Month: February 2011
ERISA Class-Action Suits Shape U.S. Retirement Future
In the absence of a national retirement policy, litigators in the courts — not lawmakers — have played an outsize role in shaping America’s retirement future. Why? Participant-directed defined contribution plans, most often 401(k)s, did not exist as mainstream retirement schemes when ERISA was created.
Nightmare for Elderly Might Not Be Unavoidable
The demographics of an aging nation are inexorable while living standards for future retirees are increasingly uncertain. A mandatory savings plan would bring greater financial security in old age.
What’s in a Name?
At the Pension Rights Center, we deal with a lot of technical language that can be puzzling to people who don’t work on retirement income issues. But the meaning of words is important, even if you don’t use them every day, and, when it comes to the law, a word’s meaning can make all the […]
Report Highlights Continued Decline in Defined Benefit Plans
Only 49 percent of 200 of the largest U.S. companies had ongoing defined benefit plans in 2009, down from 61 percent in 2006, according to Mercer’s Retirement, Risk and Finance Perspective.
DC plan fee disclosure rules delayed
Defined contribution plan providers got a reprieve Friday on new fee disclosure rules after the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration pushed back the applicability date to Jan. 1, 2012.
3 Ways to Conquer Pension Envy
The haves and have-nots in retirement could be defined by who has access to a traditional pension. Those with an employer-sponsored traditional pension will get guaranteed payments for life, while everyone else must depend on their own saving and investing savvy.
DC group wants 401(k) deferral ceiling axed
A defined contribution industry group wants to remove a 10% cap on automatic escalation deferral rates for 401(k) plan participants.
Do Retirees Need to Cut Withdrawals?
Many people who retired in 2000 thought they were in great shape: over the previous twenty years, stocks returned 17.8% on average.
New Fee Disclosure Rules: No Threat to Mutual Fund Providers
Mutual fund providers are expecting to make a largely smooth transition when new fee and disclosure requirement take effect for firms that sell investment products into the 401(k) and 403(b) plan markets.
PRC and NELA comments to EBSA on proposed regulations on the definition of a fiduciary (02/03/2011)
The Pension Rights Center (the Center) and the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) submitted comments on the Department of Labor’s proposed regulations on the definition of fiduciary. The organizations support the proposed regulations, calling them “much-needed and long-overdue.”
34% of Americans Have No Retirement Savings
Just over one-third, 34%, of Americans have no retirement savings, and 27% have no personal savings, a November 2010 survey of 2,151 by The Harris Poll found.
‘New Normal’ for Retirement: Get a Job
Middle-class Americans need more help than they realize in planning for retirement, according to the results of a survey from Wells Fargo & Co.
