Secondary Tag: Private Pension Plans
Retirement Plan Contribution and Benefit Limits
This chart lists the maximum amounts individuals are permitted to contribute to their retirement plans each year. The effective date for 2024 limits is January 1, 2024. Maximum Dollar Limits 2024 2023 2022 2021 Annual employee contribution limit for 401(k), 403(b), or 457 savings plans $23,000 $22,500 $20,500 $19,500 Annual catch-up contribution limit for 401(k), 403(b) […]
What is Recoupment?
I received a letter from my pension plan stating that it has been overpaying me. The letter says that the plan is going to reduce my monthly payments and that I will also have to pay an additional amount to the plan. What can I do? In recent years, the Pension Rights Center has seen […]
How Retirement Plans Can Fix Contribution Mistakes
Employers sometimes make mistakes when they put money into a 401(k), profit sharing plan or other defined contribution plan. If they correct the mistake by making a contribution to the plan, the contribution is called a QNEC or Qualified Non-Elective Employer Contribution. Here are some examples of a QNEC (pronounced cue-neck). Companies sometimes fail to […]
The Labor Department’s Notice-and-Access Disclosure Rule: The Basics
The Labor Department has issued a new rule for electronic delivery of plan disclosures to retirement plan participants, called “notice-and-access.”[1] The rule is effective July 27, 2020.[2] The new rule replaces prior guidance on electronic delivery of disclosures to participants, with the exception of a 2002 electronic disclosure rule.[3] The 2002 electronic disclosure rule remains […]
The Labor Department’s new disclosure rule: What could it mean for you?
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 information on to the participants in the plan. Rather than receiving your retirement plan information on paper […]
The Top 10 Worst Things about the Department of Labor’s New “Notice-and-Access” Rule for Retirement Plans
The US Department of Labor has adopted a new rule that will allow retirement plans to use an automatic “notice-and-access” disclosure system that will result in millions of workers and retirees no longer receiving critical information about their retirement plan and benefits. The new rule will effectively upend the commonsense rule now in place.[i] Currently, […]
Disclosures you may receive from your retirement plan
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. Beneficiaries, such as spouses, can generally […]
Pension Rights Center Concerns about Proposed DOL Electronic Disclosure Rule
This Is No Time to Deny Workers and Retirees Vital Information about their Retirement Plans The Department of Labor, the agency charged with protecting people’s rights to retirement benefits, wants to adopt a new rule that would undermine workers’ and retirees’ rights by making it far less likely they get the information they need to plan their retirement and watchdog their pension […]
Resources for Multiemployer Reform
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. More than […]
Problems with ESOPs
An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) is a retirement plan in which investments are made primarily in the employer’s stock. The value of an ESOP account can grow in two ways – if the value of the stock increases or if additional shares are allocated to the participant’s account. Conversely, an ESOP account’s value will shrink […]
Resources for Participants in Multiemployer Pension Plans in “Critical and Declining” Status
The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) allows severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans that are in “critical and declining” status to seek Treasury Department approval to cut pension benefits. Retirees worried about future pension cuts have asked us what they can do to protect their pensions. This fact sheet suggests steps they can take […]
Plans that have filed “critical and declining” status notices with the U.S. Department of Labor
The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 gives the trustees of underfunded multiemployer plans that meet the definition of being in “critical and declining” status almost unprecedented authority to cut retiree pension benefits. Each plan listed below has notified the U.S. Department of Labor that it is in “critical and declining” status and eligible to […]
