How do you Define Great Service?

Understanding the impact of service providers on retirement plan success. How do you define outstanding service for your business? You probably describe your specialized expertise, the value you deliver relative to the cost, and the quick response time and quality of your customer interactions. Do you hold your retirement plan …

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Market Week: May 3, 2021

The Markets (as of market close April 30, 2021) Last Monday saw small caps and tech shares drive the Russell 2000 and the Nasdaq higher. Investors may have drawn encouragement from strong, first-quarter corporate earnings reports, solid economic data, and the expectation that the Federal Reserve will maintain its accommodative …

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Third Quarter Market Review 2020

July kicked off the third quarter with a bang as stocks surged throughout much of the month. Investors were encouraged by solid employment growth, a rise in personal income and consumer spending, a surge in the housing sector, and an increase in industrial production. All news was not positive, however. …

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Understanding the Roles for Active and Passive Portfolio Managements

Different markets call for different approaches to managing your portfolio. Should an investor take a passive approach through a fund designed to mirror the changes in a market index as a whole or actively manage the portfolio with stocks chosen individually? It depends.Over roughly the last decade, passively managed index …

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Sound Investors Keep an Eye on the Long-Term

Your favorite team can go through winning and losing streaks and so can the stock market. You need to be patient and keep your eye on the goal — retirement. Market volatility, corporate fraud, mutual fund scandals and war — these events can make us worry about our finances. While …

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CARES Act Passed into Law

From rebate checks to small business support, there’s a lot packed into the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that was signed into law on Friday. The $2+ trillion emergency fiscal stimulus package is intended to mitigate some of the economic effects of dealing with COVID-19. Here’s a …

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Three Regrets of Retirees

A recent survey found that more than half of retirees have retirement planning regrets. Unfortunately, many of these retirees had to cut back on their lifestyles to compensate for financial shortfalls.1 Considering their most common regrets may help you avoid making the same mistakes. Not saving enough More than one-third of …

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Coronavirus Concerns? Consider Past Health Crises

During the last week of February 2020, the S&P 500 lost 11.49% — the worst week for stocks since the 2008 financial crisis — only to jump by 4.6% on the first Monday in March.1 By all accounts, the drop was largely driven by ever-increasing fears about the potential effects of …

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5 habits of successful 401(k) plan sponsors

As a plan sponsor, your 401(k) participants depend on you to help create the retirements they envision. The good news is that many of these participants likely recognize the importance of saving for retirement. In fact, with retirement lasting longer than ever, 401(k) millionaires – those with at least $1 …

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The Coronavirus and the Global Economy

As of February 26, 2020, the death toll from COVID-19 — the official name of the coronavirus first reported in Wuhan, China — passed 2,700, while the number of confirmed cases exceeded 80,000. Almost all were in China, most of them in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province. But more …

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