Retirement planning

The wide availability of data in the media and on the Internet has not made the decision of how to plan for retirement any easier, said Timothy Noonan, managing director at Russell Investments, during the keynote address at the Financial Behavior in Retirement Summit in Chicago Monday.

While concerns about not being able to pay for healthcare in retirement have abated somewhat to 23% of Americans, down from 30% in 2006, more people, 19%, are worried about having to work longer to supplement retirement savings, up from 12% in 2006, according to a survey of 1,008 people conducted by Opinion Research Corp. for Edward Jones.

Retirement is top of mind for a majority of pre-retiree Baby Boomers between the age of 50 and 60, Charles Schwab found in a recent survey.

The average account balance for pre-retirees, aged 55 years or older, rose to $211,300 by the end of the third quarter from $96,000 ten years ago.

According to Janus, the ending point of glidepath is just one of several mysteries surrounding target-date funds.

Roth IRA conversions have spiked at Bank of America in the past year

Americans view retirement planning as the most difficult financial task, a survey of 4,000 investors by Hearts & Wallets found.

SPARK says 25 basis point cap on the fees is not high enough.

Negative sentiment weighs down healthy savings rates in the third quarter, trend firm First Command finds.

Even though Americans know they are responsible for their retirement and are not confident about the future of Social Security they still save less than they know they should.

While older baby boomers are entering retirement, younger boomers are struggling to prepare themselves for life beyond work and are trying to gain control of their financial futures.

According to the consulting firm’s findings, the deficit in pension plans sponsored by S&P 1500 companies decreased by $56 billion to $373 billion at the end of October, resulting in a funded status of 78%.

Large U.S. retirement plan sponsors believe defined contribution plans should be mandatory, and include auto enrollment, savings escalation and employer contributions, according to a study by Northern Trust.

The effects of the financial market meltdown from 2008 are still unfolding, as companies cut benefits and unemployment stagnates. Many women are responding by shouldering more financial responsibility in their families, which helps explain why they are so driven to learn more about their retirement finances.

With more than $23 trillion in assets under management, pension funds represent the largest asset class in the global financial marketplace. Managing this massive amount is the responsibility of pension plan sponsors who, supported by investment managers and other service providers, are charged with delivering results to plan participants within an ever-changing and ever-challenging economic environment.

After making all the right moves to prepare for retirement, high-net-worth individuals could still dilute their quality of life if they skip buying inflation-indexed annuities with their retirement assets, according to a study released by the National Retirement Risk Index at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Cash management is one of the strongest growth areas for Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s advisers, Sallie Krawcheck, president of Bank of America Global Wealth and Investment Management, said during a conference call Thursday.

They create an “income window” for defined-contribution record-keeping firms.

BlackRock and SunGard have partnered to offer a seamless retirement income window for defined contribution plan recordkeeping firms.

Feeling older and fully realizing they have to get serious about preparing for retirement, investors aged 50 and above are an ideal target for fund companies and their sales intermediaries.