Investment Instruments

A round-up of the week’s employee benefits news, reports and controversy from around the web

High gas prices, failure of the government to control the federal deficit, and persistently high unemployment has soured the attitude of workers toward investing, a poll released Thursday says.

Weaker than expected sales reports from retailers and another large number of claims for unemployment benefits pulled the stock market lower for the second straight day Thursday.

Jim McCool, Charles Schwab's executive vice president of institutional business, made waves at an asset-management conference in March when he announced that the brokerage firm soon would offer 401(k) retirement plans stuffed solely with exchange-traded funds.

ING has appointed Maliz E. Beams CEO of ING Retirement, overseeing ING's employer-sponsored retirement plan business, ING Retirement Services, and ING Individual Retirement.

The SPARK Institute is accepting requests from the retirement plan community for possible changes to its lifetime income solutions data standards.