Legal Clinic
Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 Event description: The Pension Rights Center is hosting a free legal clinic to assist people who may have questions about their pension or retirement savings plans. Experienced pension attorneys will be available to meet one-on-one with individuals seeking answers to questions about their traditional pension, 401(k), or other employer-sponsored retirement plan. Attorneys will be able to […]
PRC testimony to EBSA on conflict-free investment advice (August 12, 2015)
PRC Senior Policy Advisor Maria Freese testified on Day Three of a four-day Department of Labor hearing on the proposed rule on conflicts of interest in investment advice. Read her testimony here [PDF]. Related: Pension Rights Center’s comments to the Department Labor on its proposed rules governing conflicts of interest in investment advice for retirement plans. (July 21, 2015) […]
New statistics show a different type of income inequality
Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about income inequality – the increasing gap between our society’s highest-paid workers and the lowest-paid. Generally the term “income inequality” is used to highlight the difference in wages and salary for people while they’re working. Now, new data from the latest National Compensation Survey point to a different […]
Rising costs usher in pension ‘de-risking’ cycle
Many Connecticut workers probably think of a pension as something their parents had, or something they’ll never get. Indeed, as companies have frozen or curtailed their pensions or “defined-benefit” plans, the number of Connecticut private-sector workers and retirees with a single-employer pension (519,000) has plummeted 42 percent over the last decade, federal data shows.
Ascension pension settlement highlights vulnerability of ‘church plans’
Ascension, the Edmundson-based parent company of the nation’s largest nonprofit health system, has agreed to settle a 2013 class-action lawsuit that alleged it improperly maintained employee pensions plans.
There’s a glimmer of hope that the retirement system isn’t broken for good
The generations from the late baby boomers to Generation X to millennials live in a different world, where only a few big companies still offer traditional pensions. For the vast majority of retirees, 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans are, besides Social Security, the only game in town.
IRS and Treasury say no more lump-sum offers
The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury have done a wonderful thing. They announced last month that they intend to amend regulations in order to prohibit companies from “de-risking” their defined benefit plans by offering a lump-sum option for retirees already receiving benefits. In other words, defined benefit plans will not be able to replace […]
Labor Leader Robert Roach, Jr. Joins Pension Rights Center Board of Directors
WASHINGTON – The Pension Rights Center is pleased to announce that Robert Roach, Jr., former General Secretary-Treasurer of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) has joined the Center’s board of directors. Roach joins a prestigious roster of academic, legal, and policy experts in guiding the nation’s leading consumer organization on retirement income […]
IRS deepens focus on lifetime income with lump-sum ban
The Internal Revenue Service’s unexpected decision July 9 to ban lump-sum payments to retirees has plan sponsors keeping one eye open for further regulation but still considering those payouts for other plan participants.
House-Passed Highway Bill Would Extend Transfers of Excess Pension Assets
The House passed funding legislation that includes a section that would extend for four years provisions allowing employers to transfer excess pension plan assets to retiree-health accounts and group-term life insurance accounts.
PRC comments to DOL on its proposed fiduciary rule (July 21, 2015)
The Pension Rights Center submitted comments to the Department Labor on its proposed rules governing conflicts of interest in investment advice for retirement plans. Related: Financial Illiteracy Meets Conflicted Advice: The Case of Thrift Savings Plan Rollovers — a draft paper cited in our testimony (May 2015) Save Our Retirement coalition’s statement after an initial review […]
PRC comments to IRS on revenue procedures related to recoupment (July 20, 2015)
The Pension Rights Center submitted comments to the Internal Revenue Service regarding Revenue Procedure 2015-27 and Revenue Procedure 2013-12, both of which address corrective action that pension plans should take when they overpay retirees. The Center discusses the financial hardships caused by “recoupment” — when a plan overpays a retiree and demands repayment — and offers […]
