PRC Letter to the Ways & Means Committee in support of the Rehabilitation of Multiemployer Pensions Act (July 9, 2019)
The Pension Rights Center sent a letter to Chairman Neal and Ranking Member Brady on the Ways & Means Committee in the House of Representatives ahead of a markup of the Rehabilitation of Multiemployer Pensions Act, also known as the Butch Lews Act. PRC urged the Committee to support the bill and thanked them for […]
Elliot freezing pension plan for 600+ workers
Elliot Health System is freezing the pensions of more than 600 employees at year’s end in a move that will save several million dollars a year. “It’s not like we’re taking a pension benefit away and opening up an ice cream stand,” health system President Greg Baxter said in an interview. “We’ll use that money […]
Opinion: Want a pension in retirement? Here’s how to create one
Remember the good old days, when workers retired with a gold watch and a pension? They’re long gone, of course. Only 15% of private sector workers now participate in a traditional defined-benefit pension plan (three out of every four government workers do), according to the Pension Rights Center. And yet nearly two out of every […]
America’s retirement accounts are growing, but not fast enough
America’s retirement accounts are growing, but not fast enough. Vanguard has released its annual How America Saves 2019 report. It’s a snapshot of the state of retirement in America that focuses on defined benefit accounts, which are mostly in the form of 401(k)s.
Baseball’s pension rules changed after legally blind pitcher in Orlando last played in 1971. Now he needs help
As a baseball game filled the television screen below it, a portrait of Bill Denehy in better days hung on the wall. The rendering showed Denehy in the 1960s, early in his career, a pitcher with a seemingly endless supply of games in the seasons ahead. Denehy was wearing the cap and jersey of the […]
Sanders promises to block cuts to pension benefits if elected
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) vowed on Wednesday to place a moratorium on cuts to pension benefits overseen by the federal government if he is elected president in 2020. Speaking at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers legislative conference in Washington, Sanders decried the passage of a 2014 law empowering the Treasury Department to approve […]
Retirees, Weigh a Pension Lump Sum Offer Carefully
If your pension plan offers you a lump-sum payout, should you take the money and run? Because of a recent IRS policy change, more retirees are likely to face that question in the near future. In March, the IRS opened the door for defined-benefit plans to offer lump-sum payouts to retirees who are currently receiving […]
‘Saint Constance’ Fixes the Unfixable as Patron of Lost Pensions
There’s no such thing as a lost cause to Constance Donovan. In her five years as the congressionally-mandated participant and plan sponsor advocate at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, she’s been a lifeline for flustered pension holders and employers at a federal agency she’s characterized as often effective but prone to being opaque, defensive, and […]
Do away with the red tape that blocks retirees from their pensions
Thank you to Sean P. Murphy for shining a light on what people go through when they encounter a problem with their retirement income (“The annuity that fell into a black hole,” The Fine Print, Page A1, April 22). I’m the director of the Pension Action Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston’s McCormack Graduate […]
Stop & Shop agreement seen as a win for workers
Now that Stop & Shop workers are back on the job, cleaning floors and stocking shelves as they wait for deliveries to arrive, the big questions are: Was the strike worth it, and which side came out on top?
Your Financial Future: Find ways to fund retirement now
April is Financial Literacy Month. This has been designated as a time to learn new ways to improve your financial knowledge. We try to help in this regard every week in this column. There will be a lot more written in general publications this month about financial literacy. Generally, people are not as prepared as […]
America’s retirement crisis
Could you live on $2,452 per month? Would that be a problem for you? The St. Louis Fed thinks so. They recently wrote, ““It could be worrisome that, for many American households, the total balances of their retirement accounts may not be sufficient to ensure a solid life in retirement.”
