Retirement planning

The Vanguard Group, Inc. has doubled its sales force, to 220 staffers, serving financial advisors in an initiative to promote its exchange traded-fund products.

Although many defined contribution fund managers pay lip service to global investment opportunities, many DC plans actually have a “home bias” in their investments and are severely underweighted in their overseas exposure, according to a paper released by OppenheimerFunds, Inc.

Focusing only on group long-term care, carrier cites economic influences as basis for decision.

Even the best-laid retirement plan can come unraveled if clients and their advisors aren’t proactive about setting reasonable spending limits and sticking to them. Here’s an interactive slide show detailing nine ways advisors can keep their clients from overspending throughout their retirements.

Investors are much savvier about retirement planning than commonly thought, at least when it comes to target-date funds, according to a research note from investment management company Vanguard.

A senior Prudential executive is calling upon the government to promote the development of multiple employer plans, which allows many small employers to pool their resources together under a single defined contribution plan.

Here’s an interactive slide show detailing nine ways advisors can keep their clients from overspending throughout their retirements.

This week, IRA expert Ed Slott tackles questions about transferring 401(k)s to Roth IRAs and how investors can avoid early distribution penalties.

A senior Prudential executive is calling upon the government to promote the development of multiple employer plans, which allows many small employer to pool their resources together under a single defined contribution plan.

San Francisco, Calif,-based Callan Associates, an investment consultant, has hired Benjamin Taylor as vice president, responsible for investment structure reviews, fee analyses and record keeping searches.

In addition to the emotional issues surrounding clients’ financial decision-making, most advisors’ skill sets are not aligned with the task ahead.

Matrix Financial Solutions has expanded the functionality of TrueOpen, its core mutual fund trading platform, to address growing demands from retirement plan providers and advisors.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management has hired Richard Gray as managing director and institutional client advisor, based in New York and focused primarily on corporate defined benefit plans and public fund retirement plan clients. This is a new position reporting to Andrea Lisher, East Team Lead for Institutional Advisory Sales at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

The odds of being single at some point during retirement are high and present unique challenges for both “ever single” retirees who never married and for those who become “suddenly single” in retirement due to divorce or death of a spouse. In fact, 43 percent of Americans age 65 and older are single due to divorce, having never married, or the death of a partner.

AXA Equitable has hired Amy Radin to the new position of senior executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

Jackson National Life Insurance Company, a purveyor of variable annuities, is looking to offer its advisors and their retail clients access to alternative investments.

Mutual of Omaha has named Seth Friedman to serve as 401(k) national sales director. He takes over for Michael Ziccardi, who left the firm in December to join Rekon Intelligence, which works with advisors to help them build out their businesses.

Many investors put off making final IRA contributions until the last minute, and now Fidelity Investments has an app for that.

Insurers will need to rethink product offerings as policymakers are now looking beyond the once-vaunted 401(k).

StanCorp Equities has appointed Jennifer Giampaolo as a pension consultant for its Orange County Retirement Plans Office, responsible for retirement plan sales in Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. She will also serve Arizona and New Mexico.