Employee benefits

Hillary Clinton has rolled out a plan to make college affordable that her presidential campaign has dubbed the New College Compact, enabling students to pay for higher education without taking out costly student loans.

While most people in the retirement industry agree that the Department of Labor has its heart in the right place in wanting to protect individuals from conflicts of interest, many don’t believe the agency has gone about its rule-making in the right way.

A startup named FeeX says it has an automated service that calculates the fees in an old 401(k)s and recommends whether a rollover (and which kind) makes sense.

Not only are 403(b) retirement plans diversified, but the average cost of offering them decreased slightly from 2009 to 2012.

Generation Y is more conservative than other generations when it comes to retirement savings.

Nearing the top 1% of total U.S. households, the Obama family holds roughly $1.25 million in Treasury notes and bills.

This list identifies 15 women influencing the broader fund provider industry and making a substantial impact on their organizations. All stand out for their unique leadership positions and for their propensity to help others rise in the field.

There's more ways for the mutual fund industry to cut costs, says Bill McNabb, chief executive officer and chairman of Vanguard.

The vast majority of Americans cannot afford to send their children to college, finds Edward Jones' fourth annual 529 Plan Awareness Survey. Here's how to help your clients.

In the case of the millennials, their experience with the financial sector includes the unifying themes of volatility, crisis and scandal.

For the first time, more than half of all 401(k) contributions will go into target-date funds, research firm Cerulli Associates estimates. It projects the assets in target-date funds to hit $2 trillion by 2019.

Many financial professionals are accepting the idea that they likely won't beat the market and that investors therefore would be better off in low-cost index funds.

Adding rollovers and IRAs to the definition of fiduciary duties, the Department of Labor's new proposed rule could have a huge impact on firms in a fast-growing and profitable segment of the retirement savings industry.

Retirement product providers say that they continue to struggle with reluctant employers and misinformed employees about the benefits of their offerings.

The demands of Baby Boomers nearing retirement have pushed product providers to market their offerings as not just investments, but also financial wellness tools to manage retirees' lives.

Among the wealthiest clients, Fidelity and Vanguard retain their perennial leadership positions in firm perception, but there is room for others to advance their brand, according to a new study on investor sentiment toward insurance and retirement investment product providers.

Increased longevity and the fact that those belonging to the Greatest Generation married at a young age are two reasons for the increase in dual-generation retirements; Plus, the reason why parents shouldn't be too generous with their children's college education funds.

Your affluent clients may think they can just write a check to cover college costs. They're probably wrong. Here are a few issues that parents (and grandparents) should consider.

A big jump in clients’ risk appetite is why the Retirement Advisor Confidence Index climbed 2.3 points in December, reaching a five-month high of 54.

The pursuit of yield has driven both advisors and investors toward newer, more complex ETFs and closed-end funds — products that use leverage, employ derivatives, deal in options and futures, sell short and so on. When such funds are held in clients’ IRAs they can generate additional problems for advisors, creating tax headaches and raising questions about investor suitability.