Are student loans holding your employees back from #adulting? Get ready, because there's a pretty clever benefit on the street that is making an impact on hiring and retention.

You might have heard that the DOL’s fiduciary standard definition was recently struck down in court and reversed. The result? They ruled that the Labor Department overreached by requiring brokers and others handling investors’ retirement savings to act in clients’ best interest. How you get your financial advise -- from a biased or unbiased financial representative -- just got muddier than ever.

Multiple times today I've heard reports and seen documentation of "advisors" telling their clients that in order to accommodate the DOL's Fiduciary Rule, they need to make substantial changes to their organization's retirement plan's investment menu. But is that true?

Hot off the press from the IRS! No changes to the contribution amounts for 401k and 403b plans for next year. The limit on these plans remains $18,000 with a $6,000 catch-up for those turning age 50 or older. IRA limits also remained the same at $5,500 with a $1,000 catch-up.

The IRS announced today that there will be no cost of living increases next year. Important limits related to retirement plans for 2016 are as follows.

Beginning in 2015, IRA owners will no longer be able to complete more than one 60-day rollover in a 12-month period, regardless of the number of IRAs they own. BUT the one-rollover-per-12-month rule does not apply to rollovers between an IRA and a qualified retirement plan (e.g., 401(k), profit sharing, defined benefit, 403(b) plan, etc.) or vice versa. Details here.

The IRS is adding some new questions to the 5500 Form, which is the tax return for a retirement plan.

The IRS just announced that next year's 401k and 403b contribution limit is $18,000 with a $6,000 catchup!  Read the full story and get all the retirement plan related limits HERE.

The Form 5500 asks for total number of participants in a plan, but it's not calculated the way you think it would be. Let's talk about these in more detail and explore some things you can do to keep your plan lean and mean in the participant count.

Many organizations are eligible to have either a 401(k) or a 403(b) plan. So what's the difference? Which is better? The answer all depends on your organization's characteristics and the goals you have for the plan. Here is a brief overview of some of the main differences and a few questions that you should ask:

Every now and again we like to have guest bloggers talk about the nitty-gritty stuff Reading Rainbow style. ("You don't have to take MY word for it!") Here's Chris Oneal from Stones River Consulting giving you the skinny on why you're going to be asked to re-state and re-sign all of your plan documents in the next 18 months. --RP

I get asked a lot of retirement plan questions, and this was a doozy. Who's to blame when you can't find the records of contributions and earnings in a Roth and all you want to do is pull out what you contributed?

I know, we're focused on retirement plans here at Retirement Planology, but I have to write about this. Having seen first hand where a payroll company really botched things up and caused a lot of problems, I feel it's important to share what I know and pull some info from our friends in the payroll world.

It's important that your company's internal procedures actually reflect those of the retirement plan document! Here are some examples.