Month: December 2016
President-elect Trump, please help protect Cleveland ironworkers’ pension rights
If President-elect Donald Trump wants to do right by working-class Americans, he should work with Congress to repeal a cruel law that could slash the pensions of hundreds of retired ironworkers in Cleveland. Over time, it could reduce the benefits of more than one million other retirees and workers nationwide.
The Legacy of DOL’s Champion for Employee Benefits
Phyllis Borzi has one month to go in office as assistant secretary for the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, but stacks of files are still heaped on her desk and on the floor.
Pension Plan Owes Rescue Petition Success to Past Rejection
A multiemployer pension plan that gained Treasury Department approval for a petition to reduce participants’ benefits did so by scanning a road map gleaned from a department rejection letter. This road map may now pave the way for other plans seeking such approval.
Treasury: Troubled Multiemployer Pension May Reduce Payouts
The U.S. Treasury Department, for the first time, approved an application from a troubled multiemployer pension plan to reduce vested benefits paid to retirees. Other deeply underfunded union plans could follow the same path.
Pre-Retirement Checkup: What You Should Do in the 5 Years Before You Retire
For people who turned 60 this year, retirement is beginning to come into sight. The question is, are they actually ready for it?
Should I take my pension as a lump sum or lifetime payments?
The lump sum-or-annuity decision can be a complicated one, and the decision that’s right for one person may not be best for another. Which makes it all the more important that you really think through your choices and settle on an option that makes the most sense for your particular circumstances.
Obama Wants Millions of Americans in His Retirement Plan. So Far He’s Got 20,000
The starter retirement account is designed for low- and moderate-income Americans without access to workplace retirement savings programs. It has no fees that could gobble up the small amounts invested and holds funds in a new Treasury security created for the program.
Treasury Department approves pension cuts for Cleveland Iron Workers’ retirees
WASHINGTON – In a decision affecting more than 2,000 workers, retirees, spouses and widows, the Treasury Department announced on Friday that it had approved Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Fund’s application to cut retiree pensions under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA). This decision marks the first time the Treasury Department has allowed retiree pension […]
Catholic hospital pensions meet the U.S. Supreme Court; retirees in limbo
Catholic hospital employees who fear they will lose the pensions they were promised were delivered a setback this week, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court. The court it will hear three cases — including one against the pension plan of St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick — to decide what kind of pension plan […]
High court set to rule on church-plan status
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to resolve whether church-affiliated retirement plan sponsors are covered by the ERISA, a decision that could have wide implications for all benefit plans.
The Supreme Court Case That Could Bankrupt Religious Schools and Hospitals
On its face, Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton and the two other cases it’s consolidated with may seem boring—after all, they’re about federal regulations on pension plans for church-affiliated hospitals. But these cases are actually the culmination of a new, vicious fight over the rights of employers that are loosely affiliated with religious institutions, and how […]
White House Opposes Bill Creating Newfangled Pension Plan
The White House opposes a discussion draft bill that would permit significant changes to collectively bargained pension plans, and is urging Congress not to include the measure on the menu of a year-end budget bill.
