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Guaranteed Income
The IRS has issued an updated version of Publication 575, “Pension and Annuity Income,” for use in preparing 2015 returns. It made changes to the exception to the tax on early distributions from a governmental plan for qualified public safety employees and to the rules regarding rollovers to SIMPLE...
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The New Jersey Senate Budget Committee has approved a bill creating a mandatory retirement program for private-sector workers without employer-sponsored plans in the Garden State.The Secure Choice Savings Act (S2831) would require companies with at least 25 employees that don’t already offer...
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It is common knowledge that many people can do more to save for their retirement. And much has been written and said concerning paying off the heavy load of student loan debt many people carry. These may seem to be mutually exclusive goals and functions, but Beth Braverman argues in Forbes that...
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Among the strongest trends of the outgoing year: growth in employee engagement in their financial wellness, use of annuities and offerings of qualified longevity annuity contracts (QLACs). And next year may bring more of the same. So say two recently released studies that look at what’s been...
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The Obama Administration recently unveiled its myRA program, a federal effort to encourage retirement savings and provide an easy, low-impact way for those who do not participate in a retirement plan to set something aside. But it’s not the first time the administration has embarked on such an...
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Myth: The current tax system provides an “upside-down” incentive to save.Fact: By taxing investment returns, an income tax discourages savings. By effectively taxing investment returns at a zero rate, tax deferral eliminates this disincentive and equalizes the inventive to save.Those are among the...
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“In my 40 years of doing this, I never thought I’d see the day we’d have a president giving us direct instructions …” [on state-run, automatic enrollment IRA programs], Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis Borzi told the ERISA Advisory Council Nov. 3-4.At the hearing, Borzi noted that about 68...
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Pension plans may not be subject to volatility in quite the same way as defined contribution plans, but nonetheless they face uncertainties and the vagaries of external factors too. That has some plans considering how to mitigate that risk. MetLife in its most recent Pension Risk Transfer Poll...
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Life expectancy is about two decades longer now than it was 80 years ago. Not only that, the huge number of people who will be retiring in the next 20 years only heightens the consequences of increased longevity. Add to that major changes in the way retirees’ financial needs are met. Put together,...
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Can plan fiduciaries sue to recover overpayments made many years ago?Case law has recognized the right of a fiduciary to recover overpayments, but a recent case involving a pension plan’s attempted recovery highlights some of the potential hurdles.The case in question involved the Pharmacia...
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A report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says that although most multiemployer defined benefit plans have resources sufficient to pay promised benefits, a few large plans are expected to become insolvent in the next 20 years.The report, “Multiemployer Defined Benefit (DB) Pension Plans...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) paid $5.4 billion in benefits to 842,000 retirees nationwide in 2014, it has reported. It also has broken down that data by state, but it would be a mistake to assume that just because a state has a high population, it will therefore have one of the...
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The DOL’s ERISA Advisory Council at its May 27-29 meeting will include examination of lifetime plan participation. The council will focus on preparing proposed notices and disclosures related to the recommendations the council made in its 2014 report, “Issues and Considerations Surrounding...
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Echoing a recent study from Transamerica in which the vast majority of Boomers and Gen Xers expect to retire long after they turn 65, an Allianz survey reports that more than five in six Americans over 35 say traditional retirement is now “a romantic fantasy.”Allianz’ “Generations Apart” study...
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Americans strongly believe in and support saving for retirement. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re saving as much as they are projected to need in order to be financially ready for retirement. The findings of two recent studies illustrate this disconnect.The National Institute on...
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