Pension Frights on Halloween

Pension Frights on Halloween

By David Brandolph

On October 31, ghosts, goblins and vampires run amok.

But on this Halloween, what scares the Pension Rights Center is the altogether frightening prospect that millions of people won’t be able to retire with adequate income.

What we see in PRC’s magic “mirror-mirror on the wall” (that always tells the hard truth) is the horror on so many faces once they realize that the happy retirement they thought would greet them after a lifetime of work has become a nightmare.

Maybe it’s because many are facing the terrifying specter of lacking any kind of pension, 401(k) or other retirement savings to supplement Social Security.

Or possibly that these startled retirees have discovered that, while they are grateful for the Social Security they earned, that this social insurance payment alone isn’t enough to live on – it averages only $24,000 per year.

• Even as alarming, many of those fortunate enough to have a retirement plan may not be saving enough to avoid a dark hole during their post-work life.
• We find it spine-chilling that so many retirees won’t be getting a guaranteed monthly income from a traditional pension and instead will need to save enough on their own (which millions haven’t) and struggle to calculate the savings they can spend so they don’t run out of money.
• We get a peek down the Rabbit’s hole where the electronic disclosure rules reside, which trap and obstruct people from retaining records they may later need to prove their pension claim.

And behind every cauldron lie more threats.

Like new hair-raising guidance that would open 401(k)s to the fangs of private equity, where dangerous financial risks lurk.

Or the haunting fact that treacherous scammers are constantly attacking retirement plan data seeking to snatch from the life savings of unwitting retirees.

We also fret for those ever dwindling few who were blissfully receiving a guaranteed pension and suddenly find themselves catapulted into the fiendish clutches of a pension-risk-transfer — where the removal of federal pension law protections, replaced by insurance company unknowables, potentially makes their future payments less certain.

But when we’re feeling a bit pessimistic about all these trends, we relish in Halloween treats — a delicious piece of pumpkin pie, M&Ms, and Snickers bars — all to fuel us as we fly off on our powerful magic broom to fight injustice and work toward a universal, secure and adequate pension foundation on top of a strengthened Social Security system.