Deals & People September 15, 2009

Midwest Capital Advisors Wins Mich. School District Business

Midwest Capital Advisors (MCA) of Grand Rapids, Michigan, has been selected as the provider of 403(b) and 457 retirement plan investments by the Michigan Retirement Investment Consortium (MRIC).

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MRIC consists of 250 member school districts representing nearly 120,000 school system employees across Michigan. It was formed in 2008 to meet the challenges posed by new 403(b) plan regulations and to find ways to improve quality and pricing of investment offerings available to employees of its member districts, according to a press release.

MCA successfully competed for the “Single Source” designation against approximately 20 other investment firms. “The goal of the ‘Single Source’ concept was to find one provider that offered participants the best combination of investment offerings and competitive fees so that a participant could effectively invest his or her entire retirement plan account with a single investment provider,” the release said.

MCA said it has invested considerable resources in developing tools and investment offerings that assist participants in not only assessing their current situation and their objectives, but also advising and helping them choose and implement investment solutions that best suit their needs.

“This gives them a definite sense of empowerment over their financial future, something that has not existed on a broad basis in the past,” said George Wanty, a co-founder and MCA’s chief investment strategist, in the press release. “One of the greatest rewards for me and my colleagues is to see the satisfaction our clients have in gaining the understanding of how investment success is achieved and assisting them in confidently proceeding down the path that can best get them there.”

Data & Research September 15, 2009

The Principal Finds Improving Retirement Confidence Levels

Since the economic downturn began, more retirees are seeking professional financial help to assist in managing their money, according to the latest Principal Financial Well-Being Index.

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Thirty-four percent of retirees have an adviser who either manages their money or helps them manage their money on their own, up from 25% last year. Almost two-thirds of retirees (63%) are still managing their retirement money on their own, down from 76% last year.

The Principal Financial Well-Being Index also found more workers reported that their retirement balances are rising, or at least no longer declining. According to the survey findings, the percentage of workers who said their balance is the same or higher than it was on January 1 has doubled from last quarter (18% verse 9%). The percentage of workers who feel it will take less than two years to recover has increased to 16% from 11% last quarter.

Most workers (83%) said they do not have a plan for the transition to retirement, but of those workers who do have a plan, approximately four in 10 (43%) have an actual written plan.

Among retirees, 73% said they would start learning more about spending and investing in retirement more than 10 years before retirement if they could do it over again. One-tenth indicated they did not start thinking seriously about how to manage their spending and investments in retirement until they were retiring.

The Principal Financial Well-Being Index, fielded by Harris Interactive, surveys retired Americans and American workers at businesses with 10 to 1,000 employees. More information about the quarterly survey is available at www.principal.com/wellbeing.

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