Ask the experts: What should we look for in retirement plan vendor? We’re considering changing our retirement plan vendor. What areas should we focus in on when searching for a new provider? Source: HR Morning.com

The Shape of Things to Come for 401k Plans 401k providers are still offering more and more features to plan sponsors. author sets forth three plan features that you are likely to see more of in 2010 and beyond. Source: Employee Benefit News

Improving on the Participant Directed 401k Investment Model The likelihood of investment success increases as the participant's involvement in investment decisions decreases. This article proposes an alternative approach to the participant-directed 401k investment model in order to allow, as far as possible, the fulfillment of the primary objective of a 401k plan. Source: Chang, Ruthenberg & Long PC

Achieving Sustainable Retirement Withdrawals: A Combined Equity and Annuity Approach Results of this research indicate that an equity portfolio with a fixed annuity component provides a higher chance of maintaining retirement distributions than other alternatives. Source: Journal of Financial Planning

The Value of TIPS in Pension and 401k Plans There is a growing sense that the monetary and fiscal policies required to exit the great recession of 2008/2009 are laying the groundwork for future inflation. In light of this, the author briefly examines the case for providing exposure to Treasury Inflation Protected Securities or “TIPS” in both pension plans and 401k plans. Source: Fiduciary Investor Blog

PSCA Honors Employers for A+ 401k Education For the last two years, employers have been pushing stay-the-course themes within their 401k communication and educational programs, but some do it a little better than others. Source: Employee Benefit News

Enduring Confidence in the 401k System: Investor Attitudes and Actions With millions of U.S. households personally directing their retirement savings, the Investment Company Institute has sought to get a sense of retirement savers' activity and sentiment in light of the extraordinary financial market volatility of the past two years. This paper summarizes results from two surveys conducted by ICI in the last two months of 2009. Source: Investment Company Institute

Survey Shows Significant Increase in Adoption of Auto Enrollment A new survey by Hewitt Associates shows a significant increase in the adoption by employers of automatic enrollment features in their 401k plans. The survey also found increased use of target date funds as default 401k investments and an increased focus on lowering plan expenses. Source: CCH

Plans That Suspended Their Matching Contribution Experienced Declines A new survey that companies that suspended their matching contributions experienced a decrease in plan participation and deferral rates to a much greater degree than those that did not change their matching contributions. Source: CCH

401k Participants May Proceed With Lawsuit Over Fees, Company Stock Claims that 401k fiduciaries violated ERISA by allowing a plan and its participants to pay excessive administrative fees cannot be dismissed, a federal district court in Illinois has ruled (George v. Kraft Foods Global). Source: Mercer

Is the Pressure Off to Regulate Target-Date Funds? Some believe a return to profit may ease investor worry about these retirement funds and move the push for regulation to the back burner. But others think now is the time to ratchet up regulation before the next recession burns more investors. Source: Financial-Planning.com

IRS Rules on Annuity Issues in Defined Contribution Plans In a preface to the 2010 policy discussion about enhancing income security in defined contribution plans, the Internal Revenue Service ruled on several issues under current law related to the use of annuity contracts in these plans. Source: Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP