Designing Successful Target-Date Strategies for Defined Contribution Plans. Putting Participants on the Optimal Glide Path

Start-to-finish guidance toward building and implementing a robust DC plan Successful Defined Contribution Investment Design offers a comprehensive guidebook for fiduciaries tasked with structuring and implementing a 401(k) or other defined contribution (DC) pension plan. More than a collection of the usual piecemeal information, this book seeks to offer a complete, contemporary framework for plan design, together with tested methodologies and analytic techniques to help streamline plan monitoring, management and improve participant outcomes. Examples from plan sponsors provide on-the-ground insight while suggestions from DC consultants add expert perspective. Views from ERISA expert counsel provide additional understanding—along with input from academic thought leaders. Finally, investment evaluation and analysis is joined with participant savings and asset allocation data to look prospectively at potential outcomes, and case studies illustrate real-world implementation of objective-aligned asset allocation such as custom target-date strategies. Though the focus is primarily on U.S. plan design, author perspectives from countries including Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada provide relevant and helpful viewpoints for both new and experienced plan fiduciaries. For the vast majority of workers, DC plans have replaced traditional defined benefit pension plans as the primary source of employer-provided retirement income. This book provides comprehensive guidance to help you construct a plan to help workers to retire with confidence. Adopt a framework for DC evaluation and structure Learn new methodologies for investment choice evaluation Use the innovative PIMCO Retirement Income Cost Estimate—or PRICE—to help quantify the amount of money a worker needs to create and stay on track to building a real income stream in retirement Examine methodologies used at major companies in the U.S. and globally DC plans are the most rapidly growing retirement market in the world, yet sources of consolidated structural and analytical guidance are lacking. Successful Defined Contribution Investment Design fills the gap with a comprehensive handbook that covers the bases to help you develop an objective-aligned defined contribution plan.

Best practices, practical advice, and design ideas for successful ecommerce search A glaring gap has existed in the market for a resource that offers a comprehensive, actionable design patterns and design strategies for ecommerce search—but no longer. With this invaluable book, user experience designer and user researcher Greg Nudelman shares his years of experience working on popular ecommerce sites as he tackles even the most difficult ecommerce search design problems. Nudelman helps you create highly effective and intuitive ecommerce search design solutions and he takes a unique forward-thinking look at trends such as integrating searching with browsing to create a single-finding user interface. Offers much-needed insight on how to create ecommerce search experiences that truly benefit online shoppers Juxtaposes examples of common design pitfalls against examples of highly effective ecommerce search design solutions Presents comprehensive guidance on ecommerce search design strategies for the Web, mobile phone applications, and new tablet devices Shares the author's years of unique experience working with ecommerce from the perspective of the user’s experience Designing ecommerce Search is mandatory reading if you are interested in orchestrating successful ecommerce search strategies.

This is the second volume of six in Michael Allen’s e-Learning Library—a comprehensive collection of proven techniques for creating e-learning applications that achieve targeted behavioral outcomes through meaningful, memorable, and motivational learning experiences. This book examines common instructional design practices with a critical eye and recommends substituting success rather than tradition as a guide. Drawing from theory, research, and experience in learning and behavioral change, the author provides a framework for addressing a broader range of learner needs and achieving superior performance outcomes.

Pension plans around the world are in a state of crisis. U.S. plans alone are facing a total accrued liability funding deficit of almost $4 trillion (of the same order of magnitude as the federal debt), a potential financial catastrophe that ranks among the largest ever seen. It has become clear that many government, corporate, and multi-employer pension sponsors will not be able to cope with this crippling debt and may default on promised benefits. And many of those sponsors that might be able to cope are exasperated by continuous, ongoing negative surprises-large unexpected deficits and higher-than-expected required contributions and pension expense-and are choosing to terminate their plans. But it need not be so. Pension Finance: Putting the Risks and Costs of Defined Benefit Plans Back under Your Control walks the reader through the conventional actuarial and accounting approaches to financing pension benefits and investing plan assets, showing that the problems described happen as a natural consequence of the dated methods still in use. It shows in detail how modern methods based on market value will easily minimize these risks: Pension plans can in fact be comfortable for employers to sponsor and safe for employees to contribute todepend on for their retirement needs. This book is must-read for defined benefit pension plan sponsors and employee representatives, plan executives, board members, accountants, fund managers, consultants, and regulators., Research sponsored by the CFA Institute, this book demystifies pension finance, previously accessible only to actuaries. It teaches the topic in lay terms by drawing complete analogies to ordinary transactions such as paying off a mortgage or saving for college. Armed with this book, anyone comfortable with finance and investments in any other context can be comfortable with pension finance and pension investment policy. And further armed with a handheld financial calculator, any layperson can quickly estimate the contributions needed to keep a given plan comfortably solvent, giving them a powerful tool for oversight.

Understand the design factors of campus environmental theory that impact student success and create a campus of consequence Designing for Learning is a comprehensive introduction to campus environmental theory and practice, summarizing the influence of collegiate environments on learning and providing practical strategies for facilitating student success through intentional design. This second edition offers new coverage of universal design, learning communities, multicultural environments, online environments, social networking, and safety, and challenges educators to evaluate the potential for change on their own campuses. You'll learn which factors make a living-learning community effective, and how to implement these factors in the renovation of campus facilities. An updated selection of vignettes, case scenarios, and institutional examples help you apply theory to practice, and end-of-chapter reflection questions allow you to test your understanding and probe deeper into the material and how it applies to your environment. Campus design is no longer just about grassy quads and ivy-covered walls—the past decade has seen a surge in new designs that facilitate learning and nurture student development. This book introduces you to the many design factors that impact student success, and helps you develop a solid strategy for implementing the changes that can make the biggest difference to your campus. Learn how environments shape and influence student behavior Evaluate your campus and consider the potential for change Make your spaces more welcoming, inclusive, and functional Organize the design process from research to policy implementation Colleges and universities are institutions of purpose and place, and the physical design of the facilities must be undertaken with attention to the ways in which the space's dimensions and features impact the behavior and outlook of everyone from students to faculty to staff. Designing for Learning gives you a greater understanding of modern campus design, and the practical application that brings theory to life.

From a leading expert on nonprofit marketing, the only marketing handbook a nonprofit manager will ever need-now fully revised and updated In Successful Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations, Second Edition, nonprofit marketing guru Barry J. McLeish shares everything he's learned during more than two decades managing and consulting nonprofits of every shape and size. Skipping all the arcane theory and the business school jargon, he gives you clear, step-by-step advice and guidance and all the tools you need to develop and implement a sophisticated marketing program tailored to your organization's needs and goals. New sections on the new media available to nonprofit marketers Techniques for analyzing your market and developing a comprehensive marketing plan Marketing strategies that will support fund-raising, promote new services, and enhance your organization's reputation and visibility Methods for developing a marketing program that reaches both the consumers of your service and the donors who support your organization Do you need to breathe new life into your existing marketing department? Successful Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations, Second Edition gives you the tools, the know-how, and the confidence you need to succeed.