Automatic enrollment blossomed and more employees began to save for retirement. You'd think this would have made everyone happy. It did not. (Photo: Shutterstock)

It's a struggle the retirement industry – from plan sponsors to service providers to regulators and public policy makers – has been trying to tackle since Ted Benna first discovered the Easter Egg Congressman Barber Conable hid under IRC Sec. 401(k) in the Revenue Act of 1978.

And yet, in the last few months, have we discovered the benefit of something we have for so long been trying to prevent?

The fourth quarter of 2018 saw the market dip into near-correction territory. The return of the usual volatility of the equity markets may have allowed us to stumble upon an heretofore overlooked advantage of QDIOs (see “Recent Market Volatility Has Revealed This About Target Date Funds,” FiduciaryNews.com, January 15, 2019).

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Christopher Carosa

Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).