Employee benefits

College savings funds have slashed fees this year, Morningstar reports, making them worth another look.

College savings funds have slashed fees this year, Morningstar reports, making them worth another look.

IndexIQ, an innovator in hedge fund replication and index-based alternative investments, has partnered with institutional consulting firm Rocaton Investment Advisors to bring alternative investments to small and mid-sized 401(k) plans. Rocaton has also made a minority investment in IndexIQ.

Across all income groups, retirement income from employer-sponsored retirement plans is more prevalent among retirees today than in 1975, when sweeping new retirement plan regulations were enacted, most notably the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, according to a report from the Investment Company Institute.

Use of the advice service that Bank of America Merrill Lynch Retirement & Benefit Plan Services offers 401(k) plan sponsors for free increased 23% year-to-date since September 2009.

Pre-retirees who continuously held a 401(k) plan with Fidelity Investments for the past 10 years more than doubled their account balances, according to data released by the Boston fund company on Thursday.

Charles Schwab Bank, a trust and custody service provider to 401(k) and other retirement plans, has added the Schwab Institutional Diversified International Trust Fund to its suite of collective trust funds.

Despite the increasing proliferation of target-date funds in employer-sponsored retirement plans, many sponsors aren’t very knowledgeable about the funds, Janus found in a survey.

The SPARK Institute has sent a comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission asking it to modify its proposed 12b-1 fee rule.

Americans are underutilizing their 401(k)s, according to a survey of 1,000 participants by the ING Retirement Research Institute. Eighty-seven percent admit they could save an additional 1% of their annual salary, 59% said they could increase it by 3%, and 53% could bump it up by 5%. And for 64%, their 401(k) or other employer-sponsored retirement plan accounts for all, if not the majority, of their retirement savings.

BOSTON—The Department of Labor’s new 401(k) fee disclosure requirements that take effect Jan. 1, 2012 go far beyond disclosing mutual fund expense ratios to cover every nook and cranny of expenses in plans, right down to indirect service providers, speakers said at the FundForum USA 2010 conference here Monday.

For defined contribution plans to work, large U.S. retirement plan sponsors believe they should be mandatory, and include auto enrollment, savings escalation and employer contributions, according to a study released on Monday by Northern Trust.

Fidelity Investments reported a 20% increase over the past three years in the number of participants in its tax-exempt workplace savings plans at higher education, healthcare and other not-for-profit institutions.

One of the benefits of the recession is that the constant coverage of the economy has brought retirement savings and retirement benefits into better focus for many Americans, The Hartford Financial Services Group found in a survey of 1,000 adults, conducted by Zeldis Research.

Average balances in 529 college savings plans fall far short of projected higher education costs in most situations, according to Morningstar’s latest research paper and industry survey, released on Monday.

According to Morningstar, Alaska, Maryland, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia are all considered best in class across five performance areas.

For anyone born today, the cost of four years at a private college will be about $440,000 by the time they arrive at those hallowed halls.

The Hartford Financial Services Group has launched a new educational program to encourage participation in 401(k)s and other defined contribution plans.

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration will require 401(k) plans starting Jan. 1, 2012 to clearly spell out all fees and expenses each quarter so that investors can more readily compare the costs of their holdings.

The economy is outright preventing or dissuading many American workers from saving for retirement, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.