Www.ccrs.biz | Compass Corporate Retirement Solutions BLOG

13 Aug

Will 401(k)s Wither Without Employer Match?

By Michelle Singletary
Sunday, August 9, 2009

Washington Post

This recession has taken so much from people.

Jobs have disappeared in numbers we haven’t seen in decades. Homes have been lost. Credit lines have been reduced or withdrawn. And, of course, retirement accounts have been pummeled. On that last point, some people have wondered whether it’s worth still contributing to a 401(k) — not just because their portfolios have lost so much, but because their employer no longer matches their contributions.
Continue reading “Will 401(k)s Wither Without Employer Match?” »

12 Aug

Leading the Horse to Water

The market’s recent plunge likely frightened more Americans into a willingness to consider putting at least some of their 401(k) assets in a retirement-income product at retirement. Now, Congress may give them a nudge to go ahead with it.

Support for tax advantages for annuities, previously proposed in 2005 by Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-North Dakota), seems low this year, given the government’s other current financial demands. However, several other ideas appear to have potential traction, and they speak to the logistical and psychological reasons that many see at the heart of 401(k) participants’ continued aversion to retirement-income products—the overall inertia, concerns about the complexity and cost of choosing an annuity on the open market, the fear of losing money to unstable financial institutions, and the impression that a series of small payments made over time has less value than one big lump-sum payment.
Continue reading “Leading the Horse to Water” »

11 Aug

Cutting Employer Contributions Is not the Whole Story

August 6, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Though the economic downturn has forced many plan sponsors to reduce their 401(k) contributions or cut them entirely, a new survey suggests those sponsors are still contributing to their employees’ retirements in other ways.

Diversified Investment Advisors’ Report on Retirement Plans—2009, a survey of corporations with 1,000 or more employees, finds that 46% of plan sponsors are planning to reduce or eliminate employer contributions to their 401(k) plans or have already done so; however, the survey also revealed that cash balance and 401(a) plan offerings are on the rise.
Continue reading “Cutting Employer Contributions Is not the Whole Story” »

11 Aug

46% of larger firms drop 401(k) contributions

By Jeff Nash
August 6, 2009, 1:15 PM ET

Pension & Investments

Nearly half of U.S. employers with at least 1,000 workers have dropped or are planning to eliminate contributions to their 401(k) plans, according to a Diversified Investment Advisors survey.

Twenty-four percent of the companies surveyed said they have eliminated employer contributions to their 401(k) plans, while another 22% said they plan to do so this year.
Continue reading “46% of larger firms drop 401(k) contributions” »

10 Aug

A Tax Break You May Be Missing

By ANNE TERGESEN

Wall Street Journal

Given the deep recession, many people may need to tap their nest eggs sooner than expected. If your retirement plan contains company stock, some relatively simple steps can significantly reduce the tax bite on those withdrawals.

The strategy, known as net unrealized appreciation, or NUA, is one that any person leaving a job or retiring should consider before moving assets from a company savings plan into an individual retirement account. Too often, though, this tax-code rule gets overlooked.
Continue reading “A Tax Break You May Be Missing” »

10 Aug

ICI chief: Don’t subject funds, plans to conflicting rules

By Doug Halonen
July 17, 2009, 12:18 PM ET

Pension & Investments

A new consumer watchdog agency proposed by the Obama administration should not have regulatory authority over mutual funds or retirement plans, because they already are regulated by the federal government, Paul Schott Stevens, president and CEO of the Investment Company Institute, testified today before the House Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Stevens said in prepared remarks before the panel that mutual funds and retirement plans are already regulated by the SEC and the Department of Labor.
Continue reading “ICI chief: Don’t subject funds, plans to conflicting rules” »

10 Aug

Employees Name Investment Adviser In 401(k) Suit

By Mark Bruno
July 19, 2009, 6:01 AM EST

New targets have surfaced for lawsuits over 401(k) fees: small retirement plans, their investment advisers and service providers.

A group of fewer than 30 em-ployees at a small company in Kansas has filed a lawsuit against the investment adviser, record keeper and custodian for its $2 million 401(k) plan, alleging that the trio of plan providers caused participants to pay “secret” and “excessive” fees.
Continue reading “Employees Name Investment Adviser In 401(k) Suit” »

10 Aug

Small to Medium Corporate 401(k)s are a National Disgrace

By: John Burke
Email: jburke@starboardasset.com

The 401(k) world is full of target and life cycle mutual funds which are loaded with high cost and feel good marketing material . These funds do not work in down markets as witnessed by their poor performance last year. They are just another gimmick from Wall Street and the mutual fund industry. According to a recent article in the Financial Times, target date funds geared toward 401(k) participants due to retire in 2010 lost an average of 24% in 2008.
Continue reading “Small to Medium Corporate 401(k)s are a National Disgrace” »

10 Aug

Woman Sentenced to Prison for 401(k) Theft

Fred Schneyer – 07/08/2009
A woman accused of stealing from a co-worker’s 401(k) account has been sentenced to a one-year jail term.

A Justice Department news release said a federal judge also mandated that Dana Wachter serve three years of supervised probation and pay $38,000 in restitution for the total stolen from her co-worker.

Wachter was accused of using the co-worker’s Social Security and other personal ID numbers to authorize an $18,000 payout from the co-worker’s 401(k), and then cashing the resulting check.

Wachter was sentenced in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. She was indicted in June 2008 on one count each of aggregated identity theft, mail fraud, and theft from an employee benefit covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

10 Aug

Study Finds Employers not Addressing Retirement Challenges

June 23, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – New research by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR) suggests employers have been slow to recognize the personnel management implications of the shift away from traditional pension programs, and their interest in retirement-related initiatives is still driven by their value in attracting and retaining employees.
Continue reading “Study Finds Employers not Addressing Retirement Challenges” »