IRS Issues Additional Guidance on Retirement Plan Relief Related to COVID-19
IRS Notice 2020-51
IRS Notice 2020-51
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2020-50 which provides guidance on coronavirus-related distributions (CRDs) ...
I have written extensively on the issues of economics that impact the cost of services, how those costs are allocated, and the ...
The Department of Labor (DOL) recently published its final rule providing a safe harbor to allow retirement plan administrators ...
We are thrilled to announce that Multnomah Group is welcoming two new team members, Max Jundt and Joy Macalanda.
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At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, I’m sure many of us could not have imagined how rapid and dramatic everyday life and ...
The concentration level in the Russell 1000® Growth Index (Russell 1000® Growth) has been on the rise as a handful of mega cap ...
Individuals who have suffered a financial impact due to the coronavirus pandemic may consider tapping their retirement savings to ...
Given the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve had several clients request to cancel their March 31, 2020 investment reviews. Earlier this ...
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act was signed by the ...
The COVID-19 virus is having an unprecedented impact on employers of all shapes and sizes, and many are having to review employee ...
As Erik Daley wrote last year, we have three committees that govern and drive our consulting activities. These committees are ...
We are very honored to share that we have been recognized as a 2020 Best Places to Work for Financial Advisers as announced ...
Earlier this month, the Trustees of Princeton University settled a class action suit brought by participants in their retirement ...
The U.S. economy came to a halt as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused the sudden and historic shutdown of most aspects of ...
As we work with clients on their retirement plan investment menus, I have increasingly been looking back on our work from 2008 – ...
The CARES Act includes a provision to allow Coronavirus Related Distributions (CRDs) of up to $100,000. This can have a ...
The CARES Act is complicated! Never fear, retirement plan sponsors everywhere are asking the same questions about how the CARES ...
With the current health and economic challenges presented by the coronavirus (COVID-19), organizations may be forced to downsize ...
The CARES Act provides plan sponsors the opportunity to provide access to retirement funds for individuals impacted by the ...
On Friday, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed by President Trump. This large stimulus ...
We are both proud and saddened to share our senior consultant Rex Kim is leaving Multnomah Group. He has taken a position as the ...
Yesterday, the Senate passed HR 6201, a House-passed coronavirus (COVID-19) bill focused on establishing funding for Emergency ...
Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) are a new type of multiple employer plan created by the passage of the SECURE Act at the end of ...
As the impact of the COVID-19 virus continues to become more evident in the U.S., we want you to know what our consulting team at ...
We are pleased to share we have been included on the National Association of Plan Advisors’ (NAPA) Top DC Plan Advisor Teams list ...
In response to concerns about slowing global economic growth resulting from the spread of the coronavirus, the U.S. Federal ...
Too much has now been written and said about the SECURE Act and the fact that it is the “most substantial piece of retirement ...
Morningstar established its ‘style box’ nearly 30 years ago. Since then, the style box has become the primary method for ...
Recent news reports have highlighted an issue that many Americans struggle with, and when looking at the underlying data, it ...
While the SECURE Act has gotten a lot of attention in the retirement plan industry recently, and with good reason, there is ...
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement (SECURE) Act was signed into law in December 2019. The Act is the most substantive ...
The opening of a new year is always a good opportunity to take stock of where you are and set goals for the New Year. At ...
The U.S. economy continued to muddle through in 2019, slowing from the prior year’s quicker pace. Real GDP grew at an annual rate ...
This past decade of January 2010 to December 2019 provided investors with extraordinary returns, consistently rising, with ...
Last year, I wrote a piece outlining how many retirement plan consulting firms are changing their structure and approach to ...
We are pleased to share that Greg Johnson has joined Multnomah Group as a senior consultant and the director of ERISA technical ...
During this season, we take time to reflect upon the good things we have, like our partnership with you. We appreciate working ...
As Erik Daley wrote last month in a blog post, we have three committees that drive our consulting activities. These committees ...
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) established the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) to provide retirement plan ...
On Nov. 7, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) issued a ...
