SEC to look at retirement investing risks
Mary Schapiro, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, says regulators will step up their scrutiny of retirement investments. John Dimsdale reports.
Risky retirement (iStockPhoto)
More on Retirement - Saving
TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: Meantime, securities regulators are stepping up their scrutiny of retirement investments. The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Schapiro, says the financial cops on the beat will focus on new retirement products designed to extract high fees. From Washington, here's Marketplace's John Dimsdale.
John Dimsdale: In a recent speech, SEC Chairman Schapiro said she's created a new division to review financial innovation.
MARY SCHAPIRO: We must be on the lookout for newly emerging risks. Some of those will almost certainly come in the form of new products, particularly those related to retirement investing.
Schapiro says she'll start with target date funds. Those are 401(k)-type pensions designed to gradually transfer money from the stock market into safer investments as a worker gets closer to retirement.
Alicia Munnell at the Center for Retirement Research says investors have a hard time finding out what they're being charged to move their money.
ALICIA MUNNELL: People have to understand how much they're paying to have a target date fund move their portfolio from equities to bonds. When they see that maybe they might think, well I could do that myself.
The SEC is expected to propose better disclosure of fees early next year.
In Washington I'm John Dimsdale for Marketplace.
Comments
Comment | Refresh
Post a Comment: Please be civil, brief and relevant.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. Marketplace reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air if they are extra-interesting. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to American Public Media. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.