Viewpoints from John Hancock Retirement
As one of America’s most trusted financial brands, we believe everyone deserves the tools and guidance to achieve financial wellness and retire with confidence. We’ve made retirement plans work for nearly 50 years, and today we’re one of the largest full-service providers in the industry.
At John Hancock, we make retirement plans work.
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Three participant realities—and ways to improve your next retirement readiness assessment
Inspired by the research in our “State of the participant 2021” report, here are three observations on what retirement plan savers are going through today—and next steps you might consider to ease their journey going forward.
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When are participant change notices required under ERISA 404a-5?
Being a plan sponsor comes with administrative and fiduciary duties. Knowing whether a retirement plan event triggers the need to send a change notice or not is one of those confusing areas that can require guidance. This guide can help you understand your requirements beyond the annual and quarterly notices.
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Is there relief from partial 401(k) plan termination during the pandemic?
Many businesses have been forced to make some tough decisions because of the pandemic—including laying off or letting go of staff. Normally, if a company lets go of a certain percentage of its active 401(k) participants in a plan year, the IRS can declare its 401(k) plan partially terminated, which triggers full vesting. But because of the COVID-19 relief package passed in December 2020, companies hurt by the economic slowdown may be able to avoid partial termination—if they meet certain requirements.
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2020’s lessons for 401(k) participants and financial professionals
Now that 2020 is hindsight, it’s important to look back and see what lessons it has for us. We’ve taken a look at the actions our retirement plan participants took in 2020 to gauge what kind of help they may need as they look forward in 2021.
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Financial wellness programs can help increase employee loyalty and reduce stress
Even before 2020 became a four-letter word, financial stress was on the rise among Americans—and the pandemic has made it worse. In our latest financial stress survey, we learned how employees feel about financial programs and the types of help they’d like from their employers.
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The impact of COVID-19 on the markets and 401(k) balances as of September
Learn how markets and participants are responding to continued uncertainty.
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Financial stress during the pandemic—yes, it’s gone up
For seven years, we’ve tracked the financial stress of our retirement plan participants, recognizing the impact that overall finances have on retirement savings. The COVID-19 pandemic is now changing our lives and stressing personal finances in ways we haven’t seen before.
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Interim final rule on the SECURE Act’s lifetime income illustrations for defined contribution plans
The DOL has issued new lifetime income disclosure rules for defined contribution plans.
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A closer look at the DOL’s safe harbor eDelivery rule
The U.S. Department of Labor has provided final rules for eDelivery that ERISA plan sponsors should follow.
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Six months of market volatility and COVID-19: reflections from August 2020
After six months of pandemic-related economic and market uncertainty—a look at what retirement plan participants have experienced and what actions they’ve taken.
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