As an investment professional, one of my biggest pet peeves are guesses (our industry calls them “forecasts”) that everyone is ...
Higher education institutions are vibrant workplaces where administrators, faculty, and staff all move toward a common purpose of ...
Recently, the IRS proposed new regulations that would change the calculations used for required minimum distributions (RMDs) for ...
On Aug. 31, 2018, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) that focused on key initiatives to improve the retirement ...
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced the cost‑of‑living adjustments affecting pension plans and other ...
Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation into the sales and compensation ...
While the cases against 401(k)s and 403(b)s continue to make their way through the courts, these cases continue to see new legal ...
Every client we work with has established committees that are responsible for providing oversight, governance, and ultimately ...
The Department of Labor (DOL) has announced the release of a new proposed rule for safe harbor for electronic delivery of ...
When anticipating a merger or acquisition, coordinating and analyzing the impact of changes in employee benefits is often the ...
Historically, the retirement plan industry has focused on a single goal: successful retirement plan outcomes. This statement ...
The U.S. economy has steadily slowed in 2019, from 3.0% in the first quarter to 2.0% for the second quarter (most recent ...
Multnomah Group is proud to share that our managing principal, Erik Daley, and our principal, Brian Montanez, have been named to ...
On September 23, the IRS published its final regulations on hardship distributions, which can be found here. This codifies ...
We are pleased and proud to share that our consultant Hailey McLaughlin has earned her Certified Investment Management Analyst ...
Multnomah Group's 2019 Regulatory Update has been released by our Technical Services Committee.
Last week, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) became the most recent higher education institution to settle a case ...
One of the most interesting things about working with retirement plans is that, for the most part, participants get to make their ...
Please join us in welcoming Chad Greenwood to Multnomah Group! Chad is our newest retirement plan analyst and is a member of our ...
We were recently interviewed by an organization looking for an investment consultant to help make big changes to their retirement ...
Earlier this month, another of the higher education institutions serving as defendants to a slew of class action suits relative ...
This blog is part of a series focusing on how plan sponsors can improve participant outcomes and simplify participant choices ...
One of the more requested investments over the past several years has been in the area of Environmental, Social, and Governance ...
Back on June 12, we published a blog on how fee compression is impacting the retirement plan consulting industry and how firms ...
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cut the Fed Funds rate by 25 bps down to the new target range of 2.00% to 2.25%. This ...
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will be meeting over the next two days (July 30-31). With the markets awaiting the ...
This is part of a series of posts focusing on how plan sponsors can improve participant outcomes and simplify participant choices ...
Here at Multnomah Group, we've been talking quite a bit about fee consolidation - both on the recordkeeping side and on ...
At the end of last week, Secretary of Labor Andrew Acosta resigned. The resignation related not to retirement, nor matters at ...
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1% for the first quarter of 2019 (the most recent data available). This is now the ...
If you have been reading with us for a while, you know that this isn’t our first post related to cybersecurity. We wrote about ...
Over the past few years, we have seen a decline in interest among plan sponsors wishing to conduct a recordkeeping vendor search ...
Morningstar recently updated their mutual fund fixed income categories resulting in significant changes impacting the ...
Last year, our managing principal wrote a post titled: 2018 – The Year of Cybersecurity. I am wondering if we should revisit the ...
This is the second blog in a series focusing on how plan sponsors can improve participant outcomes and simplify participant ...
Last year, I worked on a piece that addressed the changing nature of retirement plan recordkeeping and the potential impact on ...
Below is a graph depicting the U.S. Treasury Yield Curve as of June 5, 2019:
The retirement plan industry has undergone significant changes since the passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 by ...
For those following retirement plan regulation and legislation, it has been a busy few days. At the end of last year, there were ...
As a plan sponsor, how well do you have a grasp on your participants’ needs? From retirement readiness presentations, to save ...
At Multnomah Group, we celebrate Spring by getting into the weeds on recordkeeping fees. During most of our meetings this quarter ...
Richard Thaler, Nobel laureate and professor of behavioral science and economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of ...
