Managing Your Practice
NTSA Executive Director Brent Neese offered a look at the state of the retirement industry at a Jan. 28 session of the NTSA 30th Anniversary Summit.
The first people to establish 401(k)s after they became available are beginning to retire, Neese noted, and remarked, “Things don’t look so good. “...
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Four NTSA leaders – Tamara Indianer of Lincoln Investment, Bill Fisher of Penserv, Paul Prete of Foresters Financial and I – introduced the NTSA Certified Retirement Education Specialist (CRES) initiative at a Jan. 28 session of the organization’s 30th Anniversary Summit in Tampa.
The CRES will be...
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Clients’ expectations have changed. And that is in part explained, and fueled by, technology. In a Jan. 29 session of the NTSA 30th Anniversary Summit in Tampa, FL, Lincoln Investment Vice President of Branch Development Tom Lakatos offered his insights on this development.
Lakatos was definitive...
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In MarketBeat, John Iekel looks at a recent blog entry that argues that new year’s resolutions about physical fitness are not the only kind that should be made; it suggests that they should also include being ready for a plan audit by the IRS or Department of Labor.
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The start of a new year is an opportune moment to take stock of the way things are done and consider new approaches. A benefits-related organization offers some ideas of things to consider regarding designing and providing a workplace financial education program.
The International Foundation of...
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Sponsors of 403(b) plans evince a high level of awareness of fiduciary duties, the Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA) found in a recent study it conducted. It also found the changes to plan investments, as well as governance changes, were common.
In its study “Fiduciary Awareness in 403(b)...
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Managing participant data is a fiduciary duty under ERISA. But doing it — and doing it well — is also a way to efficiently run a business. A recent blog entry argues that it also provides a way to meet those duties and address the problem of missing participants — if not obviate it in the first...
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ERISA requires a variety of disclosures to plan participants. This installment of ERISA Tips focuses on disclosures of investment-related information.
In “The Fiduciary Duty of Participant Disclosures,” a paper by Thorp Reed & Armstrong, Kevin A. Wiggins notes that plan administrators are...
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The alarm bells have long been sounding that many retirees are in for a rude shock when they find they didn’t save enough. In MarketBeat, John Iekel discusses a blog entry that argues that information is a key to improving retirement savings and softening the blow.
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House Republicans have released a wide-ranging tax package – including a number of retirement savings provisions – setting the stage for negotiations on a year-end tax package as the 115th Congress comes to a close.
The main components of the package (the Retirement, Savings, and Other Tax Relief...
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Two plaintiffs in a class action suit against third-party administrator Vantage Benefits and custodian Matrix Trust company have voluntarily dismissed without prejudice their lawsuit against the latter.
The two plaintiffs, who are Texas A&M University retirees, voluntarily dismissed their...
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MarketBeat discusses a blog post about best practices in which ERISA attorney Fred Reish explores retirement income projections as a way to better serve plan participants. And he cites the 403(b) market as among those such information can serve.
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Why attend the 30th Anniversary NTSA Summit?
It’s the highlight of my professional year!
This is because of the following:
NETWORKING with the best of the best, the role model Elite Advisors
MENTORING new attendees, who are bringing fresh ideas
APPRECIATING stories of tradition with business...
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Internal culture and environment, and how central it is to training and how well an employer’s workforce functions, was the focus of recent remarks by James McKinney, Chief Operations Officer, Retirement Strategies, Inc. In Marketbeat, John Iekel discusses McKinney's remarks.
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How do you measure success? There are as many answers as there are answerers. Nonetheless, some objective criteria can be helpful in gauging it; in MarketBeat, we present the suggestions of an industry expert.
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Informing plan participants is not a suggestion. And much has been said of the need to make information provided to plan participants more readily understandable. But a specialist in retirement education and employee benefits communication has suggested that something else is in play in...
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The IRS has announced that it has granted tax relief certain victims of Hurricane Michael in Florida. The IRS action includes relief from penalties on payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after Oct. 7, 2018, and before Oct. 22, 2018, which it says will be abated as long as the deposits are...
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Sponsors of 403(b) plans are increasingly embracing automatic plan designs – and the use of advisors, according to a new industry survey.According to the 2018 annual 403(b) Plan Survey from the Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA), the use of an investment advisor who acts as a plan fiduciary has...
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As practices grow, the time and distance between clients and their service providers can grow as well. Technology can help bridge those gaps, Bill Fisher writes in MarketBeat, discussing ideas for doing just that.
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The price of recordkeeping services is not uniform; it can vary depending on type of retirement plan. A blog entry discusses why pricing for 403(b)s is different than that for 401(k)s.
In “The Differences Between 403(b) and 401(k) Pricing,” Michael Webb of Cammack Retirement offers some...
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