Designing Balanced DC Menus: Considering Capital Preservation Strategies
If Mark Twain were a defined contribution (DC) participant, chances are he would keep some of his savings in a capital preservation strategy. “I’m more concerned with the return of my money than the return on my money” is one of his most famous (and oft-misattributed) aphorisms. It is a common sentiment, and it explains […]
How To Optimize Your Retirement Accounts: A Case Study
Your retirement account may have a better option than bonds. Click here to read more.
Stable Value Managers See More Flexibility on Investment Guidelines
The trend toward ever-tighter stable value investment guidelines appears to be ending. Following the 2008 financial crisis, issuers of stable value wrap contracts began tightening investment guidelines for stable value managers, typically requiring new limits on the duration and credit quality of the assets held in their stable value funds. In some cases, managers worried […]
Stable Times Volume 18 Issue 1
Download PDF The biannual publication of the Stable Value Investment Association that covers both industry concerns and association activities. Table of contents: Making Retirement Income Security Work [PDF] The 2014 Elections and What Will They Mean [PDF] A Predictable Surprise: The Unraveling of the U.S. Retirement System [PDF] Outlook and Trends in Defined Contribution Plans [PDF] The Quest to Expand the Use—and Value—of Defined Contribution Plans [PDF] […]
Making Retirement Income Security Work
Stable Value Investment Association Chairman James King is proud to be part of the stable value industry. “It is an important asset class, and it’s part of the fabric of defined contribution plans,” he said as he welcomed his industry colleagues to the SVIA’s 2014 Spring Seminar in April. “We should be proud of being […]
The 2014 Elections and What Will They Mean
Could a Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate make it easier for President Obama to get things done? Republican businesswoman Gwendolyn King, president of the Podium Prose speakers bureau and a former Social Security commissioner, thinks it’s possible. Republicans already control the House. Conventional wisdom posits that gaining a lock on both chambers of Congress […]
A Predictable Surprise: The Unraveling of the U.S. Retirement System
If you think it’s harder for the average American to build a financially secure retirement today than it was a few decades ago, you’re probably right. But the usually cited culprits—the ongoing demise of the defined benefit pension plan, the failure by many individuals to adequately fund their defined contribution plans—aren’t solely to blame. So […]
Outlook and Trends in Defined Contribution Plans
Stocks have been racing higher since 2009, attracting investor attention at the very time that low interest rates have been depressing fixed-income returns. Meanwhile, target-date funds have been attracting an ever-growing share of the money being saved in defined contribution plans, including money that once flowed into stable value funds. But a survey by asset […]
The Quest to Expand the Use—and Value—of Defined Contribution Plans
For employers worried about enrolling employees in their defined contribution retirement plans automatically at contribution levels that are too high, here’s a counterintuitive finding: they should probably be worried about setting them too low. Automatic enrollment effectively forces workers to save for retirement unless they make a conscious choice to opt out of their plan. […]
