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 […]
Water Cooler Wisdom: Fourth Quarter 2014
Major events at the close of 2014, specifically the fourth quarter of 2014, included: the abnormally low prices of oil; the unique position of the Federal Reserve and the US dollar; US Treasury Rates poised (still) to rise; and American manufacturing ramped up to march on ahead of other world leaders, while an embroiled Europe […]
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 […]
Water Cooler Wisdom
September 30, 2014 Nothing is private anymore: celebrity photos are leaked across the Internet, everyone knows that Ben Bernanke was unable to refinance his mortgage and we can even follow professional football players’ misconduct. This technology, which allows us to follow the economy more closely than ever, shows that our economy is growing. Over the […]
Sometimes life isn’t fair…for a fiduciary.
Sometimes the law isn’t fair. But sometimes, it seems unfair because you don’t know the rules. In the recent case of Santomenno v. John Hancock, poor understanding led plan sponsors to agree to terms that led to excessive fees charged by the service provider to the plan. Either the plan sponsors were unaware of […]
Much Ado About Fracking
On Tuesday, September 17th, I attended a luncheon with the Denver Association of Business Economists (DABE) to hear Garret Nülle, an expert in Oil and Gas Economics speak. Mr. Nülle presented us with a comprehensive overview of the field, including projections of where fracking will go in the future. A few days later, I met […]
Retirement Security with Simplicity and Ease
While “Retirement Security with Simplicity and Ease,” is Castle Rock Investment Company’s tagline. nothing is actually easy or simple about figuring out retirement plans. To give an example, we are in the trenches this week – up to our ears in work. Our team works tirelessly because we care about our clients’ employees’retirement accounts that […]