perspectives

Archive for the ‘Traditional Pensions’ Category

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…)

Can we call you, Al?

Posted Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 by Nancy Hwa

When writer-comedian Al Franken was sworn in as Minnesota’s junior Senator on July 7, I was intrigued to hear that he will be serving on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (also known as the Senate HELP Committee). Not surprisingly, this is one of the committees that we deal with the most, and I wondered what kind of positions Senator Franken would take on retirement income issues. (more…)

Older Americans Act celebrates an anniversary

Posted Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 by Rebecca Davis

Today marks the 44th anniversary of the Older Americans Act, a federal grant program that helps millions of older adults throughout the country.  One of the programs funded by the Older Americans Act is the Administration on Aging’s Pension Counseling and Information Program, which supports regional pension counseling projects around the country.  These nonprofit counseling projects provide free legal assistance to individuals who have questions about their pensions and retirement savings plans.  Since their inception, the projects have recovered more than $75 million on behalf of their clients, representing a return of 5-to-1 for every federal dollar invested in the program. (more…)