What to consider when your company offers a pension buyout
The old rock of retirement income — the pension — is increasingly fading from the American economic landscape.
Speech by Karen Friedman at the New England Women’s Policy Conference (November 7, 2014)
Thank you for inviting me to speak at the New England Women’s Policy Conference on economic security. I’m Karen Friedman, the executive vice president of the Pension Rights Center, the country’s oldest and foremost consumer group working to promote and protect the retirement security of workers, retirees and their families. You know, Halloween was […]
How to help older adults with their retirement plan problems
Event description: Retirement benefits earned through employment can play a critical role in poverty prevention for the older adults. Legal services providers, housing and financial counselors, benefit specialists, and other elder law advocates who encounter individuals unable to obtain the pension and retirement savings plan benefits they rightfully earned may feel they lack the expertise to […]
Senators’ De-Risking Letter Adds Weight To Growing Issue, Concerns, Observers Say
A recent letter sent by two Senate Democratic committee leaders asking several federal agencies to develop regulatory policy on de-risking pension plans adds some heft to the issue, but there are already some regulatory provisions in the law addressing their concerns, practitioners said.
Enforcement of ERISA Rights and Responsibilities
Date: October 24, 2014 Event description: At an October 24 conference, attendees learned from architects of ERISA what Congress said in 1974 about the enforcement of participant rights and the responsibilities of plan fiduciaries. Conference participants also examined Supreme Court rulings 40 years later and heard how advocates on all sides view these and other […]
Decision time for Boeing pension-buyout offer
Former Boeing employees who have not yet retired have until Oct. 31 to tell the company whether they want a lump-sum check in December or a monthly annuity payment that begins the same month, or reject both options.
PBGC Proposal to Track De-Risking Plans Seen by Pension Rights Center as Good Step
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s recent request for comments on a proposal to require companies making pension risk-transfer offers to their employees to report such offers to the PBGC is aimed at helping the agency determine its future liabilities, but the information may also prove useful for the public, a spokeswoman for the Pension Rights […]
Retirement Plans For All? These States Say ‘Yes’
The federal government has been looking to introduce legislation designed to help workers save for retirement if they aren’t covered by an employer-provided pension plan or retirement savings plan. In the meantime, many states are taking up the charge.
Broad-Based Coalition Pushes For Updates To Retirement-Plan Advice
A broad-based coalition of labor unions and consumer protection groups has reiterated its support for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to update, strengthen and clarify rules around advice provided to workers saving through retirement plans.
Group letter to Congress in support of a strengthened and updated fiduciary rule (September 17, 2014)
The Pension Rights Center, along with 43 other organizations, sent the letter below to every member of Congress, expressing support for updated and stronger rules to protect people with retirement plans and individual retirement accounts from conflict-ridden investment advice. The letter calls on the Department of Labor to proceed with the rule-making process. September 17, 2014 […]
ERISA Has Protected Participants, but Challenges Remain
Joe Lustig of Bloomberg BNA asked Karen Ferguson about the effect of the passage of ERISA in September 1974. Ferguson is director of the Pension Rights Center and a longserving member of the Benefits Practice Center Pension & Benefits Advisory Board.
Happy 40th, ERISA!
Forty years ago this week, bell-bottom jeans were still in style, the Vietnam War was coming to a close, and Watergate was still riveting the nation. Against this backdrop of social unrest, there was also a focus on broken pension promises. Back then, tens of thousands of people were losing their pensions because few laws […]
