Water Cooler Wisdom: Second Quarter 2015

It is challenging to write an economic update with the “Grexit” story changing each hour, Chinese stocks in a free fall, and technical glitches at United, NYSE, etc. seeming particularly suspicious. The Freedom of Information Act, along with our competitive news media market, provide some comfort, but there is no way of knowing what the […]

Declaration of Independence

“Can you be more specific?” Embarrassing, but true: the retirement industry is asking that of the US government. The definition of a Fiduciary needs to be more specific because of cases where Plan Sponsors are legally charged unreasonable fees for a long time, but the Department of Labor’s interpretation is undesirable to Wall Street. Of […]

Not that Complicated

In any fight, there are two sides waving their arms around. The Financial Services Institute, or FSI, states in response to a recent White House memo that changing the way the delicate fiduciary system is run will ruin everything. The Financial Services Institute, or FSI, is in opposition to redefining the Fiduciary Standard as it […]

Risk Management: Employee Retirement Plans

Castle Rock jumps through hoops to be among the best investment advisors. Not every investment advisor goes through the same rigorous training because these hoops are not legally required. We do not think that making best practices a legal requirement will diminish our status as one of the best firms around, but we do think […]

Are you In or Out?

What sense does it make to pay for investment advice that comes from someone who is putting his or her interests before yours? The Department of Labor, through Phyllis Borzi, is fighting to make sure that a loophole allowing conflicted advice to retirement plans is closed. As of last week, an online petition was started […]

In-plan Roth Rollovers: the latest topic

Get out your red pen, folks: serious revisions to the rollover options for your plan. Today we’re looking at how you will need to revise your Plan Document in order to offer in-plan Roth rollovers and a few highlights. In-plan Roth rollovers of otherwise non-distributable amounts are treated as eligible rollovers, meaning that no withholding […]

How May I Help You?

Castle Rock is dedicated to making retirement transition easy for you. One of the best ways to do that is to be with you in retirement transition and throughout the different stages of your retirement. We are excited to announce that we will soon offer a Retirement Transition Service to ease the retirement process for […]

Regulatory Changes Concerning Municipal Bonds

There are some concerns that the new GASB statements for municipal bonds will impact retirement plans. Here is our response to your concerns, so that you can distinguish the true indications from the surrounding media noise. Due to the changes to GASB statements no. 67 and 68, how will retirement plans be impacted by recent […]