The Wrap: archive
Every The Wrap story in Retirement, newest first. 58 stories
4 stories
68% of automatic rollover IRAs lost value in a year
An EBRI and PensionBee whitepaper estimates up to 13 million accounts holding as much as $43 billion, with $100 opening fees and $5 monthly maintenance.
Capital Group sets 4% to 5.5% withdrawal range for target-date funds
Capital Group's framework models a 30-year retirement, while Vanguard's planned trust series holds more equity through the glide path.
IRS replaces EPCRS and launches IRA correction system
The IRS's Revenue Procedure 2026-34 took effect on publication day and the new IRA system takes over 60-day rollover waiver requests in 2027 and 2028.
SEI to build Carlyle private equity CITs for Basic Capital plans
The first trust blends Carlyle's holdings into the large-cap equity sleeve, with the fee, the weighting and the launch date still undisclosed.
2 stories
45% of plan sponsors rank 401(k) education a top concern
Morgan Stanley's poll of 200 sponsors found 45% rank education among their top three concerns; Empower's survey of 2,005 adults found one in three may have lost track of an old 401(k).
Capital Group adds retirement income to target-date funds
Capital Group's framework models fixed 4% to 4.5% and variable 5% to 5.5% withdrawal ranges, and a Morgan Stanley poll finds 45% of sponsors rank 401(k) education among top three concerns.
1 story
Investment-holding HSA accounts hold 59% of assets, Devenir finds
They make up 11% of HSAs and average $23,837, according to Devenir.
1 story
Trump signs ESOP valuation bill granting fiduciaries good-faith appraisal defense
The House passed the Senate text 401-14 in September 2026, and the defense covers fiduciaries who rely in good faith on an independent appraisal under Revenue Ruling 59-60.
1 story
Treasury opens 60 million Trump Accounts, but parents must claim them
Baird's Tim Steffen told InvestmentNews the identity-verification claim is required before money can be added or the investment changed.
2 stories
Auto-enrollment or auto-escalation plans average $170,000 in balances, Bank of America says
Vestwell's own 401(k) and 403(b) account holders averaged a 6.4% deferral in 2023, while 62% of surveyed employees say they should save 10% or more.
Cerulli survey finds 46% prefer flexible retirement withdrawals, 39% want guaranteed income
Guardian found only 34% of respondents had planned for income past age 80, while neither retirement income preference reached a majority.
1 story
Finhabits estimates 13.6 million Latino adults may qualify for Saver's Match
The report's illustrative scenarios put the eligible group's 30-year retirement balances at $615 billion to $1.02 trillion.
1 story
Proposed EBSA rule gives plan fiduciaries 20 process examples
Cerulli finds 39% of DC participants want guaranteed monthly payments, but income options need advice to drive adoption.
2 stories
Cerulli and Morningstar: 10.2% of advisers' wealth clients come from DC plans
Nearly 40% of surveyed advisers say they lack time to prospect inside their plans, and the research cites $250,000 account minimums as a barrier.
October Three: Plan terminations were 66% of first-half U.S. pension risk transfer deals
MetLife's 2026 poll found a record 95% of defined-benefit plan sponsors have de-risking goals.
2 stories
Athene poll finds just 23% of workers aged 40-61 own an annuity
A Harris Poll for Athene also found 34% of respondents mostly or fully understood annuities and 54% knew very little or only somewhat understood them.
Alto agrees to acquire Forge Trust, adding more than 60,000 private-market IRA accounts
Alto says the combined businesses would hold more than $20 billion in assets under custody and administration, and financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
1 story
ERIC and NAGDCA ask IRS to route Saver's Match through plan rollover systems
J.P. Morgan separately broadened access to SmartRetirement Lifetime Income on Retirement Link through an expanded connection with Empower.
1 story
Halbert Hargrove's four-annuity plan exposes annuity fee gap
A 2025 LIMRA study finds fee-based products account for about 1% of annuity premiums, even as insurers call the RIA channel their likeliest growth market.
4 stories
Vanguard's proxy-voting choice reaches 500,000 participants as small plans lag on auto-enrollment
The firm says the program spans nearly 80 plan sponsors holding $120 billion, while its plan data put small-plan auto-enrollment at 26% against 61% at large plans.
