…most recently during the housing-led crisis in 2007 and 2008. This was explained away as a simple, temporary supply-demand imbalance. As risky assets like stocks or high-yield bonds plunged in value, corporate investors had to move large sums of institutional money temporarily into short-term, overnight…
…Labor also requires small plans who have less than 95% of their assets in “qualifying assets” to obtain an audit, unless those assets are adequately covered by an ERISA fidelity bond. A qualifying plan asset is generally one that is easily transacted on a public…
After 3 Years, The Federal Reserve Signals It May Stop Raising Rates. Why Now? The Federal Reserve’s (Fed) key interest-setting group, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), met this week and a remarkable thing happened – nothing. Of course, that’s not to say nothing happened…
Is the potential ending of the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing (QE) program creating turmoil overseas as well? Monetary policy in the US doesn’t stop at the border – US interest rates matter elsewhere in the world, too. US Government bond yields hit their 2013 lows…
A blog by Scott Stone, CIO, Senior Vice President – October 21, 2014 For much of 2014, several leading market pundits and even professional portfolio managers have been warning that the US equity market was headed for a major catastrophe. Ebola virus, Russian aggression in…
A blog by Scott Stone, CIO, Senior Vice President – November 18, 2014 The recent plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 provided an ‘I-Told-You-So’ moment to many market pundits who have long predicted a market correction. Based on certain fundamental…
A blog by Scott Stone, CFA, FLMI Senior Vice President & Chief Investment Officer and Frederic Slade, CFA , Assistant Vice President & Senior Director-Investments A few weeks ago, a reporter sent the Pentegra investment team an inquiry, asking us for our opinion about the…
…401(k) retirement savings over the course of one’s retirement years may not be the most prudent strategy. In such event, one may want to consider a Lifetime Income Solution (“LIS”) as part of one’s decumulation strategy. Essentially, LISs are designed to convert accumulated retirement assets…
…of your employee population are at risk for not achieving their retirement goals-whether employees are utilizing asset allocation and target date funds, and whether catch up contributions are being maximized. WHAT SHOULD WE LOOK AT WHEN EVALUATING PLAN FEES AND EXPENSES? One of the more…
…Finally, establish an appropriate asset allocation to help you determine your portfolio’s overall risk and return. While saving requires sacrifice, focus on the rewards by visualizing the retirement that you want. Taking that first step can be the hardest, but once you have a game…
…per year. As a result, couples were able to collect significantly more Social Security income. A valuable strategy to consider, at least if you can afford to suspend those benefits … but the window is rapidly closing. Under the new, Congress-mandated rules, anyone born on…
…a plan’s Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA) should be a single fund investment solution that is well diversified among the various asset classes. Such an approach offers participants a means of keeping their investment strategy simple but sophisticated. Target date funds, asset allocation funds, and…