From Wall Street Journal articles and editorials in Barron’s, to Facebook posts and holiday dinner conversations, Bitcoin is everywhere. This is not surprising when you consider Bitcoin’s exponential growth in 2017. In a year where the market saw new highs, one of the top-performing mutual funds returned 105.73 percent¹, and a top performing stock in the S&P 500 saw 132.3 percent growth (NGR)², Bitcoin’s growth made these all pale in comparison.

Saving for retirement can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Finding reasons not to contribute to your retirement plan will hurt you in the future.

Whether to use bundled or unbundled service providers is an important decision for your retirement plan. A fully bundled arrangement provides an easy, “one-stop shop” for services, while unbundling separates functions and uses a third-party administrator (TPA), distinct from the recordkeeper. While there is no right or wrong answer to this question, weighing the advantages of each option against the needs of the organization is essential.

In 2020, nearly 100 lawsuits alleging breach of fiduciary duty were filed. With the number of 401(k) lawsuits on the rise targeting plans both large and small, sponsors are well-advised to consider taking additional measures to mitigate fiduciary risk where practicable.

A 2018 report on Bitcoin (BTC) by RPAG, and the conclusions therefrom, remain relevant today. In short, the prudence in adding Bitcoin to a retirement plan is questionable, at best.

Retirement income products, or in-plan annuity options, have been available for over a decade, yet their utilization has been stagnant due to concerns about price, portability, and convertibility. With the recent market volatility in 2020 and recent passing of the SECURE Act, we have seen an industry push towards the research, development, and implementation of what are now referred to as “guaranteed income products.”

A newly proposed Senate bill by Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, would enable participants to continue saving for retirement while repaying their student debt, even in the event they can't afford to make their own contributions to a 401(k) plan. This feature could be offered at the option of the employer and would apply only for expenses pertaining to higher education.

The tidal surge of funds flowing from actively managed funds into passive funds reached a tipping point in 2019, when Morningstar preliminary data indicated passive U.S. equity assets would surpass active equity assets for the first time. This inflection point was widely anticipated. Over the prior decade, active domestic equity funds leaked $1.3 trillion in outflows, while their passively managed counterparts logged nearly $1.4 trillion in the opposite direction.