Blogs

Do you feel like you spent the last year gripping the steering wheel and waiting to see what would happen? You aren’t alone. Still, as we collectively look ahead and the chaos wanes, bits of good news are emerging. In the investing world, 2020 was a year of records and firsts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed out the year at well over the 30,000 mark, setting a new record high as it increased more than 7% from the beginning of the year. And right on the heels of that good news comes the annual survey from the Profit Sharing Council of America (PSCA). Based upon 2019 data — the most...

On the surface, retirement readiness did not suffer significantly in 2020, according to a close examination of the 1.1 million participants in 1,076 plans reviewed for a recent white paper. Of course, the market experienced significant dips in the first quarter of 2020, but results were broadly positive the rest of the year. Overall, year-over-year retirement readiness was down fewer than two percentage points — concerning, but not devastating. The paper, John Hancock’s State of the Participant 2021, examined data for the year ending September 30, 2020, digging deeper to see how participants...

More than a year after the start of the pandemic, you may be pleased with the overall growth of the assets in your company retirement plan. After all, more assets generally mean better prospects for retirement security for your valued employees. But according to a recent triennial survey of wealth held by Americans, some may not be enjoying growth to the same degree as the overall population—nationally and at your company. The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) examined data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) for the year ending 2019. True, that’s pre-COVID-19...

The Department of Labor (DOL) released guidance in January 2021 that will help plan sponsors keep track of participants. Finding former employees who still have plan balances but no longer work for the company can be challenging. And losing track of them may be a fiduciary issue because of the “exclusive benefit” rule set down in ERISA. It requires that plans diligently seek to distribute assets, even to missing or unresponsive participants. Best Practices for Pension Plans is one of a set of three related publications released by the DOL on January 12, 2021. It provides information to help...

The Challenges The client was frustrated with their plan provider because they were failing nondiscrimination testing on an annual basis. In addition to this issue, the plan had over 120 participants and thus was audited every year. Since the plan provider was running testing and census information without reviewing it for potential savings, these two issues cost the plan and its highly-compensated employees (HCEs) money. Due to the plan’s nondiscrimination testing failures, its HCEs either had to have money returned to them or the plan had to contribute additions to its non-highly compensated...