Comments & Letters
07/30/14

PRC Comments to the PBGC on documentation of terminated plans (July 30, 2014)

Pension Rights Center submitted comments to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, recommending documents and information that pension plan administrators should submit to the agency when plans are terminated. Such documentation could help plan participants obtain their pension benefits when they reach retirement age.

PRC In the News
07/23/14|Pensions & Investments

Church pension plan status rejected by U.S. District Court

In one of five major class-action lawsuits challenging church-affiliated sponsors of defined benefit plans, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the pension plan of Dignity Health is covered by ERISA.

Blogs & Newsletters
07/21/14

Unemployed today, no retirement savings tomorrow

Last week, I accompanied Karen Friedman to Witness Wednesday, where she spoke about the fact that too many people who have lost their jobs and whose unemployment benefits have expired have had to dip into their 401(k) savings to pay for basic needs. She said, “If people use up their 401(k) money today…what will they […]

PRC In the News
07/21/14|Washington Post

Why more companies want pensions off their books

Verizon has done it. General Motors has done it. And so have Ford and, recently, ketchup kingpin Heinz. These brand-name companies have all moved part of their pension obligations off their books and into annuities run by insurance companies.

PRC In the News
07/21/14|Pensions & Investments

Slow process seen in naming Gotbaum successor at PBGC

Joshua Gotbaum’s resignation as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is expected to create a leadership vacuum at a critical time for an agency dealing with struggling multiemployer pension plans and corporate defined benefit sponsors stressed about premium increases.

PRC In the News
07/18/14|Stateline

Offering State-Sponsored IRAs to Private-Sector Workers

California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon’s “second mother,” his Aunt Francisca, spent most of her 74-plus years cleaning houses for people who had pensions through their employers or were wealthy enough to set aside money in their own retirement accounts.

PRC In the News
07/15/14|Bloomberg BNA's Pension & Benefits Reporter

PBGC Director Gotbaum to Step Down In August; Groups Praise His Efforts

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Director Joshua Gotbaum plans to step down from the post he has held the past four years.

PRC In the News
07/15/14|Bloomberg BNA's Pension & Benefits Reporter

Pension Advance Transaction Firms Use ‘Questionable’ Practices, GAO Report Says

An undercover Government Accountability Office investigator looking into firms that offer pension advances received offers with effective interest rates that mostly ranged from 27 percent to 46 percent, at times far exceeding the legal limits set by states on the interest rates assessed for various types of personal credit, the GAO said in a new […]

PRC In the News
07/15/14|Bloomberg BNA's Pension & Benefits Reporter

Practitioners Say QLAC Rules Widen Choices, But Plans May Be Reluctant to Offer Them

Recent final rules on qualifying longevity annuity contracts (QLACs)—which can help retirees ensure they have a stream of regular income through their advanced years—received praise from retirement insiders, but the new guidance doesn’t guarantee that the products will be embraced, practitioners told Bloomberg BNA in a series of interviews.

PRC In the News
07/10/14|Logistics Management

Teamsters rank and file digging in against possible pension benefit cuts

Teamsters retirees from the trucking industry currently enjoy some of the most generous pensions in America—up to $3,500 a month for 30 years of service from any unionized trucking company that contributed to multiemployer pension plans that once covered the industry like a warm fuzzy financial security blanket. But those pension plans, once thought to […]

PRC In the News
07/08/14|Bloomberg BNA's Pension & Benefits Reporter

Treasury, IRS Modify Tax Code Rules To Expand Access to Retirement Annuities

The federal government helped broaden the choices for those shopping for lifetime income options in retirement by modifying the required minimum distribution rules for various types of plans in newly released final regulations on qualifying longevity annuity contracts.

PRC In the News
07/07/14|Pensions & Investments

Challenge of income adequacy perplexes execs

Pension plan designers around the world are tackling the challenge of retirement income adequacy with varying degrees of success, said speakers at Pensions & Investments‘ inaugural Investment Innovation and the Global Future of Retirement conference in New York.