Many ERISA plan sponsors are unclear regarding a primary fiduciary responsibility concerning plan document retention (which and when documents may be purged). Most plan sponsors adopt an assumed “reasonable” amount of time to retain documents prior to purging them. Unfortunately, IRS rules may not always be complicit with what may be assumed to be “reasonable”.The … Continue reading Plan Documents… Save or Purge?

Empower recently announced an agreement to acquire MassMutual’s retirement plan recordkeeping business. The acquisition is expected to capitalize on both firms’ experience and expertise to the benefit of retirement plan participants and plan sponsors. Plans currently utilizing MassMutual are being notified of this action and should expect no changes or disruption to current operations during … Continue reading Defined Contribution Recordkeeper Consolidation Continues

Many Defined Contribution retirement plan participants are uncertain as to benefits of allocating their contributions to traditional vs Roth options. This is for good reason. There are two key major determiners as to the benefit of contribution to Roth:1) Will they be in a higher or lower tax bracket in retirement?2) Will tax rates increase, … Continue reading To Roth or not to Roth

1. Don’t Cash Out Retirement Plans When Changing Employment When you leave a job, the vested benefits in your retirement plan are an enticing source of money. It may be difficult to resist the urge to take that money as cash, particularly if retirement is many years away. If you do decide to cash out, … Continue reading Four Tips for Increasing Your Retirement Dollars

Employers have heard a lot about financial wellness. However, employers don’t always recognize the connection between financial wellness and improved retirement savings behavior as well as a more productive workforce overall. All employees, no matter what generation they belong to, want to work in a friendly environment where they don’t have to stress about their … Continue reading Are You Hearing About Financial Wellness?

Phased retirement includes a range of flexible retirement approaches that would allow employees approaching normal retirement age the option to reduce the hours worked while phasing into complete retirement. For employees, phased retirement may be seen as a benefit by many older workers. It allows them to gradually ease into retirement while maintaining a higher … Continue reading Have you ever considered offering a Phased Retirement Program?

T. Rowe Price did a deep dive into its recordkeeping data and surfaced with a few important points. Its “Reference Point Report is an annual client data benchmarking report so plan sponsors can review trends and benchmark their progress and participant behavior across the firm’s client base… 'We continue to see the importance and significant … Continue reading Good News 401(k)

This month’s employee memo encourages employees to conduct a regular examination of their retirement plan to determine whether any changes need to be made. Download the memo from your Fiduciary Briefcase at fiduciarybriefcase.com. Please see an excerpt below. It is important to conduct regular check-ups on your retirement plan to make sure you are on … Continue reading Participant Corner: Retirement Plan Check-Up

The payment of expenses by an ERISA plan (401(k), defined benefit plan, money purchase plan, etc.) out of plan assets is subject to ERISA’s fiduciary rules. The “exclusive benefit rule” requires a plan’s assets be used exclusively for providing benefits. ERISA also imposes upon fiduciaries the duty to defray reasonable expenses of plan administration. General … Continue reading Allowable Plan Expenses: Can the Plan Pay?

For almost a century, collective investment trusts (CITs) have played an important role in the markets. They were originally introduced in 1927. According to a 2020 study, they are now used in more than 70 percent of plans.¹ For the vast majority of their existence, CITs were available only in defined benefit (DB) plans. In … Continue reading Collective Investment Trusts — The Fastest Growing Investment Vehicle Within 401(k) Plans