives the federal government would take to help people boost their retirement savings.

When like-named target-date funds experienced a wide range of investment returns in 2008, regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Labor took notice.

Many investors are still too afraid to get back into the stock market, and their hesitancy is putting a drag on the market’s resurgence, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Fifty-four percent of workers are satisfied with their company’s retirement program, and 61% say it is their primary retirement savings vehicle, Watson Wyatt found in a survey of 2,200 workers in February. Twenty-nine percent said that were it not for their retirement plan, they would not be saving for retirement.

Bank sales of fixed annuities reached $8.7 billion in the second quarter, according to Beacon Research in Chicago, a drop in sales from $10.9 billion in the first quarter.

MetLife's Broker-Dealer Group has introduced MetLife Fund Management Services, an investment advisory solution targeted at emerging investors.

Vanguard released findings of the investing behavior and performance of its 401(k) investors in 2008, showing remarkable resilience in the face of steep market declines.

Cake Financial Thursday introduced a $99-a-year automated service that attempts to tailor a mutual fund portfolio to an investor’s existing holdings, salary, age and desired retirement age by showing them lower-cost, less risky and better-performing choices.

With news that the economy might be on the mend and that roughly two-thirds of employers are considering reinstating 401(k) matches in the next 18 months, it is not inconceivable that a new 401(k)/pension hybrid that becomes available to employers on Jan. 1, 2010 could gain traction, Kiplinger’s reports.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance said 401(k) participants continued to move more of their savings and contributions back into the stock market in the second quarter, evidence of growing confidence in investing.

After almost a year in federal receivership, in which chunks of the giant corporation have been sold off, American International Group (AIG) has ended negotiations to sell its Advisor Group of independent broker/dealers. The group had been on the market for roughly 10 months.