The 2019 SECURE act and its follow-up, SECURE 2.0, are the largest changes to the U.S. retirement system since the late 1990s. I reviewed both bills and compiled 57 notable retirement changes in the bills, all ranging from small to moderate in scope. Nothing addresses the inherent flaws in the system that go back to the 1970s when our modern retirement system transitioned dramatically. Social Security and troubled employer managed pensions needed bailouts and reform and seemed unprepared to support America’s retirement.

According to Morningstar.com, smaller 401(k) plans, which includes most nonprofit orgs, are paying double the 401(k) fees of larger plans. Smaller 401(k) plans are defined as $25M total plan assets or smaller and make up 27% of the nation's 401(k) assets. Though fees have come down over time, small 401(k) plans have total expenses that are more than double the national retail investor average and larger 401(k) plans. That difference, .47%, doesn't sound like much but it is. In the meantime, how do you find out if your plan is expensive?

Defined-benefit pensions in which the employee usually gets a fixed payment from the day they retire until death used to be the answer. Now they’ve been mostly replaced with the defined-contribution plans most of us know today.  So how much 401(k) would one need to create an equal stream of payments from a pension?

Most 401(k) plans offer ‘target date funds,’ one-stop investment portfolios with a mix of US stocks, international stocks and bonds that automatically get more conservative (fewer stocks, more bonds) as we approach retirement. But it’s not that simple. Here are the four most common mistakes I see with target date funds.