In some ways, our lot is better. Just the same, it could be so much easier, safer, cheaper. I wish the feds would create one individual retirement account, instead of today's baffling array. I wish employers would give us more help with retirement strategies. I don't expect those problems to be fixed soon, but here are four that could be solved swiftly if businesses just did right by their clients.
Mutual funds pick a benchmark index against which they measure returns.
Those that beat the index aren't shy about advertising it. Yet the ads only tell half the story. Funds also should disclose what's called ''alpha,'' a measure of how much value a fund's manager added for the risk taken. It's shameless, and the hype only keeps people from trying the few useful tools for such tasks as tracking portfolios. Since this technology is new, you may experience some inconsistent behavior.