"This notice provides guidance on the corporate bond monthly yield curve, the corresponding spot segment rates ... and the 24-month average segment rates ... [as well as] the interest rate on 30-year Treasury securities ... as in effect for plan years beginning before 2008 and the 30-year Treasury weighted average rate[.]"  MORE >>

"Between the IRA Rollover matter and the redefinition of 'regular services,' there is no shortage of ways to chip away at the new Rule. What might be one way we can expect to see the industry attack the Rule in front of a judge?"  MORE >>

"[H]alf of those surveyed want to annuitize at prevailing market annuity prices, a much higher share than the 12 percent of this group who actually do buy annuities.... [I]ndividuals are unwilling to pay more for a death benefit or a liquidity option ... The results find support for 'channel factors' -- difficulties associated with actually purchasing an annuity -- as a major impediment to annuitization."  MORE >>

"While SECURE 2.0 and the DOL's new [Division of Employee Ownership (DEO)] initiative are positive developments for ESOPS, the DOL continues to challenge ESOP valuations aggressively.... The IRS indicated that its current compliance efforts have identified numerous concerns, such as valuation issues, prohibited allocations of shares to disqualified persons and a failure to follow Code provisions for ESOP loans ... The IRS also indicated that it has identified potentially abusive arrangements."  MORE >>

"BlackRock wants to create an ETF that holds Ethereum's ether (ETH), a plan that deepens the world's largest asset manager's commitment to cryptocurrencies.... The company's plan was revealed in a filing by Nasdaq, the U.S. exchange where BlackRock will seek to list the product[.]"  MORE >>

"The funding status of U.S. corporate pension plans increased in October, largely due to a reduction in liabilities stemming from an increase in discount rates, which were offset by negative investment returns. According to some trackers, pension funding status is at its highest point in decades."  MORE >>

"[T]he benchmarking approach a pension uses tends to change after they bring in new external consultants -- which public plans do often. ... [T]hese changes often lead to pensions choosing benchmarks that are easier to beat than the measures they had been using.... Beating or missing return expectations can affect how pension boards determine the plan's asset allocation. Consultants, meanwhile, gain more business when their pension clients beat the benchmarks."  MORE >>

"[T]he Actuarial Approach is superior to Monte Carlo modeling for encouraging spending-hesitant households to increase spending is its ability to: distinguish between recurring vs. non-recurring expenses, anticipate reductions in expenses after the first death within the couple, and to assume lower than inflationary rates of increases in future discretionary spending."  MORE >>

"[A recent] Bank of America survey shows that of the 4 million participants who have accounts in the plans that BofA serves as recordkeeper, the number of participants taking a plan loan rose to about 75,000 (2.5%) participants in the second quarter of 2023, compared to about 56,000 (1.9%) participants in the previous quarter....Several other recent surveys have shown a similar trend of increasing hardship withdrawals."  MORE >>

"This is the age of information overload: don't assume that means everyone knows and understands what your message is about.... Are you placing an over reliance on one form of employee communication to the exclusion of all others? ... Transparency builds trust and helps eliminate the blank spaces that will be surely filled in with assumptions, rumors and misinformation."  MORE >>