Month: December 2014
After the new federal pension rules: What retirees need to know
Buried in the $1.1 trillion “Cromnibus” legislation signed this week by President Barack Obama was a provision that aims to head off a looming implosion of multiemployer pension plans – traditional defined benefit plans jointly funded by groups of employers. The pension reforms affect only retirees in struggling multiemployer pension plans, but any retiree living […]
ERISA Changes Passed as Part of Controversial Spending Bill
In one fell swoop last week, a once-sacrosanct tenet of the 1974 omnibus pension law, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (more commonly known by its acronym, ERISA), was overturned. For its sponsors, the measure meant saving troubled multiemployer pensions heading for insolvency. For others, a change to the 40-year law that many believe banned […]
Pension cuts helped keep the government open, but they hurt many retired women
On Nov. 14, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. reported that 200 of the 1,400 multi-employer plans covering 1 million participants are at risk of failing within the next decade. The PBGC is worried about this because it becomes responsible for the pension obligations of these failed plans.
The Retirement Savings Plan Financial Advisors Don’t Want You to Know About
For the millions of Americans who don’t have company-sponsored plans, some states are considering offering retirement accounts for private-sector workers.
Legal fight likely over pension reforms
Can the Kline-Miller amendment be overturned in court? Opponents were already weighing their legal options in response to this week’s passage by Congress of the amendment allowing troubled, multiemployer pension plans to cut retiree benefits.
FSI to fight rollout of auto IRAs
Independent broker-dealer group says automatic retirement savings plans pose competition to financial advisers
Reporters fail to capture implications of pension provision
A ‘big shift’ tucked into the spending bill goes under-examined
PRC Statement on Retiree Pension-Cut Legislation Included in Omnibus Bill
Washington – On December 16, President Obama signed the 2015 Omnibus spending bill. The new law contains provisions that allow certain underfunded multiemployer pension plans to cut retirees’ benefits. The Pension Rights Center released the following statement from Executive Vice President Karen Friedman: “For decades, the federal pension law has ensured that retirees are […]
President Expected to Sign Spending Bill Addressing Multiemployer Plans, 4062(e)
President Barack Obama was expected to sign into law a $1.1 trillion U.S. government spending bill that includes elements designed to boost the nation’s troubled multiemployer pension plan system and provisions addressing several other employee-benefits-related areas.
Pension Benefits: New Law Lets Trustees Cut Them
The House and Senate plan that would let trustees of certain financially wobbly pension plans cut retirees’ benefits is aimed at reducing financial demands on those underfunded plans so they do not collapse totally.
Congress passes major change to law on union pensions
Severely underfunded union pension plans will be allowed to reduce current retiree benefits in order to avoid future insolvency, under a last-minute amendment attached to the $1.1 trillion federal government appropriations bill known as the “CRomnibus.”
Those Pension Cuts and What You Need to Know
Congress recently carved a hole in a 40-year-old pension law that has prevented employers from cutting benefits earned by those already retired. This change applies to people covered under multiemployer plans that are in critical financial shape.
