July 2019

UK. Growing number of GPs cut shifts to avoid huge pension tax

A growing number of family doctors are reducing the hours they work to avoid a huge and unexpected pension tax bill. The decision increasingly means already-overstretched surgeries have fewer appointments to offer patients. One GP who last year dropped two of her eight sessions a week now intends to drop two more, halving her original workload. “Losing two sessions a week will have a significant impact on waiting times for patients booking appointments and also mean delays in dealing...

Aging Policy and Politics in the Trump Era: Implications for Older Americans

By Edward Alan Miller, Pamela Nadash, Michael K. Gusmano The surprise election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States marks a singular turning point in the American republic – not only because of his idiosyncratic approach to the office, but also because the Republican Party now holds the presidency and both houses of Congress, presenting a historic opportunity for change. The role of older Americans has been critical in both shaping and reacting to this...

Aging and Work in the 21st Century

By Kenneth S Shultz (Editor), Gary A Adams Aging and Work in the 21st Century, 2nd edition, reviews, summarizes, and integrates existing literature from various disciplines with regard to aging and work, but with a focus on recent advances in the field. Chapter authors, all leading experts within their respective areas, provide recommendations for future research, practice, and/or public policy. Fully revised and updated, the second edition takes up many of the same critical topics addressed in the...

Defined Benefit Pensions and Homeownership in the Post-Great Recession Era

By Tim Murray While housing equity accounts for a large portion of many retiree’s savings portfolios, they are not using their equity to increase consumption in retirement as suggested by the Life-Cycle Hypothesis. Defined benefit plans provide a guaranteed source of income in retirement where the household bears no risk, whereas households with a defined contribution plan are subject to potential risk depending on their asset allocation. This paper examines whether having a defined benefit plan mitigated some of...

Retirement Security: Trends in Corporate Restructurings and Implications for Employee Pensions

By Charles A. Jeszeck, David Lehrer, Charles J Ford, Jessica Moscovitch, James Bennett, Lilia Chaidez, Michelle Munn, Jessica Orr, Cady Panetta, Rhiannon Patterson, Rachel Stoiko, Frank Todisco, Weigle Hannah, Adam Wendel Over the past 20 years, corporate restructurings, particularly mergers and acquisitions (M&A) tended to happen more frequently during periods of economic expansion. GAO's analysis found that from 1999 through 2018, M&A activity comprised the largest share of corporate restructurings. In terms of dollar value of completed deals, M&A...

Individual Retirement Accounts: Formalizing Labor's and IRS's Collaborative Efforts Could Strengthen Oversight of Prohibited Transactions

By Jay McTigue, Charles A. Jeszeck, MaryLynn Sergent, David Lehrer, Ted Burik, Susan Chin, Steven Flint, Emily Gruenwald, Mark Kehoe Mark Kehoe, Jungjin Park, David Reed, James Bennett, Amy Bowser, Jacqueline Chapin The Department of Labor (DOL) has a process to grant administrative exemptions for individual retirement account (IRA) transactions that would otherwise be prohibited by law, such as an IRA buying investment property from the IRA owner. DOL evaluates applications using statutory criteria and follows administrative procedures codified...

Individual Retirement Accounts: Formalizing Labor’s and IRS’s Collaborative Efforts Could Strengthen Oversight of Prohibited Transactions

By Jay McTigue, Charles A. Jeszeck, MaryLynn Sergent, David Lehrer, Ted Burik, Susan Chin, Steven Flint, Emily Gruenwald, Mark Kehoe Mark Kehoe, Jungjin Park, David Reed, James Bennett, Amy Bowser, Jacqueline Chapin The Department of Labor (DOL) has a process to grant administrative exemptions for individual retirement account (IRA) transactions that would otherwise be prohibited by law, such as an IRA buying investment property from the IRA owner. DOL evaluates applications using statutory criteria and follows administrative procedures codified...

World Bank boosts support for Uzbekistan

The World Bank is scaling up its support for Uzbekistan and has praised reforms aimed at fostering a market economy. The bank has announced loan and grant agreements totalling $656m for projects in the country, which is now among its largest recipients in the Europe and Central Asia region. The Washington-based organisation has said the energy sector is key to growth but suffers weak financial and operational performance, infrastructure bottlenecks, and an incomplete policy and regulatory framework. “The government and the people of Uzbekistan...

Former banker appointed head of South Africa’s scandal-hit state pension fund

Former Nedbank chairman Reuel Khoza has been appointed to head South Africa’s 2 trillion rand ($141 billion) Public Investment Corporation (PIC) in an effort to restore the scandal-plagued pension fund’s reputation. Khoza replaces South Africa’s former Deputy Finance Minister Mondli Gungubele as chairman of the PIC board, marking the first time the head of the fund responsible for billions of rand in government employee pensions has been chosen from outside the ranks of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The role...

The Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act of 2019: No Solution to America’s Pension Crisis

The House of Representatives just passed a bill that would bail out private union pension plans by giving them taxpayer dollars to invest in the stock market, as well as loans to cover their broken pension promises, which amount to $638 billion and counting. The bailout-without-reform plan would do nothing to fix the underlying problems and would instead incentivize union pension plans to become more underfunded so they could receive taxpayer funds. Risking taxpayer money in the stock market...