Blogs & Newsletters
Social Security matters to America’s budget – Don’t cut it!
By Joellen Leavelle Over the last few months you’ve probably heard reports about the president’s fiscal commission. Word around town is that this secretive commission, with its stated goal of reducing the federal deficit, is seriously considering cuts to Social Security. Instead of looking at ways to reduce Social Security, the deficit commission should think of […]
New I.R.S. rules clarify when participants can sell company stock in 401(k) plans
Dow Jones Newswires reports that the Internal Revenue Service has released rules clarifying when participants in 401(k) plans can sell company stock held in their accounts. The rules implement a provision in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that requires 401(k) plans to allow participants to sell company stock that has been contributed as a “matching contribution.” Congress enacted this provision to protect […]
Happy Older Americans Month
May is Older Americans Month. The U.S. Administration on Aging has announced that this year’s theme for the month is “Age Strong! Live Long!” which “recognizes the diversity and vitality of today’s older Americans who span three generations.” In addition, our friends at Wider Opportunities for Women will be holding their second annual blog day on May […]
Billionaires for Retirement INsecurity
Yesterday I joined friends from Social Security Works, OWL – The Voice of Midlife and Older Women, Social Security Matters, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the Economic Policy Institute, and others outside of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center as Pete Peterson (you know him, he’s the one who is trying to scare […]
Pensions around the world
As someone who monitors the news on a daily basis, I often come across stories about retirement systems in other countries. Below are just a few of the recent articles that I thought were interesting. What can we learn from retirement income policies in other countries? Canada is studying ways to improve its retirement income system. Nearly 11 million of […]
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to adopt more children, but only if pension reform passes
Today Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie announced that they were committed to working toward a new universal pension system to ensure that all Americans – and particularly their six children – would be able to retire with dignity. “I like building environmentally-green houses,” says Pitt, “but I think pensions are the sexiest issue in the […]
A victory for workers and retirees
In December 2009, Visteon Corp. announced that it was going to terminate its pension plans, which cover some 21,000 workers and retirees, as part of the company’s overall bankruptcy and reorganization effort. Visteon planned to dump its pension obligations onto the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the government agency that insures private “defined benefit” pension plans. Because […]
And the survey says…
Earlier this week, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and public opinion research firm Mathew Greenwald and Associates released the results of the 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS). The survey, which has been conducted every year for the past two decades, is a nationwide poll of workers and retirees about their attitudes towards saving for retirement […]
Barking mad over pensions
Tuesday’s New York Times included a full-page ad from the Center for Consumer Freedom*, attacking the Humane Society of the United States. In the ad, the Center claims that the animal-oriented organization is misallocating its money by, among other things, putting $2.5 million toward its retirement plan for employees. This “criticism” has me growling and barking. […]
Retirement and Divorce: Additional Resources
We hope you’ve found our series of blog entries on divorce and retirement assets to be informative. In today’s final blog entry we have listed several additional resources that provide additional information on divorce and retirement assets. ▪ The U.S. Department of Labor has published a helpful booklet about Qualified Domestic Relations Orders called The Division of Retirement […]
Don’t take a pension for granted
Often divorcing couples will opt to divide their marital property by giving one spouse the home and the other spouse the pension. This easy way of dividing marital property may leave one spouse at a disadvantage that isn’t recognized until retirement. While a house may have emotional value, it may not have the same monetary […]
Don’t delay: Submit court orders to the plan right away!
In order to receive retirement benefits that have been awarded in a divorce, it is important to obtain a court order, which tells retirement plans how to divide and pay benefits to the divorced couple. For private retirement plans, these court orders are called Qualified Domestic Relations Orders or QDROs. Other retirement systems call them Domestic Relations Orders or […]
