Private Pension Plans

For married participants in retirement plans, a top concern is making sure that a spouse will receive their retirement benefits if they die. Luckily, most pension plans and many other retirement plans in the United States provide a survivor benefit to widowed spouses of retirement plan participants.

The Labor Department issued a new rule, effective July 27, 2020, that describes a new form of electronic disclosure for retirement plan information called “notice-and-access.”  This new scheme of disclosure will put the burden of finding

Retirement plan participants receive multiple communications from their plans. Some disclosures are sent automatically, such as each year, every quarter or when joining a plan. Other disclosures are sent when “triggering” events occur, such as termination of employment or divorce. Certain plan documents and reports are available upon request.

This is a critical time for retirement security. Thousands of retirees and workers in certain severely underfunded multiemployer plans – Cleveland Iron Workers Local 17, New York State Teamsters, Baltimore Ironworkers Local 16, and Teamsters Local 707 in New York, among them – have already lost a big share of their hard-earned pensions.