White House Memo: A Moment of Opportunity for Fiduciaries to Retirement Plans
If you think we’re letting go of the “fumbling children” reference made by FSI chairman Adam Antoniades, you have another thing coming. He reminds me of the proud “Minnesota Fats” character in the classic film The Hustler— he doesn’t want to recognize the truth and talent of the situation he’s faced with by “Fast Eddie” […]
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 […]
What’s Going On?
A fiduciary duty, the obligation to uphold the clients’ interest above all else, is Phyllis Borzi’s long sought and tunneled for goal that we at Castle Rock uphold and agree whole-heartedly with. Together, our standards are the highest in the retirement industry. She says that, like in the movie Groundhog Day, bad policies keep being […]
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 […]
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 […]