In another busy week of work towards regulatory reform, it was an investment product that made the most headlines this week. The Senate Special Committee on Aging held target date fund hearings last week, where the funds were criticized for disclosure problems, excessive fees, inconsistent design and conflicts of interest. The hearings prompted a slew of interest and commentary, as legislators want to fix some of the problems in the increasingly popular retirement funds. Here are just some of the target date fund related links from the past week:
- News coverage: WSJ, Bloomberg, USN&WR
- Just having the same target date doesn't mean funds resemble each other
- 401(k) rating company Bright Scope launched their target date fund rating service
- Bright Scope's Ryan Alfred discussed TDFs on CNBC
- Blaine's latest Fiduciary Corner column says fiduciaries are on the hook to improve the product
- Just google "target date fund" and check the "news" and "blogs" tabs for many more results
On to the rest of the links...
In the news/commentary:
- Supreme Court suggests they will leave mutual fund fee debates to the SEC
- ICI prez says courts should leave mutual fund fees alone
- States may take over more RIA oversight
- One commentary looks at what the future may hold for FINRA
- Does your business need fiduciary insurance?
- The Investor Protection Act made it out of committee
- SEC's authority, budget to increase?
- More investment advice from 401k plans
From the organizations/associations/government/academia:
- Industry groups were lining up against FINRA oversight of broker-affiliated advisers
- And more the next day
- And then Frank says he'll push to kill the amendment
- When the decisions don't work out, they question becomes, "what was the process?"
- What's your motivation for running your company's 401(k)?
- Post-game analysis of the mutual fund fee case
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