Retirement benefits

Although the recent economic downturn has forced pre-retirees ages 50 to 59 to consider working years longer than they had hoped, their current rate of savings is unlikely to fund the retirement lifestyles they expect, according to the fifth annual Retirement Fitness Survey from Wells Fargo & Company.

Americans, including retirees, are looking to return to stocks to regain the steep losses they suffered in 2008 and are optimistic they will accomplish this, Prudential Financial found in a survey of 1,001 Americans aged 45 to 75 with $100,000 or more in retirement savings.

Although target-date funds could possibly be better designed and perhaps have less disparity between their equity exposure and glidepaths, they are not to be held responsible for the current retirement shortfall many people are now facing, according to Manning & Napier. Rather, no mutual fund could adequately shield investors from the near collapse of the U.S. financial system, according to the firm.

Putnam Chief Executive Officer Robert Reynolds is once again sounding the call for a new approach to 401(k) investing, inclusive of annuities and other retirement income products. This time, he is asking Washington to create a national insurance charter that will ensure consistent regulation for assured income products.

Plan sponsors are becoming more aggressive about helping their workers save for retirement, and even investment advice is now commonly offered, Hewitt Associates found in a survey of 300 mid- and large-sized companies.

With investors and employers alike still shaken by retirement plan losses, despite the market's rebound since March, Prudential Financial is hoping a bundled package of products inclusive of guaranteed retirement income can help it draw assets from a skeptical marketplace.

Last week's Supreme Court case has once again brought mutual fund fees to the national spotlight, but a decision by the court might not come for several months, if it comes at all. And judging from the justices' comments, they appear reluctant to get involved in the day-to-day workings of fund companies and more inclined to trust the judgment of fund boards, the purview of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the workings of the free market.

Putnam Chief Executive Officer Robert Reynolds is once again sounding the call for a new approach to 401(k) investing, inclusive of annuities and other retirement income products. This time, he is asking Washington to create a national insurance charter that will ensure consistent regulation for assured income products.

With all of the news about low 401(k) balances and half of the people in the country not being offered either a 401(k) or a pension plan, amazingly, an estimated 10% may be saving too much for retirement. That’s according to the estimates of Harvard University economist David Laibson.

MassMutual Retirement Services, a unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., announced that September was its best sales month ever.

NEW YORK - Selling retirement income guarantees after a recession is like selling flood insurance after a flood. Timing is everything, and currently the timing could not be better.

The Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing Wednesday to examine the risks and potential conflicts of interest inherent in target-date funds.

The percentage of Americans at risk of having to cope with lower living standards in retirement has risen to 51%, seven percentage points higher than the 44% last measured in 2007, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found. And the figures would be even higher if they accounted for healthcare and long-term care, the center said.

Prudential Financial on Oct. 18 launched its “Morse Code SOS” advertising campaign touting the 401(k) administration and healthcare insurance services it offers U.S. companies.

Russell Investments has introduced Russell Enhanced Asset Allocation, which using forecasting models to identify unsustainable movements in the market and map out a plan to maximize returns while limiting risk and maintaining adequate liquidity. The strategy covers 11 geographic regions and 11 asset classes and produces 114 asset class pair combinations.

Stunned by trillions of dollars of losses in the financial crisis, Americans will be investing significantly less in the future, according to a new survey by AlixPartners. Forty-nine percent of the 1,000 people the consulting firm surveyed have either stopped or reduced investing in stocks or mutual funds, 26% have no intention to return to these bedrock financial vehicles in the next three years, and another 27% were unsure whether they had the endurance to return to the markets in that timeframe.

To prevent other target-date investors from being burned as so many were in 2008, when the average 2010 and 2015 fund lost 25% of its value or more, more advisers are telling their clients that they need to look closely at the asset allocation and glidepaths of these funds so that half of their portfolios are not exposed to stocks on the eve of their retirement.

Workers who had already been investing in their 401(k) for at least five years through 2008 saw their balances drop an average of 24% last year, compared with the S&P 500's sharp 37% decline, the Investment Company Institute and the Employee Benefit Research Institute said.

Wholesale changes are in store for both pension and 401(k) plans, according to a survey of 140 financial executives by Prudential Financial. Nearly half of the execs at companies with pension plans said their firms were considering freezing or terminating their pension plans in the next two years. Seventeen percent have already closed their DB plan to new entrants, and 27% said they are likely to do so in the next two years.

For the past year, investors have been nervously avoiding stocks and pumping billions of dollars into bonds and bond mutual funds, but a new study indicates that a large percentage of investors may have a limited understanding of how bonds work.