The VirginiaSaves program would be similar to automatic IRAs used in several states, including Oregon, Illinois and California. Virginia’s House of Delegates passed the measure last week by a vote of 56 to 44.
Health savings accounts, often confused with flexible spending accounts, are prized for their tax leniency. But many things hold them back, including the high-deductible health plans to which they are tethered.
Across age, income and education levels, people who are still paying down college debt on average had much smaller defined-contribution plan balances and in some cases were less likely to own a home, according to a study from the Employee Benefit Research Group.
The company was far from being the first to register with the Department of Labor as a pooled plan provider. But its fully bundled service, which includes administration, fiduciary oversight and the plan’s investments, indicates that Fidelity is confident that it will not run afoul of the regulator.
The deal will reinforce MassMutual’s focus on its retail annuities business. Last year, the company sold its defined-contribution record-keeping business to Empower Retirement via a reinsurance transaction with a ceding commission of $2.35 billion.
Since the GameStop stock options frenzy that quietly began early this month and exploded over the past week, some traders have followed by investing in other shorted stocks, with prices surging far past the returns seen in the indexes that include them.
Total U.S. annuity sales hit $58.7 billion in the last three months of the year, up 2% from the $57.6 billion during the same timeframe in 2019, according to data published by Limra’s Secure Retirement Institute. But sales were down for the full year.
Fidelity Investments became the latest to register with the Department of Labor as a pooled plan provider. The PEP, which appears to target small businesses, could significantly boost the company’s presence in that market – the bulk of Fidelity’s defined-contribution plan business is with large employers.
Plaintiffs allege excessive fees and other claims against the auto maker and drug company, while a participant in a plan using American Trust as trustee claims a major distribution was made without his permission. The University of Pennsylvania settled a long-running case over its 403(b).
A Department of Labor advisory council compiled a wealth of testimony on the challenges that plan sponsors, advisers, record keepers and others face in identifying retirement savers’ cognitive decline and what options they have when they suspect it.
