How a More Strategic Eye on Retirement Plan Design Can Alleviate Readiness Issues
As a growing number of America's aging workers delay retirement, employers should consider applying a multiyear strategy alongside their 401(k) plan to find ways to improve their employee's ability to retire on their own terms and minimize the higher costs associated with those who are forced to keep working.Read more >
What Types of Contributions Can Be Characterized as Roths?
"A public higher education organization operates a governmental 401(a) plan, 403(b) plan, and a 457(b) plan. Roth contributions are not permitted in any plans, but the plan sponsor is considering doing so. What types of contributions can be characterized as Roth contributions? For example, the 401(a) plan has mandatory employee contributions that are "picked-up" as pretax contributions under 414(h); could they be characterized as Roth contributions? And what about the auto-enrolled 403(b) plan—can employee deferrals be defaulted to Roth unless employees elect otherwise?"Read more >
Fiduciary Education Courses Now Available in Three Tiers
The courses are designed for both plan sponsors and advisers to help them manage retirement plans more effectively.Read more >
Sponsored message from J. P. Morgan Asset Management
The Power of Being Proactive
J.P. Morgan's 2019 DC Plan Sponsor Survey Findings highlight how plan sponsors are achieving greater success with plan design.Read more >
2019 PLANADVISER National Conference
Contagious Ideas: It's all about the outcomes
Join us September 16-18 for the PLANADVISER National Conference with a provocative and compelling agenda to ensure every 2019 PANC attendee is energized, engaged and inspired! On Day One alone, some of our Retirement Plan Advisers of the Year will gather to answer attendee questions, followed by insights on the role of participant services in a retirement advisory practice and what plan advisers can learn from industry M&A transactions. The day's sessions will end with a Washington update, followed by a wonderful dinner with guest speaker, comedian, actor, and impressionist Frank Caliendo.Read more >
Economic Events
In July, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.3%, seasonally adjusted (SA); rising 1.8% over the year, not seasonally adjusted (NSA), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.3% in July, SA; up 2.2% over the year, NSA.
Real average hourly earnings decreased 0.1 percent over the month in July, SA. Average hourly earnings increased 0.3% and CPI-U increased 0.3%. Real average weekly earnings decreased 0.3% over the month.
Tuesday, the Dow climbed 372.54 points (1.44%) to 26,279.91, the NASDAQ closed 152.95 points (1.95%) higher at 8,016.36, and the S&P 500 increased 42.57 points (1.48%) to 2,926.32. The Russell 2000 was up 16.30 points (1.09%) at 1,510.58, and the Wilshire 5000 gained 368.27 points (1.25%) to finish at 29,929.37.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 4/32, increasing its yield to 1.696%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond decreased 5/32, bringing its yield up to 2.158%.
U.S. Considering Whether to Join Lawsuit Over California Secure Choice Program
The lawsuit alleges the act that created the Secure Choice program "violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution because it is expressly preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974."Read more >
403(b) Plan Sponsors Have Taken Steps to Prepare for Market Volatility
An analysis from the 2019 BlackRock DC Pulse survey compares investment preferences of 403(b) and 401(k) plan sponsors and also highlights 403(b) plan sponsors' focus on retirement income solutions.Read more >
ON THIS DATE: In 1848, the Oregon Territory was established. In 1896, gold was discovered in Canada's Yukon Territory, starting the California Gold Rush. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. In 1941, Congress appropriated the funds to construct the Pentagon—the new home of the U.S. War Department. In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter. The charter was a statement of principles that renounced aggression. In 1945, it was announced by President Harry Truman that Japan had surrendered unconditionally. The surrender ended World War II. In 1953, the whiffle ball was invented. In 1959, the first meeting was held to organize the American Football League. In 1980, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was incorporated. In 1992, the U.S. announced that emergency airlifts of food to Somalia would begin. The action was being taken to stop mass deaths due to starvation. In 1995, Shannon Faulkner became the first female cadet in the history of The Citadel, South Carolina's state military college. She quit the school less than a week later. In 2015, in Havana, Cuba, the U.S. Embassy was re-opened after being closed 54 years earlier.
WEDNESDAY WISDOM: "That money talks, I'll not deny, I heard it once: It said, 'Goodbye.'"—Richard Armour, American poet and author