Is the Retirement System ‘Fragile’?
It’s not all about “the Benjamins,” but a recent analysis of the nation’s private retirement system certainly puts a lot of emphasis on the accumulation of aggregate assets in retirement plans. The Morningstar report—“ Retirement Plan Landscape Report, An In-Depth Look at the Trends and Forces Reshaping U.S. Retirement Plans ”—is extraordinarily diverse and comprehensive [i] in its assessment—though while the report’s authors seemed to be striving for a balanced assessment, the overall sense was one of a leaky boat. No Surprises There were some findings that seemed to surprise the authors that didn’t strike me as all that remarkable. Apparently (I hope you’re sitting down for this one) larger plans pay lower fees (expressed as basis points) than smaller plans. They are also more likely to invest in collective investment trusts (which tend to have lower fees, though that isn’t necessarily the case). What I did find surprising was ...