Investment Instruments

Mercers US Outsourcing business has rolled out Financial Engines Income+ to its defined contribution plan client base.

Rhode Island is ground zero for pension reform right now. The state, which has found itself with an unfunded pension liability of between $7 billion and $9 billion, has proposed a hybrid defined benefit/defined contribution plan to reform its retirement system.

Social Security not only shouldn't be cut as part of the United States debt reduction measures, but, according to Merton Bernstein, an expert on Social Security and the Walter D. Coles Professor Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, it wouldnt take much to ensure Social Securitys viability 75 years...

Our seventh annual competition features a few surprises, a lot of stalwarts and more broker votes than ever before.

Vanguard plans to introduce two international bond index funds: Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund and Vanguard Emerging Markets Government Bond Index Fund. The funds represent Vanguards first international fixed income offerings for U.S. investors.

The U.S. Department of Labors Employee Benefits Security Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that information the EBSA requires plan administrators to give to plan participants or beneficiaries under its participant-level fee disclosure regulation will satisfy the requirements of Rule 482 under the Securities Act of 1933.

TD Ameritrade Institutional attracted 348 breakaway brokers in 2011, a nearly 20 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.

Most pension plans will see their funded status drop significantly in 2011, with plan sponsors facing sharply higher contributions, according to an analysis by Mercer actuaries.