Retirement Income

It’s been said that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. But what if it’s a figment of your imagination? “Crisis” is a word much bandied about these days, most particularly as a label applied to retirement—by foes and fans alike. Indeed, while not so long ago headlines posed that premise as a... READ MORE

Disasters can create a sudden need for resources to address the situation at hand.  But some resources are more readily accessible than others—resorting to certain kinds of funds can itself create some hardship.  To help avoid that circumstance and risk having a response to an emergency itself... READ MORE

The climate is warming. No, not that one—the climate for annuities. Interest in them among retirement investors is rising, according to recent reports.  This actually is not a new trend, says LIMRA. They report that interest in annuities stood at 33% of those whom they surveyed in 2018 but “jumped... READ MORE

So nice to get a break from deadlines as the weather heats up. Hope your vacation and concert schedule is full of fun times ahead. Perhaps you will prepare a hundred or so Cycle 3 document restatements during down time? Remember preparing your 2023 PBGC Forms that reflected big asset losses in... READ MORE

Of all the promising provisions in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, one of the most expensive (as the federal government does math, anyway) is likely to be one of the most challenging to implement. It’s not effective till 2027, so there’s still some time to figure it out—but I’m talking about the new... READ MORE

Gordon Hartogensis’ term as Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) will end on April 30, 2024. The PBGC made the announcement on April 24.  Hartogensis, the first PBGC Director to complete a full five-year term in that office, was nominated in May 2018 by then-President Trump... READ MORE

Overall, private-sector employees are more than four times as likely to have access to a defined contribution plan than a defined benefit plan, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS in “TED: The Economics Daily” reports that in its most recent National Compensation Survey... READ MORE

Editor’s Note: This is part I of a four-part series about the importance of aligning the retirement benefits an employer offers with those employees’ interests and needs.  You offer a retirement plan, but participation is not what you had expected.  Why? What’s not to love? After all, retirement... READ MORE

Ongoing economic challenges are changing how Americans are thinking about retirement planning, with nearly 6 in 10 pre-retirees (57%) believing that inflation poses the most immediate challenge to their retirement portfolios over the next 12 months. And this stress apparently is shifting the... READ MORE