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The Obama administration is proposing tougher restrictions on brokers who manage Americans’ retirement accounts, reigniting a confrontation with the financial services industry over rules affecting trillions of dollars in 401K and other savings accounts. The change would put brokers—who sell stocks, bonds, annuities and other investments—under the stricter requirements for registered financial advisers when they handle clients’ retirement accounts. In a long-anticipated move, the Labor Department is making the proposal Monday to the White House Budget Office. After an internal review, it likely will be put out for public comment for several months. Obama was scheduled to address the AARP...

RUSH: It's a story from the website Watchdog.org, and the headline: "Obama's Budget Targets Your Retirement Accounts." I can't recall the number of times that I have mentioned casually, forcefully, predicted directly over the course of the years that, as this government continued to expand and spend money it didn't have and print money it needed, that at some point it was gonna have to go get money. You can't just rely on fake money that's printed. They're gonna have to get more. They're gonna target money, and I warned everybody, "They're gonna they're gonna come after your pensions, and...

With the release of its 2016 spending blueprint Monday, the Obama White House officially signaled its intent to use retirement policy to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The proposed 10-year budget, which allots $4 trillion in spending for fiscal year 2016, will attempt to cap tax-deferred saving in 401(k) and Individual Retirement Accounts at about $3.4 million. That amount of savings generates more than $200,000 of income annually in retirement when annuitized, an income stream that should be sufficient for most, according to the Obama administration’s rationale behind the proposal. The vast majority of Americans would never feel the...

U.S. stocks sank on Thursday, erasing all and more of the previous day's rally, as investors bypassed U.S. corporate earnings and economic reports to focus on global concerns, including Europe's softening economy. "We've added global growth concerns on top of other headline risks, (such as) air strikes, Ebola," said Sean McCarthy, regional chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. Ahead of Wall Street's start, data showed a 5.8 percent drop in German exports in August, adding to downbeat numbers that had German industrial orders and output falling as well. "Europe's growth is weak, and close to going into recessionary...

U.S. stocks slid on Tuesday, with the Dow industrials posting their fourth loss in five sessions. Traders said the selling was kicked off by remarks from a Polish official warning about the potential for Russia to invade Ukraine. But traders said the scope of the declines reflected low volumes and a lack of other news. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 139.81 points, or 0.84%, to 16429.47. The S&P 500 lost 18.78 points, or 0.97%, to 1920.21 and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 31.05 points, or 0.71%, to 4352.84. "This hit the tape, and all of a sudden the market...

You may already be familiar with the catchy bit of investment advice to “sell in May and go away.” Historically, the first day of May kicks off a seasonally weak period for stock prices that lasts through October. That also means that most of the gains in the U.S. stock market come from the period between the start of November and the end of April. This implies a shockingly simple strategy: Invest in an index fund during November through April and then switch into money market funds until the next November, and you’ll be much better off than an investor...

In December, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which oversees how investments are sold, proposed what it calls Cards, an electronic system that would regularly collect data on balances and transactions in brokerage accounts. But some critics think it could endanger the privacy and security of investors’ confidential data. Under Cards (which stands for Comprehensive Automated Risk Data System), Finra would collect—probably weekly—a record of activity at all of the more than 4,100 brokerage firms nationwide.

After more than twenty years of trying, there’s no way to avoid the following conclusion: The gun manufacturers of America cannot be swayed by reason. This past week alone, we saw just how true this statement has become. On Tuesday morning, a gunman opened fire at a FedEx facility in Kennesaw, Georgia wounding six people before being shot and killed himself. Kennesaw is famous for being the Georgia town where every household is mandated to own at least one gun. Although the law is not officially enforced, it is estimated that roughly 50% of town residents do, in fact, own...

Questions about 401Ks.

Where to find the fees charged by your 401(k) retirement funds? "Sorry to say there isn't an easy answer to where to find all expenses on retirement accounts, which is definitely part of the problem," says Jennifer Erickson, co-author of a new study of 401(k) fees by the Center for American Progress. Your quarterly statement may not show all the fees and "can be even more confusing," Erickson says. Most fees —more than 80 percent of them — are covered by a plan's "expense ratio." The expense ratio includes recurring fees you're charged when you invest in a fund. The...

