Employee benefits

Retirees may need more money than previously expected in order to cover all their health care costs, according to a supplemental study released Thursday by Fidelity Investments.

When things start to go bad in the stock market or the economy in general, previously ignored things like mutual fund fees can suddenly irk investors.

The Supreme Court's recent decision in LaRue v DeWolff to permit workers in 401(k) plans to sue administrators for high fees will inevitably lead to lower fees-and the end of the retail mutual fund industry's dominance of the market. That's the strong opinion of widely quoted, and frequent financial TV guest Ric Edelman.

By now, investors are accustomed to the creative, informal "Talk to Chuck" advertisements of Charles Schwab & Co. in which animated, yet somewhat realistic, images of people gripe about trying to get through to other brokers, but take heart at the thought of reaching Chuck Schwab, the man, through one of his people.

According to recent analysis by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a leading global consulting firm, defined benefit pension plans tend to have higher rates of return than 401(k) plans.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in LaRue v DeWolff to permit workers in 401(k) plans to sue administrators for high fees will inevitably lead to lower fees—and the end of the retail mutual fund industry’s dominance of the market. That’s the strong opinion of widely quoted, and frequent financial TV guest Ric Edelman.

A shocking lack of financial knowledge by our nation’s teenagers has caused a junior achievement organization and an association of retired teachers to band together to help bridge this gap.

Approximately 78 million working Americans are currently working jobs that do not provide them with a retirement plan; however, Barack Obama is looking to change this predicament, according to a report by CNNMoney.com.

Friends and family members of New York college-bound students can now make contributions to a student's 529 college savings plan, thanks to a change in New York State law that mirrors similar programs in other states.

Charles Schwab has announced that the Charles Schwab Trust Company (CSTC) will offer target-date collective trust funds for retirement plans.

TIAA-CREF has launched a new service to help sponsors of 403(b) retirement plans meet new Internal Revenue Service requirements by Jan. 1, 2009.

Big changes are brewing in the 403(b) world. For the first time in 40 years, the Internal Revenue Service is mandating new requirements that aim to make the plans more like 401(k)s.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has a pair of initiatives designed to strengthen its position in the asset management market.

Iowa has launched a “Baby 529 College Savings Giveaway” program in which it will randomly award $1,000 in money toward a 529 plan to one baby a month at participating Iowa hospitals. Every family that registers their child, however, will also receive a small “welcome home” gift, courtesy of Iowa State Treasurer Michal L. Fitzgerald.

Missouri State Treasurer Sarah Steelman has declared May 29 as “529 College Savings Day,” in part to draw attention to the tax-advantaged college savings plans and to roll out a new Web-based resource that allows family and friends to make online contributions.

Industry leader SEI recently concluded in a white paper that collective investment trusts (CITs) are becoming more popular in the defined-contribution retirement market. In the first quarter of 2008 alone, 63 new collective trusts were launched, and from 2004 to 2007 CIT assets actually tripled.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously last Wednesday on a proposal that would require mutual funds to provide risk/return, fee and strategy information using the same new digital data tagging system as the 500 largest U.S. corporations.

WASHINGTON - Exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been growing by leaps and bounds lately, but you ain't seen nothin' yet, said a panel of executives involved in creating and distributing ETFs, speaking at the Investment Company Institute's general membership meeting here two weeks ago.

The mood at the Investment Company Institute's 50th Annual General Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, themed "Our Foundations, Our Future," was markedly upbeat. Certainly, this is welcome and refreshing, especially following the dot-com crash of 2000-2001, the mutual fund scandals of 2003-2005 and this year's subprime credit crisis hitting the financial services industry and Wall Street, in particular, so hard.

WASHINGTON - The general consensus among financial experts is that target-date funds are better suited for the majority of 401(k) investors than money market funds. Only problem is, the passive participant seems to have little interest in making changes to their plan, especially if they were automatically enrolled into it.