Category Archives: Retirement Plans

A new study examining how retirees manage annuity payouts from defined-contribution plans should make every 401(k) plan sponsor sit up and pay attention. We spend so much time focused on accumulation, deferral rates, employer contributions, fund lineups, that we sometimes … Continue reading →

The recent complaint against One Brooklyn Health System Inc. hits like a cold gust in a dusty frontier town, sudden, sharp, and full of consequences. The plan is accused of mismanaging its 403(b) by offering expensive “retail” share classes of … Continue reading →

Every plan sponsor owns a plan document. Very few read it. Fewer understand it. And almost none use it as the operating manual it was designed to be. Instead, many rely on “tribal knowledge”, the memory of someone in HR … Continue reading →

If I had a dollar for every time a plan sponsor told me, “We’ve always done it that way,” I’d have a retirement plan without recordkeeping fees. Tradition might be great for Thanksgiving recipes, but it’s a disaster for plan … Continue reading →

Years ago, back when I was still at that fakakta law firm, I did what good people are supposed to do: I helped someone. I referred a 401(k) plan to an advisor. I even introduced him to the law firm … Continue reading →

There’s a frontier-town cliché: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In the 401(k)/403(b) world, that weakest link is often the administrator or recordkeeper when they cut corners. Mistakes from sloppy recordkeeping, incorrect deferrals, mis-applied vesting rules, … Continue reading →

Recordkeepers love to talk scale: billions of dollars, millions of participants, thousands of plans. But scale cuts both ways. When something breaks, it breaks everywhere. Ask anyone who survived the great Mapping Error Debacle of whichever year you choose—every provider … Continue reading →

Plan providers hear it all the time: “Our employees don’t care about the 401(k).” That’s usually employer-speak for “We haven’t communicated anything in three years and HR is tired.” Employees aren’t apathetic—they’re overwhelmed, confused, and suspicious of anything that sounds … Continue reading →

Everyone in the retirement plan world claims to be “participant-centric.” It’s the industry’s version of “gluten-free”—proudly announced, poorly understood. The truth is, most providers focus on the plan sponsor relationship because that’s where the contract lives. Participants? They get a … Continue reading →

One of the most persistent myths in the 401(k) universe is the idea that the third-party administrator (TPA) is the plan administrator. If I had a dollar for every time a plan sponsor insisted this was true, I could probably … Continue reading →