Nevin's Data "Points"

I was in London for a few days last week, and while it afforded a good opportunity to visit with a number of providers in the European retirement plan market, the primary purpose of my trip was to acknowledge the fund manager and consultant standouts recognized by PLANSPONSOR Europe (which has just celebrated its one-year anniversary). The luncheon itself was fascinating: As is often the case with such gatherings here, many of the attendees were well-acquainted with each other, a number had common employment histories and, as in the U.S., even those who worked for competing firms at the moment seemed to sense that it could change at any time. Once we got past the potential impact of the latest Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, the traffic disruptions attendant with President Obama’s visit (which, of course, had been impacted by the latest Icelandic volcanic ash cloud), and the beautiful weather (which, fortunately, was apparently completely unaffected by the latest Icelandic volcanic ash c

The headlines last week were all about how new legislation had been introduced to cut down on the “leakage” from 401(k) plans. That leakage, roughly defined as pulling money out of retirement savings before retirement, has been a concern of many for some time. About once a year, someone puts out a report about the number of outstanding loans from these programs and/or the uptick in hardship withdrawals (see IMHO: Double Dipping ) ; and, from 2008, see IMHO: Safety “Net” ). Not surprisingly, with the sluggish U.S. economy and the so-called jobless recovery, people seem to be dipping into these accounts at higher rates. And yet, for all the hyperbole around such things, the actual rate seems to be pretty consistent (allowing for differences in the data samplings). That said, last week, Senators Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) introduced the Savings Enhancement by Alleviating Leakage in 401(k) Savings Act of 2011 (the SEAL Act), which, among other things, was designe

Three things every adviser (and provider) wishes plan sponsors understood about recordkeeping conversions: Everybody wants to change providers on January 1. Everybody can’t. If your plan year end is December 31 (and it is, for the vast majority of plans), there are some real benefits to making a provider change at that point in time. Plan reporting—both participant and regulatory (Form 5500)—is quite simply neater when you finish the reporting year at the same time you conclude your arrangements with a provider. Anything else is going to require someone somewhere to “splice” together reports at some point. Doing so doesn’t have to be a big deal—but it can be “awkward.” There are some reasons not to make those kinds of changes at year-end, of course. First off, there’s generally quite a queue wanting to do so. You may well be able to get in that queue, but your new provider will likely have their hands full with a lot of plans just like yours. More significantly, your soon-to-be

Without question the retirement plan industry has prospered from the long-standing practice of relying heavily – and in some situations, completely - on asset-based fees. Now, you can certainly argue that that has resulted in plans paying for services they would not otherwise have engaged, and that it has, in some cases, led to plans paying more than they might if they had been more cognizant of the dollars expended. Indeed, one can argue that the imbedding of those fees inside the fund structure has made it easy, perhaps too easy, for the industry to collect its tolls without drawing the kind of scrutiny they were entitled to. On the other hand, that structure has made it easier for the industry to provide a broad-based level of sophisticated services to plans of all sizes, and has doubtless made it possible for plans to contemplate hiring an adviser that, regardless of the need and/or benefit, would otherwise have been discouraged by an explicit charge for those services. That said