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The Top 10 RPA Stories of the First Half of 2024The Top 10 RPA Stories of the First Half of 2024

The top stories affecting 401(k) and 403(b) plans were dominated by laws, lawsuits and advisor M&A.

Fred Barstein, The Retirement Adviser University,

July 22, 2024

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No longer in a silo, the economy and societal pressures are causing the defined contribution industry to evolve, somewhat begrudgingly, as retirement in general and DC plans specifically have become sexy with over 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day.

Themes running through the top stories are:

  • The explosion of DC plans,

  • The convergence of wealth, retirement and benefits at the workplace

  • Retirement income

There were no specific eye popping stories about retirement income that made the top 10 such as Empower partnering with outside providers on their Blueprint product or Fidelity opening up its platform to a few retirement income providers because these are just hopeful signs for an industry waiting to be born. The big story will be when we see more robust adoption by plans.

So here are the top 10 stories from 2024 so far:

About the Author

Fred Barstein

The Retirement Adviser University,, Founder and CEO

Fred Barstein is founder and CEO of The Retirement Adviser University, a collaboration with UCLA Anderson School of Management Executive Education, The Plan Sponsor University and 401kTV. He had been contributing editor for InvestmentNews where he created RPAConvergence and the RPA Roundtables & Thinktanks for senior managers at DC record keepers, aggregators, broker dealers and CIOs. He helped create the National Association of Plan Advisors as a member of the founding Leadership Board, Chair of the Membership Committee and was founding Editor-in-Chief for NAPA-Net which he led until 2016. Barstein received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Boston College and his Law Degree from Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.