Products January 16, 2008

Online 401(k) Adds Auto Plan Features

The Online 401(k) will now offer automatic plan features to its small and single-proprietor business clients.
Reported by

The San Francisco-based firm said the feature is available with The Online 401(k)’s Blue Chip option. Employees will be able to choose to contribute to the plan at the automatic rate using the automatic default investments, contribute to the plan at a self-selected rate using self-selected investments, or opt out of participating.

Employees who are automatically enrolled are signed up at an initial contribution rate of 3%, to increase annually by 1%. If an employee does not select an investment strategy, his or her contributions will be automatically invested in a target-date mutual fund, the company said.

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“For some employees, signing up for a 401(k) plan is an intimidating process,” said Chad Parks, CEO of The Online 401(k), in a company announcement. “Questions about how much to allocate or what to invest in have prevented many individuals from even starting the process. Automatic enrollment makes decisions associated with retirement simple.”

More information can be found at www.theonline401k.com.

The Markets January 16, 2008

Dow Jones Wilshire Global Index Family Expands

Dow Jones Indexes and Wilshire Associates have announced that Bahrain, Kuwait and Sri Lanka will be added to the Dow Jones Wilshire Global index family.
Reported by

The additions will become effective as of the start of trading on March 24, 2008, after the regular quarterly review of the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Indexes. According to a press release, the inclusion of these three countries to the Dow Jones Wilshire Global index family increases the total number of countries in the index suite to 61.

All three countries will be added to the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Total Market Index, Dow Jones Wilshire Global exUS Index, and Dow Jones Wilshire Emerging Markets Index. In addition, Bahrain and Kuwait will join the Dow Jones Wilshire Middle East & Africa Index. Sri Lanka will join the Dow Jones Wilshire Asia-Pacific Index.

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Company Count

As of January 14, 2008, 8 Bahraini, 69 Kuwaiti, and 18 Sri Lankan companies are expected to be added to the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Total Market Index and respective regional and country indexes. The final component count will be available on March 24, 2008. There are currently 12,822 stocks in the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Total Market Index.

The Dow Jones Wilshire Bahrain Index, Dow Jones Wilshire Kuwait Index and Dow Jones Wilshire Sri Lanka Index will have initial index values of 1,000.00 on March 23, 2008, according to a press release. The Dow Jones Wilshire Global Indexes are calculated in price and total return and weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization.

Further information can be found on www.djindexes.com.

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