Cetera re-flags Avantax team to Cetera Planning Partners
The Retirement Planning Group moved from Avantax Planning Partners to Cetera Planning Partners on Oct. 5 as Cetera also added an outside team; among the day's external recruits, only Fitzgerald Financial Group disclosed AUM, $185 million.
Fitzgerald Financial Group alone discloses assets among five breakaway teams
The Cullman/Holt, Lakewood and Fitzgerald moves left UBS, Cambridge and Commonwealth, but four of five teams arrived with no asset figure.
FiNet, Cetera, LPL, Kestra and Carson add five multi-adviser teams on Oct. 5
All five teams landed on independent platforms and four named a source firm, while only Fitzgerald Financial Group, at $185 million, disclosed an asset total.
2 stories
T. Rowe Price flags private credit in annuities as retirees hesitate to spend
Fitch puts the trailing default rate on U.S. private credit borrowers at a record 6.3%, while Prudential finds 86% of retirees hold back on spending their savings.
Nuveen closes $13 billion Schroders deal and keeps firms separate
The TIAA-owned manager will keep Schroders separate for 12 to 18 months before reorganizing a $400 billion private-markets book by asset class.
3 stories
Treasury draft rules would auto-open 63.36 million child accounts
A Goldman survey finds 14% of workers cut retirement savings, while ERIC asks Treasury to make BNY the clearinghouse for employer contributions.
Ascensus announces advisor referral platform; Edward Jones plans 2027 AI plan tool
Ascensus cited Cerulli research that 63% of active 401(k) participants operate without access to a financial advisor; Edward Jones says its tool will span prospecting, recordkeeper analysis and plan servicing.
TIAA survey: 53% of adults fear outliving savings more than underspending
The 2026 survey of 1,000 U.S. adults aged 18 to 65 finds 83% carry some financial concern about living longer, with Gen Z most worried about AI's effect on careers.
1 story
Treasury draft proposes auto-opening 63.36 million child Trump Accounts by Social Security number
The rules would replace a March proposal and let the Secretary enroll children without parental election, but they do not name the data source that would identify eligible children.
2 stories
Tavarez, Barnett & Steen leave UBS for Frost Investment Services
The three-advisor liftout landed at a bank-owned brokerage in a week when Modern Wealth added 10 advisors and LPL pulled the Fowler team from Raymond James.
ERIC asks Treasury to make BNY the clearinghouse for employer Trump Account contributions
Employers cannot fund accounts they cannot verify, and the request would settle whether BNY becomes the single payroll connection for doing both.
3 stories
The corner office is now a distribution job
AllianceBernstein's succession, MFS's shelf argument and Vestwell's CIT hire point the same way: the target-date product is settled, and the fight is now over who controls the default.
Vestwell staffs for disclosure; CITs get a distribution specialist
Two finance seats on a retirement platform's board and a one-woman CIT consultancy point at the same shift: the 401(k) business is spending on org charts and files, with the product decisions already made.
Captrust and LPL are buying whole practices now
Two seven-advisor teams landed at Captrust the same day, LPL pulled four advisors off Northwestern Mutual, and a $385 million book left Wells—moves that read better as practice acquisitions than recruiting.
1 story
Edelman hires recordkeeper product chief to own the rollover
Edelman's new retirement chief shows the 401(k) advice fight has moved from legal permissibility to distribution control.
1 story
The 401(k) private-asset push lost its benchmark
CFA Institute's model shows three of five private asset classes trail a plain stock-and-bond baseline, so sponsors can only justify them inside the target-date sleeve.
2 stories
IRAs now outgrow the 401(k)s that feed them
Retirement assets hit a record $51.2 trillion, and the fastest-growing pool is the one where mutual funds have the least reach.
The $51.2 trillion record is a price; the exit is the product
A 15% equity quarter restored $3.8 trillion to household retirement balances, and with money still leaving DC plans, the industry's real product is the rollover that follows.
2 stories
The 401(k) advice fight has moved to the login
Pontera's legal case and Fidelity's December cutoff point to the same conclusion: whoever controls the login sets the price of participant advice.
Equitable rents a glidepath as CITs take the target-date market
Recordkeepers now decide which target-date franchise gets the shelf, and the terms of Equitable's T. Rowe Price series show what that gate is worth.