Pooled employer plans, or PEPs, could dramatically change the 401(k) business, but only if employers decide to adopt them.
Financial wellness programs depend on data about what workers need, but employees may have concerns about the privacy of their personal information.
The firm's acquisition of the record keeper may be a harbinger for other distributors. Does Raymond James see opportunities to monetize participants in retirement plans, especially given the launch of pooled employer plans?
That guidance comes years after it was requested by industry groups. The Department of Labor regularly investigates employers for the issue of missing participants, but until now it hadn't provided clear steps on how to remedy the problem.
Boston-based Alpha is a retirement consulting firm with 572 clients and about $2.9 billion in assets.
Future innovations in DC plans will come as much from retirement plan advisers and their clients as from the institutional market.
The Morningstar study examined saving, investing and wealth differences between typical in-office employees and remote workers. The latter tend to be older and more highly compensated, both of which correlate with different investing habits.
Revenue sharing fees ultimately make retirement plans more expensive, and funds that include them are disproportionately favored on plan menus, a recent academic paper found.
Fintech and digital record keeper Vestwell is among about three dozen firms that have registered as pooled plan providers with the DOL, but the firm does not yet have information on pricing and plan design for a potential PEP product.
Social Security benefits are typically calculated using your highest 35 years of indexed earnings.
Investment advice may take back seat to financial wellness as advisers' clients worry about the state of the economy and the prospect of losing their job
The plaintiff failed to raise issues with the company's process of selecting and monitoring funds, a judge wrote
Qualified charitable contributions can help offset the tax bill from required minimum distributions — but only with the right timing
The company was already targeted in another class-action case over the target-date series and managed account options in its plan
Big mergers can lead to headaches for broker-dealers.
The managed-account service will stand out in the marketplace because it will be embedded in Vestwell’s technology, rather than located away from a record keeper and within an investment manager’s system, a detail that will help the firm compete on cost
The deal follows other major announcements, including the purchase of Compass Financial Partners and a majority stake acquisition in Sageview Advisory Group
Consolidation has been a theme of late in the retirement plan adviser world, and private equity has increasingly poured money into the space, which has helped push valuations to high points, leading to ample selling opportunities for adviser firms
Four years ago, a financial adviser got a call from a prospect who did not want to disclose any information over the phone. At the in-person meeting, the woman and her husband told the adviser that she had won a $1.2 million jackpot.
Arkansas and Michigan become the latest states to adopt the National Association of Insurance Commissioners model rule
