Impact Full


In a business notorious for change, it nonetheless seems fair to say that the past twelve months have been extraordinary ones indeed.

In short order, we have had to absorb and assimilate the mandates of the Pension Protection Act, grapple with the portents of qualified default investment alternatives, gird ourselves for the impact of final regulations on deferred compensation plans and 403(b)s—and all this at a time when revenue-sharing practices are drawing an unprecedented level of scrutiny from all quarters.

There is nothing like tumultuous times to highlight the value of, and reinforce the need for, expert help for plan fiduciaries. It is also the kind of challenging environment that tends to separate the chaff from the wheat—that sorts out the committed from the merely intrigued. And, yes, it surely plays to the advantage of a profession dedicated to helping plan sponsors construct the right programs, and participants make the best of them.

That is why, in 2005, we launched our Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year award; to acknowledge "the contributions of the nation's best financial advisers in helping make retirement security a reality for workers across the nation." Today, it is both my honor and privilege to launch the nomination process for our fourth annual campaign to acknowledge the contributions of the very best financial advisers in the nation, both individuals and teams.

Impact Statement

The criteria that underlie the award are simple but impactful; we want to recognize advisers who make a difference through increasing participation, boosting deferral rates, enhancing asset allocation, and/or providing better programs through expanded service or expense management. It is no accident that those criteria also underlie the Pension Protection Act's designs for defined contribution plans, for only by getting more workers saving in these programs at effective rates, and invested in prudent ways, can they have any real prospects for retirement security.

We will acknowledge the finalists in the December issue of PLANSPONSOR as well as the Winter issue of PLANADVISER, and profile the winners in the March issue of PLANSPONSOR and Spring issue of PLANADVISER. The finalists also will be recognized at PLANSPONSOR’s Annual Awards for Excellence celebration in New York City in March.

While these awards are designed to recognize financial adviser excellence, we trust the standards they embody will continue to provide a source of inspiration for those who make a difference every day. If your plan has been a beneficiary of that kind of excellence, I hope you will take the opportunity to nominate your retirement plan adviser for this year's award.

- Nevin E. Adams, JD

You can nominate your adviser for the PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser or Adviser Team of the Year HERE

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do Roth and 401(k) Pre-Tax Holders Really Spend Differently?

Image
An interesting—and somewhat counterintuitive—report came out last week, one that cast doubt on the “common wisdom” regarding Roth versus traditional pre-tax savings. The assumption underlying the research [i] was that those who had not yet paid taxes on their savings (the traditional pre-tax savings) would be hesitant to tap into those savings and trigger taxes, certainly more so that individuals that had already paid those taxes. Instead, the research suggested that the opposite occurred; that individuals who had saved on a pre-tax basis actually withdrew more/sooner—but with a twist.  This they hailed as good news. They noted that the research suggests investing in a CT (current-taxed, or Roth) plan could help ease concerns about outliving funds—because they spend at a lower rate (though they saw this as a negative for those who saved on a deferred tax (DT) basis).  They even managed to find a silver lining in the “cloud” of faster spending by the pre-tax c...
Read more

Is the 401(k) Really a ‘Horrible’ Retirement Plan?

Image
  A recent “news” post about a blog post finds some curious “faults” with the 401(k). The news item carried the provocative title “ ‘Rich Dad’ Robert Kiyosaki Reveals Why the 401(k) Is a ‘Horrible’ Retirement Plan .” It originally ran on GoBankingRates.com, but was subsequently picked up in syndication on Yahoo Finance (at least). For the uninitiated, Robert Kiyosaki is one of those “I’ll help you get rich the way I did” types, providing that road map via books (notably “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”) and seminars. He offers comparisons to decisions made by his dad (poor dad) in contrast to those of the father of his best friend (rich dad).  Suffice it to say that his dad worked hard and saved the old-fashioned way—which is NOT his advice to you. That’s included previous pearls of wisdom like “ Why Saving Money is the Wrong Way to Prepare for Retirement .” Apparently rather than saving for retirement, we’re supposed to “look for an investment that will pay for your desired standard of l...
Read more

The Biggest 401(k) Rollover Mistake

Image
  Readers of these columns know that for years I held off rolling over my old 401(k) balances. Oh, I had rational reasons for (not) doing so; the institutional pricing of a particular fund in one, the low fees in another, the managed account option in a third—but the reality was that the process of rolling over your accumulated savings has been—and in many cases remains—painful. Rollovers are a big deal. Vanguard reports that annual contributions to IRAs ($701 billion as of 2020) far exceed all DC plan contributions, largely due to rollovers ($618 billion in 2020), while the Investment Company Institute claims that investors now hold an estimated $13.5 trillion in IRAs—“approximately $3 trillion more than in DC plans, despite the fact that 45 million fewer Americans own IRAs than participate in DC plans,” according to the report Two things, in particular, stayed my hand over the years—trying to time the liquidation of funds (I know, but I’m human), and worrying about the timing I’d...
Read more