29 Sep

GAO Proposes Changes to 401(k) Hardship Withdrawal Rule

By Money Management Executive
September 29, 2009

Noting that 15% of 401(k) participants have engaged in some form of “leakage,” that is, hardship withdrawals from their plans or failure to roll the money over when changing jobs, between 1998 and 2006, the Government Accountability Office is recommending that Congress eliminate the ban on additional contributions for six months by those who make such withdrawals.
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24 Sep

Investors Need Adviser Help to Navigate

Fred Schneyer

September 23, 2009 — Financial advisers might have significant opportunity helping Americans figure out where their investments are and where they need to go, a Hartford poll suggests. —

Americans in a recent poll were less confident and more conservative about their personal finances than they were a year ago, according to a news release about the Hartford Mutual Funds Findings.
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17 Sep

Who Can Advise At Company Retirement Plans

By Kristen McNamara

Independent financial advisers will benefit from the rule-making that is under way regarding which financial professionals can advise participants in company-sponsored retirement plans — and which ones can’t.

Phyllis Borzi, assistant secretary of Labor of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, said this week the department expects to strike a proposal that would have allowed advisers connected to investment companies to provide retirement advice.
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17 Sep

Experts Pin Hopes on Labor Department for Retirement Plan Fee Disclosure Regulations

Retirement plan fee disclosure regulations from the Department of Labor are preferable to legislation because they allow for a comment period from the industry.

Industry experts are hoping the Department of Labor pre-empts Congress in issuing new regulations mandating increased disclosures for retirement plan fees.
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17 Sep

Early Returns in 401(k) Fee Cases Favor Defendants

September 16, 2009
Bob Eccles, Wayne Jacobsen

A recent spate of so-called 401(k) fee cases has generated anxiety among employers and 401(k) service providers. While the majority of these cases remain undecided, the early returns are positive for employers and service providers. This Client Alert provides a brief overview of the most significant developments and expected future events in these cases.
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14 Sep

Labor Department nixes Bush rule to let brokers advise 401(k) plans

By Sara Hansard
September 14, 2009, 4:38 PM EST

The Department of Labor is killing a regulation issued in the last days of the Bush administration that would have allowed advisers affiliated with mutual funds, brokerage firms and other companies that sell investments to provide investment advice to 401(k) participants.

“We believe the final investment advice regulation published in the Jan. 21, Federal Register went too far in permitting investment advice arrangements not specifically contemplated by the statutory exemption,” said Phyllis C. Borzi, assistant secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, a unit of the Labor Department.
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14 Sep

Independent Advisers Report More Optimism

Ellie Behling

September 14, 2009 — Forty-one percent of independent investment advisers reported that retired clients are reducing the amount of their retirement distributions, according to a study by Charles Schwab.

Surveyed advisers also reported that clients are considering short-term reduction of expenses (66%) and lowering fundamental expenses, such as changing their primary residence (40%).
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14 Sep

Retirement Losses among Worst Effects of Recession

Fred Schneyer

September 14, 2009 — Some 56% of respondents in a recent survey said their retirement savings losses were among the most significant impacts on their lives from the economic downturn.

An American Express news release about its spending poll also reported that 54% of respondents cited stock market losses, while 74% pointed to the trauma of seeing family and friends affected by the recession as key impacts the recession had on their lives.
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