Guaranteed Income

Are workers who have a financial plan more likely to save, or are workers who save more likely to have a financial plan?A new study found that, regardless of their incomes, people who have a financial plan reported saving a median of 10% of their salaries toward retirement, while those without a... READ MORE

Automatic enrollment can be an effective, low-impact way to increase participation in employer-provided retirement plans — and, in the process, further the real, ultimate goal of boosting retirement readiness. But we were taught that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and that maxim... READ MORE

On Nov. 21, 2016, the American Retirement Association Government Affairs Committee filed a comment letter with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). The letter is in response to a proposal to amend and expand the PBGC program to hold retirement benefits for missing participants and... READ MORE

The Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act (RESA, S. 3471), which would amend the Internal Revenue Code to encourage retirement savings, was placed on the Senate’s legislative calendar by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) Nov. 16.Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, also placed the Miners... READ MORE

The funded status of the 100 largest corporate pension plans improved in October, says a recent report. The actuarial consultant firm Milliman says that their funded status got stronger to the tune of $28 billion.Their funded status in October was 1 percentage point better in October than it was in... READ MORE

The increasing cost of health care seems to be coming out of retirement’s pockets, according to a new survey.According to the 2016 Health and Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey (WBS) conducted by the non-partisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald & Associates, half of... READ MORE

A key element in retirement planning is the rate of return assumption — and a new report takes a look at not only what return assumptions are common, but the odds of achieving it.Research Affiliates looked at the default returns built on hundreds of underlying participants, and found that the... READ MORE

The 2016 general election is upon us, a knock-down, drag-out fight between two intensely polarizing figures — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donald J. Trump — vying for votes among an increasingly polarized electorate.In this intensely partisan political atmosphere, it is easy for the topic of saving... READ MORE

There will be a 0.3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security for 2017, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced on Oct. 18.The COLA is based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) from the third quarter of 2014 through the third quarter of 2016. The slight... READ MORE