"According to [a recent study] which explores how employees perceive privacy, security, productivity, and personal well-being in the finance industry, security breaches are a top concern for employees, so much so that they're quitting their jobs over it.... Three-fourths of finance workers believe they will get fired for a data breach. Sixty-eight percent believe their executives should be fired for a breach. Forty-two percent know someone who has exposed their employer to a breach."  MORE >>

"Only 2.2 percent of DC plan participants stopped contributing to their plans in 2021, consistent with the activity observed in the previous years for which ICI has tracked these data. That compares with 2.3 percent in 2020 and 3.4 percent in 2009 -- another time of financial stress."  MORE >>

"Whether you made the mistake of thinking that you were or were not in either a controlled group of companies (CG) or an affiliated service group (ASG), your plan will have fundamental tax qualification issues that must be corrected ... If it turns out that some entities were not in a CG, you will have a multiple employer plan (MEP), not a single employer plan.... The issues are very similar if you mistakenly thought that certain entities were not part of the CG or ASG with the employer sponsoring the plan when in fact they were. The employers may all have separate plans and some may not."  MORE >>

"Cash balance plans are most popular among smaller, well-established firms that have significant and consistent cash flow ... They also work well for older small business owners who are no longer making heavy investments in their businesses, and have significant amounts of pass-through income, resulting in high tax bills. To determine suitability for a cash balance plan, consider the following questions."  MORE >>

"[The authors] establish 16 good practice principles for modelling defined contribution pension plans ... [including] the following issues: [1] modelling member choices; [2] modelling member characteristics, such as occupation and gender; [3] modelling plan charges; [4] modelling longevity risk; ... [5] integrating the pre- and post-retirement periods; [6] modelling additional sources of income, such as the state pension and equity release; ...and [7] overall fitness for purpose."  MORE >>

"More than three-quarters of 401(k) retirement savers believe ESG companies perform better over time than non-ESG companies.... Some research supports that theory.... But other reports share less-compelling conclusions about ESG companies."  MORE >>

"While there are countless ways to approach retirement planning, four broad strategies include total return ... income protection ... risk wrap ... and time segmentation ... Each of these credible approaches emphasizes an individual's distinct personal retirement income preferences. For financial advisors, the starting point to help clients who choose to pursue any retirement strategy begins with first identifying the client's retirement income style."  MORE >>

"The longstanding method calls for spending 4% in the first year of retirement, and then adjusting that amount annually to keep pace with inflation. Such an approach would have protected retirees from running out of money in every 30-year period since 1926, even when economic conditions were at their worst [said retired financial planner Bill Bengen, who first devised the 4% rule in 1994]. 'The problem is that there's no precedent for today's conditions,' he said."  MORE >>

"[N]early a third of retirement investors with less than $250,000 in household investable assets indicate they do not have enough investable assets to justify using an advisor ... [E]ven though several digital advice solutions with low minimum investment requirements exist in the market today, retirees almost never identify these platforms as their primary source of retirement advice, the report observes."  MORE >>