Retirement benefits

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.

Auto enrollment, escalation and target-date features in 401(k) plans are effective in boosting savings substantially, especially for lower-income workers, according to a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association.

Mutual of Omaha is holding 401(k) sales seminars, or boot camps, for advisers to 401(k) plans over the next year. The first six cities where the seminars will be held are Lansing, Mich., Pittsburgh, Orlando, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas. Following the seminars, participants will receive a year’s worth of educational e-newsletters, and access to webinars and tools.

Great-West Retirement Services has appointed Tom Masteller regional sales director for the Pittsburgh marketplace, responsible for selling 401(k) plan administration services through brokers, financial advisers, consultants, wirehouses and third-party administrators (TPAs). Great-West is the fourth-largest retirement plan recordkeeper in the U.S.

The Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America has honored McDonald’s for having the best retirement plan, in its inaugural Plan Sponsor of the Year Award.

High-balance retirement plan participants aren't showing much loyalty to plan providers when rolling assets into an individual retirement account-yet this could signal room for improvement for 401(k) plans and their advisers.

New York Life is introducing an employee participant program that aims to personalize and simplify the retirement planning process.

Government workers are not sitting pretty on top of fat future pensions. More realize that their pensions could be under pressure in the future, and that their government employers are shifting more of their retirement burden onto workers. The smart government and municipal employees—especially those who are slated to only receive a partial pension and are being guided to save in a 457 or other defined contribution plan—are looking to save more.

Retirement plan participants are calming down, according to a Mass Mutual analysis of its plans.

A bill before Congress seeking to increase retirement savings among workers will unnecessarily overburden small employers, according to a new report from Aite Group.

Fund managers and other experts say that target-date funds need to increase the amount of information they provide investors to understand their investment risk. But they don’t want the Securities and Exchange Commission to change the way the funds are named.

Although it supports the Securities Exchange Commission’s goal of bringing more disclosure to target-date funds, the proposal to include asset allocation information in the fund’s name will only confuse investors, BackRock said in a letter to the agency this week.

I ventured forth with predictions about what's in store for 401(k) plans in 2010 and beyond ("The shape of things to come for 401(k) plans," available at ebn.benefitnews.com).

As Federal Express first indicated last November, it announced Monday that it will restore 401(k) matches. But the wait is still a long way off: The matches don’t start until Jan. 1, 2011.

The Department of Labor issued an interim final rule on fee disclosure in 401(k) plans Thursday morning. The final Rule 408(b)2 relieves plan sponsors and their fund providers and consultants from having to share and store written documentation on disclosure obligations.

For employers with 401(k) plans, auto enrollment is growing, and target-date funds are an increasingly popular default option. But concern is building over what happens when the two trends meet.

The Internal Revenue Service is extending some deadlines for sponsors of defined-contribution retirement plans, such as 401(k) plans, that were affected by storms and other severe weather in Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Despite the resistance of small employers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the mutual fund industry in general, legislation to require companies with 10 employees or more to provide employees with a seamless lifetime savings plan through an Automatic IRA, is definitely gaining steam.

France raised its pension retirement age by a mere two years, from 60 to 62, and people took great umbrage to that. Protests broke out in the street, and union leaders said they'll strike. One-third of the nation's TVG fast trains were expected to be canceled.