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2/18/13 - More workers can switch to a Roth 401(k) (USA Today)

Buried at the bottom of the Taxpayer Relief Act is a provision that allows more workers to convert their retirement savings into a Roth 401(k). That is an appealing option to consumers who want some of their retirement savings to grow tax-free forever. And for the government, it is a revenue-raiser. “It was thrown in… Read more 2/18/13 - More workers can switch to a Roth 401(k) (USA Today)

2/17/13 - How to Get to Retirement? Practice! (Wall Street Journal)

There has been a steady drumbeat of downbeat news about retirement lately. More than half of us won’t have enough money to maintain our living standards in retirement—even if we work to age 65, about two years past the average retirement age, according to various estimates. No wonder more people are working into their golden… Read more 2/17/13 - How to Get to Retirement? Practice! (Wall Street Journal)

2/16/13 - Fiscal trouble ahead for most future retirees (Washington Post)

For the first time since the New Deal, a majority of Americans are headed toward a retirement in which they will be financially worse off than their parents, jeopardizing a long era of improved living standards for the nation’s elderly, according to a growing consensus of new research. The Great Recession and the weak recovery… Read more 2/16/13 - Fiscal trouble ahead for most future retirees (Washington Post)

2/10/13 - Complex Investments Prove Risky as Savers Chase Bigger Payoff (New York Times)

Regulators across the country are confronting a wave of investor fraud that is saddling retirement savers with steep losses on complex products that until a few years ago were pitched only to the most sophisticated investors. The victims are among the millions of Americans whose mutual funds and stock portfolios plummeted in the wake of… Read more 2/10/13 - Complex Investments Prove Risky as Savers Chase Bigger Payoff (New York Times)

2/8/13 - Younger generations favor online retirement calculators (BenefitsPro)

More than six in 10 retirement plan participants under age 40 say they find online retirement calculators most helpful, new research show. OneAmerica Financial Parnters Inc., Indianapolis, reports this finding in a survey that explores a “digital divide” between older and younger generations in respect to using technology to preparing for retirement. The report shows that… Read more 2/8/13 - Younger generations favor online retirement calculators (BenefitsPro)

2/7/13 - Coming Soon for Our Own Good: Restrictions on Big Retirement Account Payouts (Time)

Why don’t more retirees convert at least some of their nest egg to lifetime income? It’s a question that vexes financial planners and has policymakers scrambling for solutions. For many years, traditional defined-benefit pensions provided millions of people with an income stream they could not outlive. Along with Social Security benefits, this pension income covered… Read more 2/7/13 - Coming Soon for Our Own Good: Restrictions on Big Retirement Account Payouts (Time)

2/4/13 - Outsmarting con artists (American Psychological Association)

Each year, researchers estimate that more than 30 million Americans are victims of financial fraud, whether it’s losing their retirement savings to a deceitful financial advisor, falling for an Internet scam or having their money surreptitiously siphoned by their own adult children. Fraud may total up to $50 billion annually in the United States and… Read more 2/4/13 - Outsmarting con artists (American Psychological Association)

2/3/13 - New Annuity Gurantees Raise Questions (Wall Street Journal)

With millions of baby boomers headed to retirement without old-fashioned pension plans as safety nets, here is a product that would seem to have big appeal: a guarantee of lifetime income from a portfolio of ordinary mutual funds—however long the investor lives and even if the stock market tanks. That’s what the life-insurance industry thinks.… Read more 2/3/13 - New Annuity Gurantees Raise Questions (Wall Street Journal)

2/2/13 - In Hard Economy for All Ages, Older Isn't Better ... It's Brutal (New York Times)

Young graduates are in debt, out of work and on their parents’ couches. People in their 30s and 40s can’t afford to buy homes or have children. Retirees are earning near-zero interest on their savings. In the current listless economy, every generation has a claim to having been most injured. But the Labor Department’s latest… Read more 2/2/13 - In Hard Economy for All Ages, Older Isn't Better ... It's Brutal (New York Times)

1/28/13 - Retirement Reform a Likely Target For Obama's Second Term (Benefits Pro)

If you think that the retirement industry suddenly fell off the radar with the end of the first round of fiscal cliff fixes, think again – substantial reform, courtesy of the second-term Obama administration, is likely on the way. That’s the belief of Marcia Wagner, a prominent ERISA attorney serving as keynote at this year’s… Read more 1/28/13 - Retirement Reform a Likely Target For Obama's Second Term (Benefits Pro)