In trying to clarify who can give advice to 401(k) plan participants and under what circumstances, the Department of Labor appears to have antagonized just about everybody.
Defined-contribution plans are adding self-directed brokerage accounts as a way of giving participants more choices even as some plans reduce the number of core investment options.
Defined contribution plans are adding self-directed brokerage accounts as a way of giving participants more choices even as some plans reduce the number of core investment options.
On the threshold of turning the corner financially, Financial Engines Inc. is trying to fuel its growth in the defined-contribution arena through an initial public offering.
If combatants in the debate over target date fund investment approaches thought that Morningstar Inc. could provide a tiebreaker, they were out of luck.
As the defined-contribution industry braces for new fee disclosure regulations, some corporate 401(k) plans — including Nestlé USA Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc. — are light-years ahead of the pack in providing participants with fee information.
More people are rolling over their 401(k) savings into IRAs when they leave their jobs or retire.
After being battered by a rough market in 2008, target date funds continued to face the problems of attracting consistent contributions from participants, controlling the amount of pre-retirement distributions and discouraging investors from bailing out after they retire, according to a report from J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
Target-date funds in Ibbotson Associates' research universe returned an average of 27.1% in 2009, compared to a 30.8% loss in the previous year.
T. Rowe Price's target-date fund family was the best performing in 2009, followed closely by funds from John Hancock, according to Russell Investments research.
