Blogs & Newsletters
Social Security turns 84!
By Emily Gilbert During a week of volatility in the stock market, retirees are happily celebrating the 84th birthday of the Social Security System—a universal social insurance program that guarantees their benefits no matter what direction their 401(k) or personal investments are heading. Since 1935, Social Security has been the cornerstone of the retirement income […]
Butch Lewis Act passes House, reintroduced in Senate
By Karen Friedman Yippee! Congratulations to everyone! The Butch Lewis Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives last night. And I had the privilege of sitting upstairs in the House Gallery of the Capitol watching the debate with hundreds of activists, including Rita Lewis, who is the widow of Butch, the bill’s namesake, as well […]
Butch Lewis Act on path to House floor vote as bill approved by Ways and Means Committee
By David Brandolph Retirees, workers, spouses and widows who have been fighting intensely for many years to protect their hard-earned multiemployer plan pensions have reason to celebrate. The bill that they’ve been backing to fix a looming pension crisis was voted out of the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday and is on a path […]
Butch Lewis Act approved in the House Education & Labor Committee
By Emily Gilbert On Tuesday, Karen Friedman, Katie Jonckheer (our new summer intern), and I were on Capitol Hill for a markup in the Education & Labor Committee in the House of Representatives. In a markup, a congressional committee votes on whether to approve proposed legislation. On Tuesday the Committee discussed three different bills, one […]
Learn How to Invest Wisely for (and in) Retirement
By Emily Spreiser The Pension Rights Center’s legal program responds to hundreds of inquiries from individuals who need an attorney’s help understanding or obtaining an earned retirement benefit. In fact, in 2018 we received almost two thousand help requests from individuals online or over the phone. And our public education materials provide helpful information to […]
Campaigns should make pensions a priority
By Karen Friedman If candidates are smart, saving pensions should be part of their every conversation with voters. Specifically, there should be a dialogue in both parties about how to solve the multiemployer crisis. Time is running out on many of these severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans and policymakers can’t dilly dally any longer. It’s […]
Are you a QDRO attorney? Join our network!
By Karen Racowsky In a blog post last fall I talked about one of my roles as the Pension Rights Center’s Staff Attorney, which is providing information and referrals to individuals who call us for help in obtaining their retirement benefits. I refer many of these callers to the six federally-funded regional Pension Counseling and […]
Recognizing the Pension Counseling Attorneys on Be Kind to Lawyers Day
By Emily Spreiser Today – the second Tuesday in April – is International Be Kind to Lawyers Day. The holiday was invented in 2008 by a non-lawyer who recognized that lawyers often get a bad rap and that a lot of lawyers deserve to be recognized for all of the good that they do. So, […]
Persistence pays off for New Mexico widow
By Emily Gilbert Last month, USA Today published an article about Libby Leask, a woman who had just been forced to put her house on the market after being denied a survivor benefit from her late husband’s pension plan. Before his death in 2016, Steven Leask worked at, and earned a pension from, New Mexico […]
Treasury Notice puts retirees’ pensions at risk
By Karen Friedman Sometimes important changes in pension law are made through the regulatory process or even, more subtly, through guidance that agencies issue to address key issues. Often the guidance sounds technical, but it can make a world of difference, either positively or negatively, to the economic security of retirees. One negative change was […]
New book sounds alarm about retirement insecurity in America
By David Brandolph In her new book, Downhill from Here—Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality, Katherine S. Newman compellingly relates the story of the American retirement experience by diving into the individual and heart-wrenching sagas of a diverse group of workers and retirees. She profiles blue-collar retired truck drivers, highly paid white-collar airline pilots, […]
Romancing our donors on Valentine’s Day
By Karen Friedman It’s Valentine’s Day, that holiday of romance and love. So on this February 14th, we want to send PRC’s special candy hearts, shoot our arrow of amour – or at least our arrow of great and undying gratefulness – to those wonderful individuals and organizations who supported us so gallantly in 2018. […]
