Retirement archive
Every Retirement story, newest first. 355 stories
5 stories
- Policy & ERISA
IRS Notice 2026-49 proposes standard forms for plan-to-plan rollovers
The proposal would supply four model forms and a five-step process, and 401(k) Specialist columnist Tom Hawkins calls it a constructive step.
- Policy & ERISA
California's Proposition 42 would shield 401(k), pension and IRA assets from new personal-property taxes
The measure responds to state tax proposals from 2019, 2022 and 2024, and its backers cite a study estimating that a 1% asset tax could cost retirees $225,000 to $1.2 million over a lifetime.
- Plans & Sponsors
Vanguard proxy voting choice passes 500,000 investors as nearly 80 plans sign on
Retirement plan sponsors in the program represent $120 billion in assets and more than one million participants, per Vanguard's 2026 voting report.
- Investments
Fidelity's real estate debt fund files $451 million; Värde and Barings leave size blank
Invesco's summer poll put defined contribution participants at 3.4 out of 5 on naming private assets, leaving the education job to target-date funds.
- Investments
Fidelity files $451 million real estate debt fund; Northern Trust files $33 billion vehicle
The platform-scale filers arrived with numbers, while Värde and Barings filed credit vehicles with names and no stated size in the same 48 hours.
6 stories
- Retirement Advisers
Asteri Collective names Sheri Fitts executive director as founder Ann Slotwinski retires
Fitts, a 30-year industry veteran who founded Sheri Fitts & Co. and the Sway conference, will lead an alliance whose members service more than 51,200 retirement plans.
- Retirement Advisers
Asteri Collective names Sheri Fitts executive director as Slotwinski retires
Slotwinski leaves the retirement plan consultant collective at more than 51,200 plans, 2.2 million participants and $158 billion in assets under administration, 401(k) Specialist reported.
- Policy & ERISA
Ron Wyden bill would double the Saver's Match to $2,000 a year
The Savers Match Enhancement Act would lift the federal matching rate to 100% of the first $2,000 contributed and index that ceiling to inflation, with the program's first payments not scheduled until 2027.
- The Wrap
Tavarez, Barnett & Steen leave UBS for Frost Investment Services
The three-advisor liftout landed at a bank-owned brokerage in a week when Modern Wealth added 10 advisors and LPL pulled the Fowler team from Raymond James.
- Policy & ERISA
SEC proposes to rescind adviser pay-to-play rule for government clients
The 2010 rule barred compensated advisory work for government clients for two years after certain political contributions; the SEC would also drop the related recordkeeping requirements.
- The Wrap
ERIC asks Treasury to make BNY the clearinghouse for employer Trump Account contributions
Employers cannot fund accounts they cannot verify, and the request would settle whether BNY becomes the single payroll connection for doing both.
1 story
- Policy & ERISA
ERIC asks Treasury to make BNY the Trump Account clearinghouse for employers
Employers can't fund accounts they can't verify, so the permanence of the government's clearinghouse decides whether contributions ever reach payroll.
8 stories
- Policy & ERISA
CBO's 26 percent cut is the planning number now
Two government estimators sit four points apart on the same 2032 insolvency date, and the decumulation machinery of the DC system has no input for either of them.
- Policy & ERISA
Wagner to PBGC: price the sponsor's conduct, not its adviser's error
A 20-page comment letter from two authors of the old penalty guidance asks the agency to make relief a documentation question before the per-diem ladder hardens into a final rule.
- The Wrap
The corner office is now a distribution job
AllianceBernstein's succession, MFS's shelf argument and Vestwell's CIT hire point the same way: the target-date product is settled, and the fight is now over who controls the default.
- The Wrap
Vestwell staffs for disclosure; CITs get a distribution specialist
Two finance seats on a retirement platform's board and a one-woman CIT consultancy point at the same shift: the 401(k) business is spending on org charts and files, with the product decisions already made.
- Investments
AllianceBernstein hands its CEO job to its distribution chief
The succession puts a target-date and DC manager in the hands of an executive built on client coverage and private markets, leaving the retirement menu a defensive position.
- The Wrap
Captrust and LPL are buying whole practices now
Two seven-advisor teams landed at Captrust the same day, LPL pulled four advisors off Northwestern Mutual, and a $385 million book left Wells—moves that read better as practice acquisitions than recruiting.
- Policy & ERISA
The U.S. retirement slide is now a healthcare problem
Natixis's 2026 index shows America spending more per person on healthcare than any of the 44 nations it ranks, and finishing 25th on health.
