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iBillionaire Index
An ETF linked to the iBillionaire Index is in the process of being launched. The iBillionaire Index (BILLION) is designed to track and measure the performance those who have, over time, reaped the biggest rewards on Wall Street: financial billionaires. The index monitors the portfolios of leading billionaire investors, such as Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, Daniel Loeb, David Tepper and David Einhorn.You can check out the Index below: iBillionaire... -
CRB Commodity Index
After three years of negative sentiment and capital outflows, commodities appear to be coming back. The Financial Times published an article yesterday highlighting the turning sentiment in commodities after $50bn of net redemptions in 2013. Some analysts are speculating that the renewed interest in commodities is related to their uncorrelated returns, making them popular as a portfolio diversifier. However, more than anything commodities are becoming attractive because prices... -
Retirement Remains Americans’ Top Financial Worry
Is this a surprise? As per a recent Gallup survey, a majority of Americans, 59%, are worried about not having enough money for retirement, surpassing eight other financial matters. A majority of Americans have reported being “very” or “moderately” worried about retirement savings every year since 2001, illustrating that saving for retirement disquiets Americans in both good and bad economic times. Retirement Remains Americans’ Top Financial Worry -
Best Practices in 401(k) and 403(b) plan design
A leading-edge 401(k) or 403(b) plan should consider the following plan design features: Immediate eligibility to make employee deferral contributions with a one-year wait period to receive employer matching contributions; Automatic enrollment at an employee deferral contribution rate of between 3% and 6% and automatic employee deferral escalation of 1% each year up to a maximum 10% deferral rate; A stretched matching contribution to encourage higher employee deferrals (e.g.; 25% of... -
What investment options should be offered for 401(k) and 403(b) plans?
When building an investment option lineup for a 401(K) or 403(b) plan, what is an optimal choice to have from a best practices point of view? Per our recommendation, it should broadly follow the selection process below: Offering 10 to 16 core funds which cover broad asset class exposures like U.S. Equities (Large, Mid and Small Cap), International Equities (Large and Small Cap), Emerging Market Equities (Large and Small... -
Chinese Yuan 12 month Forward
Official data released on Tuesday showed China’s foreign exchange reserves jumping by $129 billion in the first quarter, to an all-time high of $3.95 trillion. The Chinese build reserves by intervening to weaken the Yuan against the US dollar. US Treasury officials responded by verbally reprimanding the Chinese about free market forces, although they stopped short of labeling the country a currency manipulator. It appears as though the... -
Employers Ramping Up Retirement Plan Features, Advisory Services
Employers are enhancing their retirement plans and increasing access to professional investment advice in an attempt to bolster employee retirement readiness. A new study by Aon Hewitt, which polled more than 400 plan sponsors serving 10 million plan participants, revealed a number of initiatives being taken to strengthen employee ability to achieve greater financial security in retirement. Key actions include the following: Boosting employer matching funds: The percentage of... -
Reasons ETFs are inexpensive
The ETF industry is growing quickly, and ETF.com projects the $1.7 trillion market of U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds will grow exponentially in the next several years, thanks to increasing interest among both retail and institutional investors. Why? Because ETFs have many inherent traits that allow them to stand out relative to competing mutual funds, and cost is one of the biggest—if not the biggest—advantage. According to data we compile, the average U.S.... -
PowerShares QQQ ETF Celebrates its 15 Year Anniversary
Invesco PowerShares is proud to celebrate the 15-year anniversary of the PowerShares QQQ™ Portfolio (ticker: QQQ). QQQ tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index®, which is comprised of the 100 largest, most innovative domestic and international non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market. PowerShares QQQ invests in some of the world’s most revolutionary companies across the industry such as technology, healthcare, consumer discretionary and staples, industrials, materials and telecommunication services. QQQ... -
What are the Fiduciary Rules?
Every plan must have a fiduciary(s) responsible for the operation of the plan. A fiduciary can be identified as a person or as an office, such as a company’s board of directors. Many plans have several fiduciaries, each being responsible for a different aspect of the plan’s management. Fiduciaries can be held liable if they fail to properly carry out their responsibilities and also for the mistakes of another...