President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress in early March, as part of his fiscal 2015 budget, to reduce some of the tax advantages for employer-sponsored retirement plans for higher-income earners, according to published reports. Plus, the president wants to limit the value of all tax deductions, defined contribution exclusions and IRA deductions to 28% of income — and include an overall cap on all retirement accounts, including pensions, that could bring in $1 billion a year in new tax revenue, according to a Pensions & Investments report. Read Companies bracing for 1-2 retirement punch . According to the report,...

President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress in early March, as part of his fiscal 2015 budget, to reduce some of the tax advantages for employer-sponsored retirement plans for higher-income earners, according to published reports. Plus, the president wants to limit the value of all tax deductions, defined contribution exclusions and IRA deductions to 28% of income — and include an overall cap on all retirement accounts, including pensions, that could bring in $1 billion a year in new tax revenue, according to a Pensions & Investments report. Read Companies bracing for 1-2 retirement punch . According to the report,...

President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress in early March, as part of his fiscal 2015 budget, to reduce some of the tax advantages for employer-sponsored retirement plans for higher-income earners, according to published reports. Plus, the president wants to limit the value of all tax deductions, defined contribution exclusions and IRA deductions to 28% of income — and include an overall cap on all retirement accounts, including pensions, that could bring in $1 billion a year in new tax revenue, according to a Pensions & Investments report. According to the report, the proposals are designed to direct more of...

(Reuters) - The savings of the European Union's 500 million citizens could be used to fund long-term investments to boost the economy and help plug the gap left by banks since the financial crisis, an EU document says. The EU is looking for ways to wean the 28-country bloc from its heavy reliance on bank financing and find other means of funding small companies, infrastructure projects and other investment. "The economic and financial crisis has impaired the ability of the financial sector to channel funds to the real economy, in particular long-term investment," said the document, seen by Reuters. The...

When President Barack Obama introduced a new retirement savings plan during his State of the Union speech last month, the Republican response was uncharacteristically muted. Although Republicans were upset about the president’s new reliance on executive authority to push his agenda, they had few harsh words about the details of the retirement idea. Dubbed MyRA, Obama’s initiative is intended to allow workers who do not have access to other workplace savings plans to open an account overseen by the government that would invest in low-risk Treasury bonds. It’s a relatively modest proposal, one that would be entirely voluntary for employers...

<p>When you hear, “Hello, I’m from the federal government and I want to help you manage your retirement savings,” the best advice is to run away, as fast as you can.</p>

Prepare For When The New MyRA Becomes "TheirRA" Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement Feb 10, 2014 - 06:47 PM GMTPeter KrauthBy: Money_Morning Personal Finance Peter Krauth writes: In his recent State of the Union Address, President Obama unveiled something new: a retirement savings account to "help" Americans build a nest egg, coining it the "MyRA." Something immediately felt wrong about the proposal... but I couldn't put my finger on it. So I researched the new MyRA and found details to help you understand just how it works. But I also saw some potential dangers there that you need to prepare...

In his recent State of the Union Address, President Obama unveiled something new: a retirement savings account to "help" Americans build a nest egg, coining it the "MyRA." Something immediately felt wrong about the proposal... but I couldn't put my finger on it. So I researched the new MyRA and found details to help you understand just how it works. But I also saw some potential dangers there that you need to prepare for now... What MyRA Really Means Like most government programs, getting to their essence can take some sifting. So I've distilled here what I think are the...

**SNIP** The biggest change will be a new emphasis on retirement readiness, rather than simply getting workers to join a plan and contribute. The idea is to focus on actual retirement outcomes, and it reflects apprehension about the large number of Americans who are approaching retirement unprepared. If that's something you're worried about, it turns out your boss shares your concern. The 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) found that just 13 percent of workers are very confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement. And a 401k benchmarking survey released last...

AOL became the latest company to blame Obamacare for cutting back on employee benefits. The tech firm will now pay its 401(k) company match only to employees who are active on Dec. 31 of that year, as opposed to in their paychecks throughout the year. So those who leave the company before the end of the year will forfeit the match.