In a Wall Street Journal article published today, May 8, 2019, our senior consultant Bonnie Treichel had an opportunity to share ...
My colleagues have written extensively on the topic of recordkeeping fee compression and the alternative ways that recordkeeping ...
Spring is in the air, and for those of us here at Multnomah Group, that means we are in the middle of our annual recordkeeping ...
When a participant in your retirement plan goes to enroll, how are the investments in the plan selected? What about when the ...
I wrote a blog last spring on the use of custom portfolios in defined contribution plans. For background, custom portfolios are ...
The Department of Labor (DOL) not only requires employers to “get it right,” but they even help employers do it. Within the past ...
The U.S. economy slowed in the final quarter of 2018 as real GDP grew at an annual rate of 2.2% (the most recent data available). ...
Routinely, we get our consulting team together in Portland for short collaborations. During this time, we can both share ideas ...
In my last blog post, I discussed retirement plan recordkeeping consolidation and the market dynamics driving consolidation. ...
The recent news that Principal is in discussions to acquire the retirement plan recordkeeping business of Wells Fargo has raised ...
Each year, our firm completes our review of retirement plan costs, benchmarking them against our peer ranges. In 2018, we ...
We are very honored to share that we have been been recognized as a 2019 Best Places to Work for Financial Advisers as announced ...
As we prepare to close the first quarter of 2019, I think we can all take a breather from the fourth quarter of 2018. We ...
As a firm, we are currently helping clients go through a flurry of 403(b) plan restatements. The restatement period is a good ...
Multnomah Group is excited to share that we have been named one of the 2019 PLANADVISER Top 100 Retirement Plan Advisers! This is ...
I’m guessing the United Kingdom's (UK) Prime Minister (PM) Theresa May will not be taking any vacation before March 29. That is ...
Over the last couple of months, there have been many articles written about market volatility and the need for sticking to a ...
Last November, Multnomah Group celebrated our 15 year anniversary. We are proud and excited about this milestone! As part of our ...
We are excited to share with you two additions to our consulting team at Multnomah Group!
Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) can be a headache for everyone: participants, plan sponsors, and administrators. They can ...
In the defined contribution retirement plan space, plan sponsors continue to be laser-focused on fees. According to Callan’s ...
At some point, all good plan fiduciaries are going to make a change in their investment menu. It may be a simple replacement of a ...
By now you likely have read every article about the top trends in benefits in 2019. You may be yearning to get the next great ...
On Monday, we released our Capital Markets Update for Dec. 31, 2018. It was bleak with the S&P 500 down 13.5% in the quarter, ...
Recently, I have been sharing my opinion on the structural changes impacting how retirement plan services are provided and paid ...
The U.S. economic expansion continues, but slower growth is coming. Real GDP grew at an annual rate of 3.4% (quarter over ...
We're excited to share with you our first white paper for 2019! Authored by senior investment analyst Tina Beltrone and ...
With the New Year comes an interest in New Year’s resolutions. For plan fiduciaries that offer a managed account solution, I ...
The financial planning industry has moved away from targeting total portfolio value needed at retirement to annual income needed ...
We are pleased to share we have been included on the National Association of Plan Advisors’ (NAPA) Top DC Plan Advisor Teams list ...
ERISA litigation ramped up in the mid-2000s and experienced a growth of new cases filed between 2008 and 2009 and again recently, ...
There are multiple investment options within the stable value marketplace which include insurance company general account ...
This is the third post in a series on investment menu design topics. This post will focus on the investment vehicles that are ...
November marks a milestone for Multnomah Group – 15 years in business! Founding principals Erik Daley and Scott Cameron reflect ...
Have you ever felt like retirement plans are a lot like household chores? Just like the laundry and the dishes, it’s ...
Recently, there has been attention paid to retirement income projections as a way to help participants fully understand their ...
The play Glengarry Glen Ross covers two days in the lives of desperate real estate agents trying to sell land to unwitting ...
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced the cost‑of‑living adjustments affecting pension plans and other ...
