In April 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a controversial rule intended to broaden the definition of fiduciary advice to cover broker recommendations on individual retirement accounts (IRAs). The rule was stayed indefinitely by the courts in July 2024. That same month, the...
Investment fraud is on the rise as scammers devise ever more sophisticated schemes that harm individual investors. Due to artificial intelligence (AI), these scams are getting easier to perpetrate and harder to spot. As International Fraud Awareness Week draws to a close, ICI is...
Key Insights: The fund proxy voting system is costly and hampers fund governance and the investor experience. Smaller fund complexes are often disproportionately impacted by the burdens of proxy campaigns. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can greatly improve the fund proxy...
More American retirees get income from retirement plans today than ever before. In combination with Social Security benefits, this income helps most maintain their standard of living as they transition into retirement. These facts may come as a surprise to many given the steady stream...
Over the past year, 2.3 million more US households became mutual fund investors. Surprised? Despite headlines forecasting the demise of the mutual fund, the product continues to garner new investors, even a century after its creation. That’s because the investment pie keeps growing...
Target date funds (TDFs) 1 have steadily become a mainstream option among retirement investors, 2 with some academics describing TDFs as “one of the most important financial innovations for the typical American retail investor” in recent decades. 3 These strategies, which are popular...
In late September, ICI convened more than 650 professionals in sunny Boca Raton for the 2024 Tax and Accounting Conference (TAC). The annual event connects leading experts in asset management, law, and accounting with top regulators for important conversations on tax policy and...
Adjusted for inflation, average retirement assets per US household are nearly 10 times what they were 50 years ago. That surge in wealth has been propelled largely by IRAs, 401(k)s, and similar plans, which provide retirement security for families of all backgrounds and income levels...
Summary: Central bankers and finance ministries have increasingly equated the size and growth of the non-bank financial intermediation (NBFI) space with increased financial stability risks. Their rhetoric is not supported by data. In absolute terms, NBFI has grown over the past decade...
With more than $25 trillion in assets, IRAs, 401(k)s, and similar retirement accounts are a growing source of financial security for everyday Americans. Balances in these accounts have climbed to or near record highs, helping the average long-term saver build a meaningful nest egg...
