Nevin's Data "Points"

Last week’s Congressional machinations brought to mind Otto van Bismarck’s comment that “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” I had just about given up on seeing anything emerge from this session. Frankly, most plan sponsors I had spoken with would have been just as happy to see no bill as a bad one – and most of them (that is to say, the ones who weren’t troubled airlines) were hard-pressed to see how a “good” one could emerge from what was on the table. The advice provisions in the House-passed bill will, no doubt, create some stirrings in your world – if enacted - but it is by no means yet certain that it will be (for why, see Pension Reform Takes an Unexpected Detour ). The encouragements surrounding automatic enrollment programs will almost certainly generate a bit of activity on that front, but I suspect the actual take-up rate will be relatively modest, certainly in the short-term. The participant information disclosures will probably generate mo...

Like many of you, my job takes me away from home from time to time. For the most part, these are short jaunts, at least from a time standpoint. These days, it’s not unusual for me to make a cross-country trip – deal with business, and come back – all in the same calendar day. I get to visit some nice places but, frequently, all I actually get to SEE of those places lies between the target venue and the airport. Over time, like all good “road warriors,” I have learned how to pack, know what size bags work best with the carry-on restrictions, and have invested in a series of portable toiletries that never have to leave my travel bags. When lugging my laptop and assorted work materials was beginning to take its toll on my back, I even bought a special backpack. I can almost get up the morning of my departure and pack with my eyes shut (in fact, I’m sure that I did for some of those early flights). Oh, and I NEVER check bags. Then, last week, I did something I have seldom been able t...

In this business, we spend a lot of time planning for, and talking about planning for, retirement security (and talking about helping others plan for retirement security). However, tomorrow’s version of retirement seems likely to be quite different from that image in the travel agency brochures—or that enrollment plan kit. This came home to me in a very real sense recently when I sat down with my mother to work up a budget that would last—the rest of her life! Now, I’ve done plenty of budgets in my life, both personal and professional. But even those that incorporated, in some form or fashion, elements of longer-term goals…bear in mind my eldest heads off to college this fall…have always tended to be a year-to-year process. Mom’s income isn’t getting any bigger—or not much bigger, anyway. There’s a serious dearth of promotional opportunities in retirement, after all. I will confess to a bit of anxiety ahead of the event. Like many families, while I knew some of the details of thei...

At the end of two weeks on the road – the first for our Plan Designs 2006 conference , the latter a chance to spend time with the majority of our family that still lives in the Windy City – and an unplanned day in the office to “catch-up” on the things that don’t follow you via e-mail and voice mail, my kids (for whom the two weeks on the road actually constituted a vacation) were pressing to see the new “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie (in point of fact, they have been pressing for it ever since the release date was first published a year or so ago). Now, truth be told, I was predisposed to honor their request. Like many, I hadn’t expected much from the first installment (I hadn’t even realized it was a “first installment”) and, instead, I found myself having a better time at the movies than I had in a long time. Still, in the part of the world that I live, a night at the movies with my family (including that trip to the concession stand) for a prime-time movie viewing costs nearly $1...

This week, of course, is the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. While, these days, few would argue that the result we celebrate today remains largely unique in the history of the world, it is easy, looking back, to gloss over just how remarkable a sequence of events made this nation’s independence a reality. The bickering and machinations of Congress then were every bit as unpleasant, and occasionally unproductive, as the worst of today’s elected officials – even though, and perhaps in some measure because, hostilities had officially been underway since the so-called “shot heard round the world” the preceding spring. The men that gathered in Philadelphia that summer to bring together a new nation came from all walks of life, but it seems fair to say that most were men with something to lose. True, many were merchants (some wealthy, including President of Congress John Hancock) already chafing under the tax burdens imposed by British rule,...