Boston-based Fidelity Investments provides 401(k) plan management for over 17,000 employers, making it the largest plan administrator in the country. Fidelity’s annual “State of the 401(k)” report, released yesterday, provides a window into the behavior of 401(k) plan participants. Read the full article

What do FedEx, General Motors, Frontier Airlines, Eastman Kodak, Motorola, Sears and Unisys all have in common? All have announced plans to cut costs by suspending their matching contributions to employee 401(k) plans. Even Starbucks has announced that it may drop its 401(k) match in 2009. Read the full article

It's now agreed that our nation is in a recession. With increasing frequency, recent media discussions about the economy have turned to the question of whether it will turn into a depression. What's the difference? Read the full article

The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), of which I'm a provisional member, has initiated a letter-writing campaign to urge members of Congress to make fiduciary investment advice the norm as it reforms the financial industry. Read the full article

It's too early to say with certainty what changes will be made in the tax laws this year. But it's possible to make some educated guesses. Read the full article

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (a.k.a. “the Bailout Bill”) changed the reporting requirements for annual tax statements from brokers. Form 1099-B, which formerly had to be sent by January 31, is now due on February 17 this year (the statutory date is February 15, but in 2009 that's a Sunday and the 16th is Presidents' Day). Read the full article

A week or so ago, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other sources reported that used clothing stores were planning to stop selling items for children under the age of 12 in response to new laws taking effect February 10. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has now clarified its intentions and it looks as though this won't be the case. Read the full article

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards periodically modifies the standards that it sets for the individuals that it certifies. In May 2007, the Board announced the adoption of new Standards of Professional Conduct. The standards took effect July 1, 2008 and began to be enforced as of January 1, 2009. Read the full article

Today the House Financial Services Committee will hear testimony from the SEC inspector general on the Madoff scandal. It promises to be the beginning of what Rep. Paul Kanjorski (chairman of the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises) is calling “the most substantial rewrite of laws governing U.S. financial markets since the Great Depression.” Wall Street could not have escaped congressional scrutiny after the year that we’ve had even if Madoff had never happened, but the failure of regulators to protect the public from his massive fraud has drawn fresh attention to the shortcomings of existing regulatory protections. Expect a cacophony of voices offering opinions as to what should or should not be changed in order to prevent future market crises and protect investors from unscrupulous con artists. Read the full article

2008 has come and gone. There are a lot of people on Wall Street who are glad it’s gone and hope it stays far away. Read the full article

Perhaps you've made a resolution to do a better job of dealing with your finances in 2009; if so, this blog can help you. Read the full article

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