Having recently finished our client meeting where we benchmark plan recordkeeping fees, I have received more than a few questions ...
In my last post I discussed some of the fundamental beliefs that serve as the starting point for our work with retirement plan ...
Recently, the Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) Business Operating Division issued their Fiscal Year 2019 Program ...
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the Target Federal Funds Rate (Fed Funds) to the range of 2.00% to 2.25% ...
Just days after the 10th anniversary of the start of the 2008 –2009 market crash, volatility has returned. On Wednesday, the Dow ...
The U.S. economic expansion continued into its tenth year as the nation’s second-longest expansion on record. Real GDP grew at a ...
I am writing this blog post on the 10-year anniversary of the beginning of the great recession of 2008. On Oct. 9, 2007 the Dow ...
A topic we see crop up again and again with our clients is financial wellness programs. We continue to see interest from clients ...
Multnomah Group's 2018 Regulatory Update has been released by our Technical Services Committee. We know keeping up with the ...
What is a mutual fund expense ratio? Well, we know that an expense ratio of a mutual fund is the fee you pay, expressed as a ...
Multnomah Group is proud to share that we have been named to the 2018 edition of the Financial Times 401 Top Retirement Plan ...
Last week, I published a blog post regarding Fidelity’s recent price cut on their index fund family. In that post, I gave a few ...
We are excited to share with you the launch of our new, redesigned website! The updated site includes some changes to navigation, ...
Late last year, MSCI and S&P Dow Jones Indices announced changes to their Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®). The ...
Recently, Fidelity made headlines by cutting the fees on a number of their index mutual funds in a targeted effort to undercut ...
Investment menu design is a key fiduciary responsibility that each retirement plan Committee will undertake. Committees and their ...
If you have been watching the evolution of ERISA fee litigation since the mid-2000s, you have seen some consistency with respect ...
It is challenging to compare fees within stable value pooled fund products. The level of transparency differs for each manager as ...
On Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, President Trump turned his attention to retirement plans, as he signed an Executive Order with three ...
Over the summer, we have had substantial changes happening here at Multnomah Group. First, our office move in July and now we’re ...
As the economy has improved, organizations and their human resources departments have been forced to retool and refocus – ...
Over my last several blog posts, I have been detailing the ancillary revenue sources that have allowed retirement plan ...
Over the summer, I have been working on a handful of pieces related to pricing in the defined contribution recordkeeping ...
Once upon a time, asset custodians and recordkeepers were selected based on the quality of the investment products they managed ...
As you map out your benefits strategy for the coming year, what’s on the menu? Do you have a high deductible health plan (HDHP) ...
The Federal Reserve (Fed) began raising the Fed Funds Rate, which is the benchmark interest rate banks charge one another for ...
When it comes to retirement plan class action cases under ERISA, there is one word you don’t hear a lot: trial. Most cases settle ...
In my third blog focused on automatic enrollment, I want to discuss the different types of automatic enrollment designs and ...
On July 17, I wrote the blog, Automatic Enrollment: Participant Perspective. In this post, I want to walk you through the ...
In this, our second in the series on factor investing (you can find the first blog here), we dissect the return premium inherent ...
FTSE Russell provides a series of U.S. equity indexes that are commonly used benchmarks for both active and passive investors. ...
After concluding my second quarter client meetings, I was surprised by the number of clients who wanted to discuss how their ...
A strong U.S. economy gave the Federal Reserve confidence to raise interest rates again in June to a new target range for the fed ...
I recently hosted an audiocast with Summer Conley, a partner at Drinker Biddle, in which we discussed tips for maintaining a ...
Vanguard’s 17th edition of How America Saves 2018 was recently released. Everything you ever wanted to know about 2017 defined ...
We’re excited to share with you that we have moved to a new office location in the U.S. Bancorp Tower in downtown Portland! As ...
Some of you may be fatigued by the term “fiduciary rule” and rightfully so because the saga of the Department of Labor (DOL) ...
My colleague, Erik Daley, recently wrote a blog on the trends we are seeing in recordkeeping fees. Every year during the second ...
