Moody’s Fires a Shot Across the Bow of U.S. Treasuries by Considering Downgrade
On September 11, 2012 Moody’s provided an update on the outlook for the US Government’s credit rating. In this update, Moody’s stated that budget negotiations in 2013 will likely determine the direction of the US government’s current Aaa rating, with negative outlook. The scale of any potential downgrade seems to be limited, as Moody’s indicated it would probably expect to lower the rating to […]
Prudential Economist Sees Continued Strong Case for Bonds
Just a year and a half ago, investors were worried about what a rising interest-rate environment would do to bond portfolios. After all, interest rates were already at extraordinarily low levels in many sectors of the fixed-income market, and it seemed that rates had nowhere to go but up. Rising interest rates, of course, translate into falling […]
Portrait of a Plan Participant
In the wake of recent regulations, plan participants are soon to be provided with more information than ever regarding their defined contribution plans. In the lead up to fee compliance, issues such as getting the information out to participants and ensuring that they know how to access it have been considered. However, the matter of what plan participants will do with the fee […]
SVIA Files Supplemental Comments on Stable Value Contract Study
On November 1, 2012, SVIA filed written comments with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Commissions reopened their original August 25, 2011, request for information that covered 29 questions on October 2, 2012. The Commissions reopened the request for information since the earlier comments did not have the benefit […]
Highlights from AARP’s “Boomers and the Great Recession: Struggling to Recover”
A recent AARP report focuses on the major challenges that baby boomers, those aged 50 and older, face from the Great Recession. As the title portends “Boomers and the Great Recession: Struggling to Recover,” the report documents how boomers were affected and coped with the challenges of the market meltdown in 2007 and the subsequent Great Recession, which they say ended in October of […]
Stable Times Volume 16 Issue 2
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Apples to Apples
Participant fee disclosure rules published by the Department of Labor (DOL) went into effect in 2012, presenting new reporting challenges for the defined contribution industry, including stable value. The key purpose of the new disclosure is to achieve greater transparency and more meaningful comparisons of investment options in participant-directed retirement plans. This article highlights some of the key investment-related disclosures required by the Employee […]
The Fiscal Cliff: Where Politics and Economics Meet
Maybe we haven’t seen anything yet. Sure, Washington has been filled with partisan bickering for the past few years, but as the republic prepares to sail over a fiscal cliff it seems likely that the debate and rhetoric in our nation’s capital will be characterized by a heightened sense of urgency and increased vitriol. “There’s always a chance that we […]
DOL Continues to Refine ERISA Rules and Regulations
The Department of Labor has issued many new rules governing retirement plans over the past few years, but its work is hardly done, Michael Davis, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), told participants at the 2012 SVIA Fall Forum. Davis recited a list of his agency’s recent rulemaking accomplishments, including issuing proposed regulations that would require additional disclosures about […]
