Fee Disclosure Remains a Work in Progress
By Randy Myers In the year since federally mandated fee disclosure rules went into effect for defined contribution plans, this much has been discerned: plan sponsors think the new disclosures are helping them meet their fiduciary responsibilities. Also, some plan participants now know more about what their retirement investments are costing them. Last summer, […]
Capacity in Stable Value Industry Up
By Randy Myers For the second straight year, the stable value industry has the capacity to take on a significant amount of new business—a welcome turnaround from conditions that prevailed in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 credit crisis. In 2012, the industry absorbed $66 billion in new business, according to data compiled by […]
Baby Boomers, the Financial Crisis and the Recession
By Randy Myers Many are not going to have enough money. That was the discouraging but hardly surprising retirement-income message that Sara Rix, senior strategic policy advisor for the AARP Public Policy Institute, delivered at the 2013 SVIA Spring Seminar when talking about America’s Baby Boom generation. Rix’ forecast was informed in part by […]
529 Plans – Ready Market for Stable Value
By Randy Myers NOTE: Correction at end of article They have different funding goals, of course, but in many other respects 529 college savings plans are a lot like 401(k) retirement savings plans—with at least one notable difference. While stable value funds can be found in a high percentage of 401(k) plans, they are only […]
Stable Times Volume 17 Issue 1
Download PDF The biannual publication of the Stable Value Investment Association that covers both industry concerns and association activities. Table of contents: Stable Value Assets Continue to Grow in 2012 [PDF] Fiscal Concerns: Goldman Sachs Asset Management Offers an Update [PDF] US Interest Rates: What We Should Expect [PDF] 529 Plans: Ready Market for Stable Value [PDF] […]
US Interest Rates – What We Should Expect
By Randy Myers The financial markets appear to be getting it right. As the Federal Reserve continues to pursue an extraordinarily expansive monetary policy, it is hard to know where interest rates are, where they should be, or how quickly and dramatically they might change once the Fed finally begins to shift to a […]
Understanding the Insurance Side of Stable Value
By Randy Myers Insurance companies may have years of experience with stable value, but an ever-changing regulatory environment means the business itself has never become routine. Unlike many other industries subject to government oversight, the insurance industry is regulated primarily at the state level rather than the federal level. Each state insurance department brings […]
The Evolving Definition of Competing Funds
By Randy Myers There was a time in the stable value industry when the term “competing fund” almost always referred to one thing: a money market fund. No longer. Over the past decade or so, the financial services industry has rolled out a slew of new investment products for defined contribution plans, from inflation-protected […]
SVIA Finishes Annual Survey Covering 2012
By Gina Mitchell SVIA’s Annual Stable Value Investment and Policy Survey, its most comprehensive survey, confirmed the positive trends found in most defined contribution plan asset allocation and stable value investments surveys. The annual survey, which covers 38 stable value managers, reported that assets under management in 2012 had risen to $701 billion, which […]