Last month I wrote a blog about new guidance the Department of Labor (DOL) issued regarding economically targeted investments ...
Firmwide we completed our annual review of retirement plan costs, benchmarking them against our peer ranges. Yet again, prices ...
Back on May 31, I wrote a blog post relating to the 19 class action cases brought against higher education institutions. That ...
Occasionally, we are asked about the use of custom portfolios, whether target date or target risk portfolios, for use in defined ...
The past month has been a busy one for the 19 class action cases making their way through federal courts across the country.
Multnomah Group’s investment philosophy rests heavily on the belief that “beating the market” is exceptionally difficult. Our ...
Are you offering a high deductible health plan (HDHP) to your employees? If so, is the HDHP accompanied by a health savings ...
I work with a lot of 403(b) plans. This means my daily work life can be very complicated, especially when it comes to ...
Morningstar recently published their review of the target date product marketplace through 2017. Since 2008, target date mutual ...
In 2004, the Department of Labor (DOL) launched the “Getting it Right – Know Your Fiduciary Responsibilities” campaign. The ...
Over the past couple of years, defined contribution plan recordkeepers have modified their set of services to account for ...
On April 23, 2018, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the Department of Labor (DOL) issued the Field ...
“Choosing a financial professional is an important decision,” says the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in its recently ...
Yep, it’s that time again; time to ensure your plan participants’ money and plan fiduciaries are protected. Over the next ...
I had a chance to watch some of Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to Congress. The past 24 months have helped inform the entire country ...
The current U.S. economic expansion is in its ninth year, the third longest on record. Real GDP grew at an annualized rate of ...
Later in the month, my colleague will be hosting a webinar on the significant uptick in participant litigation against retirement ...
We all intuitively know that picking actively-managed mutual funds solely based on past performance is a bad idea. In fact, ...
As a retirement plan advisory firm, we devote a significant amount of time to assisting plan sponsors in the selection and ...
Since the Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule (fiduciary rule) was proposed in 2015, there have been staunch proponents and ...
In February of this year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) extended audit guidelines to their auditors related to required ...
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) provides a continuously updated look into the implied probability of policy changes from ...
As the reliance on defined contribution plans for retirement security continues to grow, participants are required to make ...
A U.S. District Court ruled recently to certify a large class of plaintiffs in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ...
2017 was one of the least volatile years on record for the U.S. equity markets. The average daily level of the VIX, a measure of ...
If you are following along in the conversation regarding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) as a mechanism to help your employees ...
As an institutional retirement plan consultant, I spend an enormous amount of time educating myself and staying current on ...
We all have heard that the U.S. stock market has historically produced an annualized return of 8%. This 8% is used as the input ...
Clients often wonder why we Watch List plan investments rather than automatically recommending funds for removal, particularly ...
Multnomah Group is excited to share that we have been named one of the 2018 PLANADVISER Top 100 Retirement Plan Advisers! This is ...
Fidelity made headlines last week by announcing they were going to start charging a plan service fee on assets invested in ...
Multnomah Group is proud to share that our senior consultant Bonnie Treichel has earned her Certified Health Savings Adviser ...
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are still in their infancy, but they are growing rapidly and are particularly popular among ...
I know it’s a trope, but one that annually I voluntarily participate in - creating resolutions to ring in the New Year. The list ...
Hopefully while you were celebrating the holidays this year you noticed the U.S. Congress passed, and on Dec. 22, 2017 President ...
The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.2% in the most recent quarter, the fastest pace in more than two years. The ...
We are excited to share we’ve expanded our team with the hiring of David Williams, CFA, as a senior consultant and David Imhoff ...
2017 was yet another banner year for investors with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index providing a total return of 21.8%. This same ...
We are pleased to welcome Becki Koldsbaek as our compliance support specialist! In Becki's role, she is responsible for ...
A key objective of the Trump administration has been less regulation. Looking back to Feb. 3, 2017, President Trump signed a ...
Under Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), each plan sponsor must notify the IRS of a terminated employee who has a ...