Retirement benefits

The path to retirement can be a long haul, so author David Shapiro recommends using GORP: goal-oriented retirement planning. The admittedly cutesy acronym does not diminish the gravity of Shapiro's topic, funding retirement for the millions of American Baby Boomers who have not yet saved enough.

Employees of maligned fund giant Putnam Investments tiptoed around company procedures in the area of expense payments, several Putnam funds admitted in a series of disclosures to shareholders.

MIAMI -- With Baby Boomers turning age 50 at a rate of 12,000 a day, meeting the needs of mutual fund investors has forced investment advisors to redefine retirement. That's one person every eight seconds for those scoring at home.

It's not every day one encounters a company that's content to be No. 2. But that's exactly the business plan of Principal Retirement & Investor Services. While Principal serves three million investors in 40,000 employer plans, most of those plans are at companies with 1,000 workers or less.

There are many laws that hold parents responsible for the willful misconduct of their children, and now it looks like Marsh & McLennan Cos. (MMC) may have to face the music for its lack of oversight of its Putnam Investments unit.

The downward pressure on 401(k) and other retirement plan balances over the past few years will mean problems for employers - but especially for the millions of workers who are ill-prepared to fund their retirement.

The 529 college savings plan has yet to catch America's attention the way many providers would have hoped. While it is still early in the product's lifespan, it has struggled with profitability issues, low awareness levels among average investors, and potentially crushing legislative barriers.

Employers expanded the number of 401(k) plans in the nation by 4% in 2002, according to the National Defined Contribution Council (NDCC) and the Spectrem Group.

Finances and health insurance are on the minds of Baby Boomers, as 36% of them say they think about their retirement savings nearly every day, according to a recent survey by Pulte Homes.

When it was adopted by Congress, "catch-up" seemed like a surefire attraction for older workers.

Fear and loathing of lost wages and dramatically depressed stock prices have young investors losing sight of their retirement goals.

Fidelity Investments has appointed William C. Carey president of Fidelity Institutional Retirement Services Co., the nation's largest 401(k) plan provider.

Participation in 401(k)s has dropped to 73%, its lowest number since 1991.

Half full? In these dire times, we tend to think half empty, if not drained, when it comes to our retirement plans. Over the last three years, the downturn has eradicated at least $678 billion in U.S. retirees' savings, according to the University of Michigan.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Communication, education, strategic partnerships and outsourcing are the name of the game for the "401(k) sales champions" who took to the podium to share their expertise with attendees at the American Society of Pension Actuaries (ASPA) here.

Is Gary Winnick, chairman of beleaguered telecom Global Crossing, trying to save his own hide by making a public pledge of $25 million to those among his employees who lost large sums of their 401(k)s plan during the recent telecom bust? Or, is he, as he recently told Congress, trying to set a precedent in corporate moral responsibility?

Most 401(k) investors took a hands-off approach to their retirement plans last year, declining to make trades or adequately diversify their assets.

And you thought the baseball contract negotiations were tough.

ARLINGTON, Va. - Mutual fund companies have done a good job of banking assets in 401(k) plans, but with so many people retiring or changing jobs, fund companies often lose those assets at those rollover junctures. With some strategic marketing and some personal advice, however, funds can increase their chances of hanging onto money that rolls out of 401(k) plans, reports Boston-based Cerulli Associates in a recent study, "The Retirement Income Market and Asset Retention Strategies."

An announcement by 401(k) plan provider CitiStreet last week that it will provide workers with expanded advice about investment choices in their retirement plans may be pushing government regulations to their limits in an aggressive effort to retain rollover assets, observers said last week.