Features: archive

Every Features story in Retirement, newest first. 60 stories

Monday, September 211 story

7:28 a.m.
The Wrap
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.

2:22 p.m.
The Wrap
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.

11:59 a.m.
The Wrap
The default, not the annuity shelf, now decides retirement income
BlackRock is selling the glide path, Vanguard found the RMD already won the decumulation default, and carriers are buying shelf access to a channel the default bypasses.
8:08 a.m.
The Wrap
AI won the paperwork. The fiduciary call is still human.
DC consultants have automated meeting prep and workflows nearly to saturation; the firms pulling ahead are proving human oversight of plan design, which AI has barely touched.

8:02 a.m.
The Wrap
Creative Planning Now Owns the Consultant Search
More than 200 RVK relationships put the fiduciary gatekeeper inside an asset gatherer, and the ownership question now follows every consultant search.

11:21 a.m.
Investments
EBRI's $20.2 billion prices the match sponsors skipped
The participation gap opens at enrollment and the balance gap peaks two decades later, leaving a single threshold as the plan-design decision sponsors have not made.

8:04 a.m.
The Wrap
Great Gray rents the diligence half of its private-markets CITs
Six private-markets CIT shelves in five months, and the Great Gray-iCapital split shows which half the industry regards as scarce.

2:38 p.m.
The Wrap
PEPs are now won on distribution coverage, not plan design
The Standard's $5 billion pooled book and Transamerica's two national sales seats describe the same contest, in which the scarce asset is a field organization that can reach mid-market employers one segment at a time.

12:00 p.m.
The Wrap
The Plan Website Becomes the Rollover Desk
Recordkeepers are embedding debt and wellness tools to hold the login after the last paycheck, and this week's evidence shows the digital layer, not the fund menu, now determines where the balance goes.

8:05 a.m.
The Wrap
The 401(k) adviser becomes the endowment fiduciary
Prime Capital's OCIO launch and a five-point jump in requests for full-menu discretion point the same way: the retirement-plan RIA is consolidating fiduciary control across DC and nonprofit assets.

12:34 p.m.
Investments
Private credit files its own ticket onto the DC menu
Four DC-bound private-credit vehicles in one week, from Ares, Shenkman, StepStone, and Jana, mark a shift from recordkeeper CITs to fund sponsors' own shelves.
8:10 a.m.
The Wrap
The 401(k) fight moves into payroll
Deel's API-first rollout and NPPG's $4.33 billion ProManage purchase make the same bet: the point of contribution now controls the plan relationship.

2:28 p.m.
The Wrap
Principal wraps private markets in CITs while DOL's benchmark stalls
The recordkeeper is attaching its own oversight to target-date CITs, aiming at the 3 percent of defined-contribution assets still stuck in alternatives while the DOL's benchmark stalls.

9:13 a.m.
The Wrap
Debt sends retirement M&A into the contribution layer
With managed accounts posting a measurable contribution lift and debt outranking saving, buyers are moving past recordkeepers to the feature that answers the squeeze.

3:58 p.m.
The Wrap
Retirement managed accounts shift to adviser-controlled rails
Vanguard opens custom models to outside platforms, Pontera reaches held-away 401(k)s without custody, and SEI clears the back office with AI. The adviser's desktop is becoming the point of assembly for retirement capital.
2:27 p.m.
The Wrap
T. Rowe's $19 billion bond bet moves target-date fight into the sleeves
The F/m deal buys the fixed-income engine CITs demand. PGIM's private-markets hire shows the next front is inside the fund.

8:13 a.m.
The Wrap
Annuity records mask the advice gap
MassMutual Ascend crossed $2 billion in advisory sales. LIMRA data shows advisors are still not converting demand into income plans.

4:44 p.m.
The Wrap
The 401(k) Fight Now Starts Before the Recordkeeper Is Chosen
OpenArc and Mesirow are moving to control plan design before a recordkeeper is hired, shifting who shapes the menu.

8:46 a.m.
The Wrap
Private deals are closing; the DOL benchmark remains missing
The safe harbor for private assets in 401(k) plans cannot work without a meaningful benchmark, and the latest deal data shows private fund managers still haven't produced one.
8:25 a.m.
The Wrap
MissionSquare rents technology; Edelman buys dealmaking talent
Two moves six days apart show the same retirement assets being attacked from opposite directions.