- Retirement Advisers
NAPA's farewell address names four forces education can't answer
The outgoing president's list of what is changing runs past the tools her association sells, and the coverage gap sits outside the adviser's reach entirely.
4 stories
- Policy & ERISA
EIG puts the coverage gap at 76.2 million workers
The updated estimate splits into roughly 61 million employees and 15 million self-employed, and EIG's match data show employer money landing well above the typical worker.
- Plans & Sponsors
FIS's cloud launch is a SECURE 2.0 change-management pitch
Architecture is invisible to sponsors; the cost of configuring the next SECURE 2.0 feature is not, and the RFP should say so.
- Policy & ERISA
Trump Accounts enroll millions, but only 5% of the families they target
Treasury counts 7 million sign-ups; Commonwealth finds 5 percent among the low- and moderate-income households the account was written for.
- The Wrap
Edelman hires recordkeeper product chief to own the rollover
Edelman's new retirement chief shows the 401(k) advice fight has moved from legal permissibility to distribution control.
8 stories
- Policy & ERISA
A 60 claiming age leaves the occupation list to three agencies
Three agencies would have a year to name the qualifying jobs, and that list — not the age — decides which clients get the earlier claim.
- Investments
Invesco participants score 3.4 out of 5 on naming private assets
Demand for private markets in DC plans has now been measured twice; the summer poll shows participants cannot identify the assets they say they want, which pushes the education job onto the target-date fund.
- Investments
HSA assets climb 19% on fee cuts the law didn't deliver
Growth is coming from lower fees and brokerage windows rather than expanded eligibility, while four in five employees never buy a fund.
- Retirement Advisers
Edelman puts a recordkeeper product chief in charge of its workplace-retail handoff
The newly created chief retirement officer role spans two businesses whose real prize is the rollover moment; Edelman filled it from the recordkeeper side of the market.
- Retirement Advisers
Advisers say they ask for more assets; 71% of clients say they were never asked
Three studies trace a gap built from unbilled hours, unquantified planning value and thin staffing at the moment clients say they are ready to move assets.
- Retirement Advisers
LeafHouse's last symposium closes the year its advice business sold
The fiduciary layer keeps consolidating while the platform layer keeps the capital, and the final LNRS is the most legible move either side has made.
- Policy & ERISA
A manufactured comment file is the rule's real exposure
Three lawmakers want the FBI and Labor's inspector general to test nearly 12,000 supportive submissions, which turns a policy fight into an evidentiary one.
- Investments
CITs answer to bank examiners. Sponsors answer for the rest.
Collective investment trusts won the default slot with no SEC registration, which puts the monitoring file, not the fee quote, at the center of the decision.
6 stories
- Policy & ERISA
The U.S. retirement slide is fiscal, and plan design can't fix it
The U.S. fell to No. 24 in Natixis's 2026 index, and an eight-place drop in its finances category puts the repair with Congress, not with plan menus.
- Plans & Sponsors
The Oct. 1 Safe Harbor deadline is really Labor Day
Sequenced documents, payroll wiring and a 30-day notice mean a sponsor who decides in September gets a plan that starts with the next plan year.
- Policy & ERISA
America's retirement rank fell on macro, not on plan design
The eight-place drop inside Finances in Retirement tracks prices and sovereign debt, leaving the private-assets and income-feature fights to answer a question the index never asked.
- Plans & Sponsors
The Saver's Match has nowhere to land for 21 million workers
EIG's updated coverage data put the access gap in part-time and small-employer work, leaving a 2027 federal subsidy aimed at workers who largely lack an account to receive it.
- The Wrap
The 401(k) private-asset push lost its benchmark
CFA Institute's model shows three of five private asset classes trail a plain stock-and-bond baseline, so sponsors can only justify them inside the target-date sleeve.
- Investments
CFA Institute's private-markets math argues for TDF sleeves, not menu slots
Three of five private asset classes cost retirement wealth in the CFA Institute's modeling, which is precisely the argument for putting them inside a glidepath rather than on a self-directed menu.
2 stories
- Investments
Participants say yes to private markets; committees still own the default
Invesco's survey finds 65% of participants want a private-markets sleeve in their target-date fund, but the 58% who accept the fee trade-off is the figure the shelf will actually turn on.
- Policy & ERISA
ESOP valuation bill moves the litigation target to appraisers
Passage of S. 2403 gives ESOP fiduciaries a statutory good-faith defense, but the amendment is prospective, so the near-term docket barely moves while valuation firms absorb the new risk.