Blogs & Newsletters
Radical thinking from…BusinessWeek?
A timely and provocative op-ed by BusinessWeek‘s contributing economics editor Chris Farrell flatly states, “Keep Wall Street Out of the Retirement Business.” Farrell goes on to ask: Question is, in light of the current turmoil in the financial markets, should Wall Street manage any of our long-term retirement savings funds? Is the 401(k) plan, which […]
More on the meltdown
What a week. The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch’s sale to Bank of America, and the government rescue of AIG were just the latest upheavals in this churning Subprime Summer. I’ve been getting calls every day from reporters, wanting to interview people who are concerned about their 401(k) accounts. People are right to be concerned. […]
How does the Wall Street meltdown affect my pension?
In the past few days, large companies on Wall Street have been closing left and right, making the people who work at these companies jittery about many issues, including their retirement security. The good news for these employees is that the money in their pension and 401(k) plans is protected from creditors, so that even when […]
Happy birthday, ERISA!
By Rebecca Davis Happy 34th Birthday, ERISA! Today marks the 34th anniversary of the date that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, known to those in the field of pensions as ERISA, was signed into law. In a tribute to the workers who would be helped by the new law, that day, September […]
Bankruptcies rising among older Americans
An Associated Press story appearing in the Washington Post this week carries disturbing news about the deteriorating financial health of older Americans. According to an analysis by the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which studied bankruptcies filed between 1991 and 2007, the bankruptcy filing rate has risen dramatically for Americans over the age of 55, with the […]
The paper chase: Keeping track of your pension
By Kyle Garrett Every day I receive calls from workers and retirees who need help with their pensions. Often, the people I speak to are looking for lost pension income that their employers promised would arrive at a critical time in their lives – retirement. These callers may be having trouble locating their pensions or […]
How the rich get richer
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal published a shocking exposé about how companies are using pension plans – which are intended for rank-and-file workers – to covertly fund the executive benefits of their highest-paid officers. WSJ journalists Ellen Schultz and Theo Francis report that “At a time when scores of companies are freezing pensions […]
Social insecurity
Last week the federal minimum wage rose to $6.55 an hour, increasing the annual earnings for a full-time minimum wage worker to $13,624. While it’s certainly the right move for Congress to raise the minimum wage for current workers, it raises an important question about retired workers. Take a look at our statistics page and […]
How much does a 401(k) really cost?
When I was head of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (the Department of Labor agency charged with protecting pensions) during the Clinton administration, I became concerned about whether or not people who had 401(k) plans truly understood how much they were paying in fees and what those fees were for. So in 1997 and 1998, […]
Robbing your retirement piggy bank
By Nancy Hwa In an earlier blog post, we discussed efforts in Congress to make it easier for people to withdraw money from their 401(k) accounts to save their homes from foreclosure. Such withdrawals are part of a larger problem with 401(k)s known as “leakage” (what a lovely name!) – loans, early withdrawals, and lump-sum […]
The good news about public pensions
Too often we hear bad news stories about how public pension plans are underfunded and that they’re a drain to taxpayers. But a congressional hearing last week told a different story. The hearing, Your Money, Your Future: Public Pension Plans and the Need to Strengthen Retirement Security and Economic Growth, focused on how public sector […]
MetLife and Benefit Denials: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Last month, the United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of how courts should review a benefit plan’s denial of an application for benefits. The results were mixed for workers and retirees. A little background first. An employee submits a claim for benefits from a pension, disability or health plan. The plan’s claims administrator denies […]
