perspectives

Archive for the ‘Traditional Pensions’ Category

And the rich get richer…

Posted Thursday, June 17th, 2010 by Rebecca Davis

Certain rules in the Internal Revenue Code are designed to prevent employers from discriminating against non-highly paid employees in their pension plans. Unfortunately for the retirement security of their employees, some employers look for ways to get around the nondiscrimination rules. (more…)

A victory for workers and retirees

Posted Thursday, April 1st, 2010 by Kyle Garrett

In December 2009, Visteon Corp. announced that it was going to terminate its pension plans, which cover some 21,000 workers and retirees, as part of the company’s overall bankruptcy and reorganization effort.  (more…)

Barking mad over pensions

Posted Thursday, March 4th, 2010 by Karen Friedman

Tuesday’s New York Times included a full-page ad from the Center for Consumer Freedom*, attacking the Humane Society of the United States. In the ad, the Center claims that the animal-oriented organization is misallocating its money by, among other things, putting $2.5 million toward its retirement plan for employees. (more…)

Retirement and Divorce: Additional Resources

Posted Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 by Rebecca Davis

We hope you’ve found our series of blog entries on divorce and retirement assets to be informative. In today’s final blog entry we have listed several additional resources that provide additional information on divorce and retirement assets. (more…)

Don’t take a pension for granted

Posted Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 by Rebecca Davis

Often divorcing couples will opt to divide their marital property by giving one spouse the home and the other spouse the pension.  This easy way of dividing marital property may leave one spouse at a disadvantage that isn’t recognized until retirement.  (more…)

Don’t delay: Submit court orders to the plan right away!

Posted Monday, February 22nd, 2010 by Rebecca Davis

In order to receive retirement benefits that have been awarded in a divorce, it is important to obtain a court order, which tells retirement plans how to divide and pay benefits to the divorced couple. For private retirement plans, these court orders are called Qualified Domestic Relations Orders or QDROs. Other retirement systems call them Domestic Relations Orders or DROs.  (more…)

A pension earned during a marriage is usually the property of both spouses

Posted Friday, February 19th, 2010 by Rebecca Davis

Did you know that, in general, retirement assets earned during a marriage are marital property in the same way that a house and a savings account are?  (more…)

Getting divorced? Don’t forget the pension!

Posted Thursday, February 18th, 2010 by Rebecca Davis

What better time than the week after Valentine’s Day to devote a week’s worth of blog entries to divorce?  This is the first in a series of blog entries focusing on issues involving divorce and retirement. Enjoy! (more…)

Workers and Retirees Lose Pensions - and Take Action!

Posted Thursday, January 21st, 2010 by Joellen Leavelle

On New Year’s Eve, current and retired employees of Augsburg Fortress, the publishing arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, learned that their traditional defined benefit pension plan would be terminated and that they could lose a substantial portion of their benefits as a result of the termination.  (more…)

A surprisingly honest answer to a question about investing

Posted Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 by Kyle Garrett

Does successful investing guarantee a successful retirement? 

Not really. At least that’s the answer according to Evan Cooper, an editor for Investment News. Cooper is pondering retirement and has come to a surprising conclusion - at least we think it’s surprising, considering the source. (more…)