Tactics for Combating Low Bond Yields
Dividend-paying stocks and preferreds, lower-quality bonds, and stable-value funds top readers’ lists of investments for a yield-starved environment. Click here to read more
As Market Stabilizes, Stable Value Industry Looks to Growth
With the turmoil of the 2008 financial crisis largely in the past, the stable value industry is turning its focus to growth. The latest SVIA survey of 22 stable value managers shows that from the end of 2012 through the first half of stable value assets held fairly steady. In total, stable value funds now […]
Millennials and Stable Value: Made for Each Other?
The millennial generation and the stable value industry may be made for each other. The young are often painted as risk-takers, but in the case of millennials—those Americans born between 1982 and 2004—old measures may be misleading, says Neil Howe. Neil Howe is the founding partner and president of LifeCourse Associates, a publishing, speaking and […]
Dodd-Frank Remains Work in Progress
Four years after its passage, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act remains a work in progress. While 73 percent of its rule changes and other requirements were completed by July of 2014, 27 percent were not finished, including 11 percent on which work had not yet begun. “It won’t be until the […]
Collision Course: Social Security and a Slow-Growing Economy
Conventional wisdom holds that the Social Security program will soon become insolvent because the number of people collecting benefits has grown exponentially relative to the number of people paying into the system. That is largely true. But it is not the only challenge to the federal retirement program. In an address at the 2014 SVIA […]
An Appraisal: ERISA at 40
Forty years ago President Gerald Ford signed into law the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, better known as ERISA. Congress’ overarching goal in writing the law was to protect the interests of workplace retirement plan participants and their beneficiaries. The results have been mixed, although many of the shortcomings in the nation’s private […]
State and Local Pension Plans: Coping with Funding Challenges
Strictly by the numbers, pension plans sponsored by state and local governments do not look to be in great shape. Many plan sponsors have not been making full annual contributions to the plans, and partly as a result the average funded ratio for those plans has fallen to 71 percent from 90 percent since 2004. […]
An Inside Look at How America Saves
It should not be that difficult. For a defined contribution plan to work for you, says Jean Young, senior research analyst at Vanguard Group and lead author of its periodic report on retirement plan participant behavior, How America Saves, you simply need to save enough and invest appropriately. Unfortunately, Young said at the 2014 SVIA […]
Roundtable: The Outlook for Retirement Income Security
One could argue that the private retirement system in the U.S. is improving. Average account balances in defined contribution plans have been rising lately, to somewhere around $90,000 to $100,000 depending upon which set of data you use. The growing trend of automatically enrolling workers in their plans is undoubtedly capturing some workers who in […]
