Source: The New York Times It seems like an issue everyone can agree on: Financial professionals should be required to handle our retirement money with the utmost care, putting investors’ interests first. But that type of care comes in degrees, and deciding exactly how far advisers should go has been the center of heated debate for nearly 15 years, pitting financial industry stakeholders, who argue their existing regulatory framework is enough, against the U.S. Labor Department, the retirement plan [...]

By Martha C. White Source: The New York Times In an economy characterized by a volatile stock market and elevated inflation, a sure thing looks better than ever. For some Americans in the labor force right now, that looks like a pension. Striking members of the United Automobile Workers union made waves this year when the union’s leaders demanded the reopening of defined-benefit pension plans for workers hired after late 2007. Although U.A.W. leadership failed to persuade automakers to [...]

By Greg Iacurci Source: CNBC The U.S. retirement system may seem flush — yet it ranks poorly in relation to those in other developed nations. Collectively, Americans had more than $39 trillion in wealth earmarked for old age at the end of 2021, according to the Investment Company Institute. However, the U.S. places well outside the top 10 on various global retirement rankings from industry players, such as the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index and Natixis Investment Managers [...]

By Jordan Rosenfeld Source: Yahoo! Finance Many Americans spend their lives working hard and dreaming of the day they can finally retire. But planning for retirement requires more than dreaming -- it means being strategic and focused on saving money, among other things. The average age of retirement for Americans is 66, according to a Gallup poll, which is up from age 60 in the 1990s. With Americans living an average of 78.7 years, that's a good 12 or [...]

By Dan Doonan Source: Forbes Retirement plan design can make or break an employee’s ability to maintain their standard of living in retirement. Over the past several decades, many private sector companies implemented a complete overhaul in retirement plan design, shifting from defined benefit pensions to 401(k)-style defined contribution accounts. Originally designed to supplement rather than replace pensions, 401(k) plans have become the primary employer-sponsored plan for many U.S. workers. This transition meant sacrificing a number of important features [...]