Changes Could Lead Millions to Abandon Retirement Plans
The government officials considering changes to how retirement savings vehicles such as 401(k)s work may want to note a survey this year by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
How Employers Raid Pension Plans
When it comes to threats to your retirement, there’s one you may have overlooked: your employer. In recent years, companies have been freezing pensions, slashing retiree health benefits and eliminating 401(k) contributions.
Many baby boomers face retirement of tight budgets, fading dreams
The baby-boomer generation is poised to blaze new frontiers in retirement as it has in other endeavors. Yet, in this case, many boomers are experiencing regret, frustration and resignation that the path their parents took is closed to them.
Bring back good old pension plans
A study that compared defined benefit retirement plans — old-fashioned pensions — with defined contribution plans — 401(k)s and 403(b)s — in the public sector, concluded that not only do most participants prefer defined benefit plans, but also, they are more efficient and may in the end cost taxpayers less.
GE’s Bogus Reason for Ending Its Pension Plan
“Bringing good things to life” was the old General Electric slogan. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that GE is actually more skilled at putting “good things” to death, whether U.S. jobs, its share of federal taxes, reasonable healthcare costs for workers, or pension plans.
Retirement Heist steals the spotlight
Today, Morning Edition on NPR featured an interview with former Wall Street Journal reporter Ellen Schultz about her new book, Retirement Heist. We have already sung the praises of this important work, which details how corporations have exploited loopholes in the law to boost corporate profits at the expense of workers’ pensions, but I am […]
‘Retirement Heist’: How Firms Trimmed Pensions
As companies have been moving away from traditional pension plans, they have been shifting employees to new retirement plans, such as 401(k)s, that transfer the cost — and the risk — to workers. Companies have claimed for years that old-style pensions were unsustainable. Author Ellen Schultz tells Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep that there’s another […]
Public Sector Overwhelmingly Favors Pension-Style Retirement: NIRS
DB plans are more cost effective than DC plans
Is Your Pension at Risk?
How’s your pension these days? Are you worried about its health? If so, you’re not the only one.
IRS Issues Revenue Procedure Requiring Notices of Requests for Church Plan Status
The Internal Revenue Service issued a revenue procedure and model notice Sept. 21 requiring church plans to notify participants and other interested parties if a plan applies to IRS for a letter ruling on church plan status. [Reproduced with permission from BNA Pension & Benefits Reporter, 38 BPR 1743 (Sept. 27, 2011). Copyright 2011 by […]
Retirement: Reality Not As Rosy As Expectations
Americans pride themselves on being optimistic. But Robert Blendon, of the Harvard School of Public Health, says that may not be such a good thing when it comes to planning for retirement. For many Americans, it is proving harder than they imagined, according to a a new poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation […]
You Can’t Delay Retirement If You Don’t Have a Job
It’s become fashionable to say that longer life spans mean average Americans work well into into their 60s and possibly their 70s—what was once considered the early retirement years. The problem is, few prospects await most people who need or want to stay in the workforce.
