Retirement Trends

A study found that one in three of respondents thought it was very useful to hear an estimate of the monthly retirement income they might expect from their plan and another 49 percent thought it was somewhat useful.

The nations fifth-most-populous state, is digging out of a hole created by years of pension underfunding.

Orange County, Californias $11.5 billion pension is putting together a fund open to smaller retirement plans to give them access to private-equity investments at a lower cost.

Seventy-one percent of investors surveyed, a majority, said they were go-it-alone investors.

The average participant now invests 60 percent of his account balance in index funds, compared to 30 percent in 2004, in large part because of the growing popularity of index-based target-date funds.

Employers face a 52 percent increase in the regulatory cost of administering pension plans by 2016 as well as a whopping $150 billion increase in liabilities to retirees with longer life spans.