FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bethesda, MD — Alex Assaley, AIF® of AFS 401(k) Retirement Services recently participated as a delegate to the National Association of Plan Advisors’ (NAPA) Annual DC Fly-In Forum, an exclusive gathering of the nation’s leading retirement plan advisors.
For investment Committee members of employee-directed retirement plans, such as 401(k)s or 403(b)s, crafting and monitoring your Investment Policy Statement (IPS) is essential to maintaining your fiduciary responsibilities. Continued yearly education is important for Committee members to stay on top of the necessary practices and measures.
“Are my employees on track for their financial picture?”
It's a question we get asked all the time, and whether you're an employee at an organization, an HR executive, or a Retirement Plan Committee member, everyone wants to know if financial wellness programs are worth all the “buzz”. In this short video, I give my thoughts on why meaningful financial wellness programs are so essential, and I also encourage anyone to check out our 2017 whitepaper, Beyond Retirement: An Examination of Financial Wellness for Employers. This report aims to provide a clearer picture of what an average working American's financial situation looks like and how organizations can create programs to help their employees reach goals throughout their career for today, tomorrow, and their long-term future.
You see them all over the place – seemingly random letters and symbols following your advisor’s name, in their email signature, on their business cards, and across their website. But what do those letters even mean, how does someone earn them, and are there any that are more important than others?
Since its inception, the 401(k) plan has risen to become the most popular employer-sponsored retirement plan in the US. Millions of working Americans put a portion of their paycheck into a 401(k) to save for life after work. While there are many vehicles to help investors save for tomorrow, one that is growing in popularity is the use of collective investment trusts (CITs). These saving vehicles provide individual 401(k) investors the purchasing power of large institutions with improved better pricing. CITs are essentially the Costco or Sam’s Club of the investment world. Finding the vehicle that best aligns with your employee benefits should be top a priority for an organization and their committee members.
We are more than halfway through 2017 and this year has already seen its fair share of changes and that includes the world of employee benefits. Earlier this year at our Employee Benefits Symposium, we heard from a variety of industry experts on what's happening across the entire benefits landscape, spanning retirement plans, health care, technology, and more.
With inspiration from our Symposium, here are the three can't-miss trends from 2017 to help organizations create strong benefit packages that attract top talent, retain great employees, and promote a positive company culture.
Bethesda, MD (April 10, 2018)—AFS 401(k) Retirement Services, a Retirement Plan Consulting Firm in Bethesda, MD, is pleased to announce that Managing Principal and Lead Advisor, Alex Assaley, has been named one of 401(k) Specialist Top Advisor by Participant Outcomes for February 2018.
This content was originally published by Theodore P. Stein, Esq.
On March 13, 2018, the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, issued a Memorandum Opinion in one of my cases granting summary judgment to my client, a defendant, and dismissing a claim that my client had breached its fiduciary duty under ERISA, the federal statute governing employee benefit plans. The case is Damiano v. Institute for In Vitro Sciences, et al. Although the Court ruled in favor of the defendant, the decision should be a wake-up call to employers about the danger of misrepresenting the benefits under a welfare or pension plan—even if the misrepresentation is accidental.
For many companies and organizations, the task of crafting the perfect investment menu can be an overwhelming mission; but it doesn’t need to be. It can be as simple as picking a dish from a menu. A well-made investment lineup is similar to the restaurant menu that offers just the right amount of options to make selecting the perfect dish an enjoyable experience.
When we’re constructing an investment menu for our clients, we advise committee members to build-out their investment menu to satisfy three types of investors: 1) the active investor, 2) the passive investor, and the 3) do-it-for-me investor. First and foremost, committee members need to be familiar with their plan's investment policy statement in order to design the line-up fittingly. Below, we detail a few items often included in a well-rounded investment menu.
Many millennials are looking for their company’s employee benefits program to go beyond the typical healthcare and retirement plan by also addressing other key priorities, such as student loan assistance, financial education, and flexible schedules. While news headlines sometimes turned their demands into stories of “entitled” or “needy” millennials, at the core, their goals are similar to past generations - they want help to take actionable steps towards achieving a healthier lifestyle - mentally, physically, and financially.