Nevin's Data "Points"

I was late to the NetFlix game—switching over only when my local Blockbuster closed its doors. Honestly, I was more than a little skeptical about paying to rent movies while spending most of the month waiting for the mail carrier to shuffle things back and forth. Those fears (along with concerns drawn from early stories about people being sent movies at the bottom of their list, rather than the newer, hotter releases) have turned out to be mostly a non-issue. More recently, I “discovered” the firm’s online library of free movies—and while I would say that most of them SHOULD be free (some you should be paid to sit through), I have enjoyed having that “extra” feature. Sure, there were times when the Internet delivery speed wasn’t optimal, or when a movie would time out a third of the way through, but heck, it was free. Until, of course, NetFlix announced a change in pricing policy, a change that would cut the cost of the traditional movie rental service, but that would charge—and ch...

In my experience, there are three major reasons that people save for retirement. There’s the lure of the “free money” represented by the employer match, the benefit in deferring the payment of taxes, and there’s the hopefully obvious benefit of helping make sure you have enough money set aside to provide a financially satisfying retirement. While one might hope that the last represents the dominant motivation for most, I suspect it’s almost incidental. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that the match exerts a powerful influence on savings behaviors. Sure, any number of participant surveys emphasize its importance as a factor, but to my eyes, the most compelling evidence is the clustering of participant deferral rates—in plan after plan—at the level at which the employer has deigned to provide that financial incentive. As for the tax advantages, outside of Warren Buffett, I can count on one hand the number of individuals of my acquaintance who feel they are “under-taxed.” More import...

There were three big disclosure announcements last week. The first two were the pushback of the effective date for 408(b)(2) fee disclosures to April 1, 2012, from the previously announced effective date of January 1 of that year. In the same announcement, the Department of Labor also delayed the compliance date for the participant level fee disclosure regulation for most plans to May 31, 2012 (a month ago, the DoL had said that information would have to be made available no later than April 30)—which, from a practical standpoint, means that the information must be provided by August 14, 2012 (45 days after the end of the second quarter in which the initial disclosure is required)(see “ Borzi Chats about Upcoming Definition of Fiduciary Rule ”). Those delays are, doubtless, of some relief to the provider community. They’re not pushed back far enough to significantly delay the beneficial impact of the disclosures (though this is not the first time they have been pushed back), but I’m...

You may have missed it, but there was a bit of a “dust up” in our industry last week. It started on July 7 when The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story titled “401(k) Law Suppresses Saving for Retirement” (a story that is still, as I write on Saturday morning, on WSJ.com’s most popular listing). And, no, that article wasn’t talking about discrimination testing rules, the imposition of annual contribution limits, talk of a mandatory limit on loans, or the imposition of mandatory annuitization of distributions. Rather, it was talking about…automatic enrollment. The report claimed that “40% of new hires at companies with automatic enrollments are socking away less money than they would if left to enroll voluntarily,” citing data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The problem, according to the report, was that “[m]ore than two-thirds of companies set contribution rates at 3% of salary or less, unless an employee chooses otherwise.” Well, duh. That, as they say,...

Editor's Note: No matter what else is going on in our lives this weekend, a student of history cannot help but be conscious of the boldness of the Declaration of Independence we celebrate today, and how dearly won its principles. There may be other ways to express it, but this weekend I'm going to draw on the perspectives expressed in a prior posting. Whether you remember it or not, I'm hoping you enjoy it - and take it to heart! Over the weekend I reacquainted myself with that episode of the HBO miniseries “John Adams” titled “Independence.” As a writer and editor, I watched with a special appreciation the part where Benjamin Franklin and John Adams are “tweaking” Thomas Jefferson’s draft – and the pain in the latter’s face as his “precisely chosen” words were modified. All in all, a modest sacrifice, to be sure. But I, for one, could feel his pain. That said, anyone who has ever found their grand idea shackled to the deliberations of a committee, who has had to kow...