Widow Wins “Benefits” – but From an Unexpected Source
One of the PRC’s favorite slogans is “persistence pays off.” And that strategy sure paid off for 73-year-old Elaine Silverberg who—after fighting for 13 years to get the widow’s benefits she believed she was owed from her late husband’s pension plan—finally received the money. Just not from the pension plan. While her late husband’s pension […]
Bloomberg Law: AT&T’s Athene Pension Transfers Called Too Risky by Rights Group
“AT&T Inc. retirees challenging a transaction that shifted responsibility for funding nearly 100,000 pensions to an insurance company received support from the Pension Rights Center, which argued the move fell short of legal standards.”
PRC’s Letter to the ERISA Advisory Council on QDIAs and Lifetime Income
Read the Pension Rights Center’s letter to the ERISA Advisory Council on Qualified Default Investment Alternatives (QDIAs) and Lifetime Income.
More Than One Million Pensions Protected by Butch Lewis Act
By David Brandolph The Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act (BLA) – a law enacted in 2021 to save workers’ and retirees’ pensions in severely financially challenged multiemployer plans – has surpassed a high-water mark of success. Due to a recent flurry of special financial assistance (SFA) approvals, BLA has now facilitated the protection […]
PRC Responds to Multi-Agency Request for Information on Reporting and Disclosure
The Pension Rights Center issued comments on May 22nd in response to a Request for Information from the Department of the Treasury, the IRS, the DOL, EBSA, and the PBGC on Section 319 of SECURE 2.0.
Bloomberg Law: Pending DOL Report to Consider Pension Risk Transfer Changes
“We look forward to seeing the report, which we very much hope will include PRC’s recommendations to strengthen protections for workers and retirees when companies transfer their pension liabilities to insurance companies,” said Karen Friedman, PRC’s executive director. “Plan participants lose a lot in these transactions—including valuable [Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation] insurance and other ERISA […]
PRC News, Spring 2024
New “No conflicts” Retirement Investment Rule Rolled Out Pension Rights Center Executive Director Karen Friedman joined other members of the Save Our Retirement Coalition at the White House in April for the Biden Administration’s announcement of a new U.S. Department of Labor rule to protect retirement income security. The rule requires that investment advice given […]
NIRS Study Finds Americans Support Pensions to Address Retirement Crisis
A whopping 83% of working age Americans surveyed agree that having a pension makes it more likely to have a secure retirement, the National Institute on Retirement Security found in a recent study. Without a pension, most middle-class Americans won’t accumulate enough savings to be self-sufficient in retirement, NIRS said. The survey found that 77% […]
Bloomberg Law: Athene-Linked Pension Cases Strike at Need for New DOL Guidance
Annuity-only providers such as Athene may be uniquely prone to risks, because they lack the asset diversification individual life insurers enjoy, said Norman Stein, senior policy counsel at the Pension Rights Center, which advocates for the return of more traditional defined-benefit pensions and opposes pension risk transfers.
Bloomberg Law: AT&T, Lockheed Suits Mark First Real Test for Pension Transfers
Labor Department guidance requires employers seek out the “safest available annuity,” Norman Stein, senior policy counsel for the Pension Rights Center, said. That standard may not be satisfied if employers opt to work with an insurance company facing significant criticism instead of one that’s universally respected, he said.
ASPPA: Recordkeeping in the Electronic Age
Recordkeeping today is not your grandfather’s recordkeeping. Maybe not even your older sibling’s. So guidance and education from the Department of Labor (DOL) would be helpful in adjusting to the changes that have taken place, concludes a recently released report.
InvestmentNews: Companies transferred billions in pension assets to annuities. Here come the lawsuits
If the lawsuits progress, there’s a lot that observers might learn about how companies solicit and evaluate bids, said Norman Stein, senior policy counsel and acting legal director at the Pension Rights Center.
