Products December 19, 2006

MA Firm Releases Plan Census Control Site

December 19, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A Braintree, Massachusetts company has announced a new Web-based solution for retirement plan sponsors to allow them to review their plan's annual census information and correct any potential discrepancies online.
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A news release from Boston Financial Data Services, a provider of  outsourced services for the retirement plan and mutual fund industries, said the new Web-based tool was developed by Boston Financial’s technology partner, DST Systems. The site provides access to plan provider information housed on DST’s recordkeeping platform, TRAC, according to the release.

“With this technology, as soon as a plan sponsor completes the online annual compliance questionnaire, we can begin compliance testing,” said Bob Regan, division vice president, Boston Financial, in the news release. “It streamlines the entire census validation and compliance testing process.”

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The announcement said t he task of reconciling discrepancies between a plan sponsor’s census information and the information held by the provider is time consuming and often causes delays in the annual compliance testing process. The new Web-based solution will make it easier for sponsors to meet IRS compliance testing deadllines and avoid tax penalties. 

Boston Financial is a joint venture established in 1973 between DST, of Kansas City, Missouri , and State Street Corporation.More information about Boston Financial is here .

Investing December 18, 2006

Participants Continue Return to Equities in November

December 18, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - With the Dow Jones Industrial Average at new record levels and the S&P 500 at highs not seen since 2000, 401(k) participants have begun to respond and net transfers favored equities on 62% of the days during the month, according to the Hewitt 401(k) Index.
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International funds saw the largest transfer in with over $148 million in net transfers, while Lifestyle funds received over $71 million, Hewitt data showed. Company Stock funds and GIC/Stable Value funds saw the largest transfers out of $222 million and $131 million, respectively. Mid-Cap US Equity funds also had negative net transfers of $2 million.

However, company stock funds still held the largest share of participant 401(k) assets as of the end of November at 21.22%. Large US Equity funds held 21.02% of assets, and GIC/Stable Value funds held 20.27%.

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Overall exposure to equities increased by 0.4% to 68.4% for the month. Diversified equities (all equity type asset classes except company stock) rose even faster, with an increase of 0.7%. Participants’ assets in diversified equities was 46.2% for the month of November – a level not seen since the end of 2000, Hewitt said.

Participants also continued to increase their discretionary contributions to equities during November, up 0.9% to 68.5%. This is only half a percentage point away from the highest mark in the history of the Hewitt 401(k) Index of 69.0% set back in March of this year. Large US equity funds received 22.32% of participant contributions for the month, followed by GIG/Stable value funds with 16.94% and Lifestyle funds with 14.73%.

Large US Equity funds also received the greatest percentage of overall contributions (20.58%), while company stock funds received 17.74% and GIC/Stable Value funds received 15.75%. Lifestyle funds received 13.04% of overall contributions.

The Hewitt 401(k) Index Observations for November can be viewed here .

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