PLANSPONSOR Magazine

The evolution of the retirement plan industry

At the 2013 PLANSPONSOR/PLANADVISER Awards for Excellence, the annual PLANSPONSOR Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Joe Mansueto, chairman and CEO of Morningstar Inc. 

Charles Ruffel is the founder and director of Asset International, Inc., parent company of PLANSPONSOR and PLANADVISER.

Some quotes, survey statistics and musings to use in employee communications, or just as a break in the grind.

DC plan investments offer plan participants a path to retirement savings

“Ten thousand Baby Boomers are turning 65 every day,” says Catherine Collinson, president of the Los Angeles-based Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. “It is a problem begging to...

Over the past 20 years, we have come almost full circle in retirement plans’ use of asset-allocation funds, says Laurie Nordquist, an executive vice president and director at...

“Everybody is always trying to talk about the demise of stable value,” says Chris Tobe, principal at Louisville, Kentucky-based Stable Value Consultants. 

Navigating the many steps in DC retirement plan administration

The 401(k) defined contribution (DC) plan has its origins as part of the 1978 Tax Reform Act, where it languished in obscurity until 1980, when benefits consultant Ted...

If you could step into a time machine and go back to 1993, says Trisha Brambley, president of Retirement Playbook Inc. in New Hope, Pennsylvania, you would see...

As some advisers have become increasingly focused on supporting plan sponsors—and, hence, their scope of advisory work has narrowed—the responsibilities they engage in for retirement plans have increased,...

Finding the best options in a field of DC plan designs 

Some might say that retirement plan design has come full circle. 

Education for 401(k) participants has changed considerably in 20 years. 

The big news in defined contribution (DC) distribution options for the last year is that there really is no news. 

How DB investment selection can change plan outcomes 

There has been a major shift in how defined benefit (DB) plans distribute benefits. 

Risk transfer is on the minds of many defined benefit (DB) plan sponsors, but, with the current economic environment, it is more often planned for than actually done,...

In the aftermath of the financial shake-up five years ago, many defined benefit (DB) plan sponsors ended or paused their securities lending activities. 

For pension plans, allocation to alternative investments often comes down to diversification of equity risk while trying to meet their assumed rates of return. 

Technology is not just something that provides a competitive edge for defined benefit (DB) custodians—it has become the essence of their survival.