January 2021
07Jan

ESG Investing and Retirement Plans

As ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing recently has drawn the attention of governmental agencies that oversee the administration of qualified retirement plans and their trillions of dollars in assets.  This is unsurprising given that focus and interest in ESG investing has picked steam at a rapid pace in recent years.  On October 30, 2020, the Department of Labor (DOL) finalized amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s (ERISA) “investment duties” regulation (the Final Investment Duties Rule).  The...

January 7, 2021
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05Jan

How To Fix America’s Retirement Crisis: 10 Experts Weigh In

For decades there’s been a festering retirement crisis in America. Congress has repeatedly tried to resolve the retirement crisis via stop-gap, incremental efforts. It has created new retirement accounts, like Roth IRAs to benefit lower income workers, as well as tax-advantaged health savings accounts (HSAs) to help pay healthcare costs. It’s made it easier for small businesses to offer retirement plans, and it’s even allowed employers to auto-enroll employees. Also Read Americans retirement savings may not be that safe after all new surveyfinds Nevertheless, the retirement...

January 5, 2021
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04Jan

Why the U.S. needs a national climate investment fund

In recent weeks, we have witnessed the power of innovation to solve catastrophic problems. Most notably, we have seen the extraordinary human accomplishment of delivering vaccines within a year to counter the novel coronavirus, COVID-19—an achievement that was accelerated by the U.S. government’s Project Warp Speed.  What many people may be less aware of is that across America and other global innovation centers, companies are striving to harness that same power to tackle climate change. Businesses of all sizes are toiling away...

January 4, 2021
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04Jan

US. Worried about retirement? Jump down ‘one of the darkest rabbit holes’ and you’ll find plenty of company

It’s ugly — and getting uglier — for retirement hopefuls these days. Just look at the data. Median household savings for Gen X, according to a recent study, is $64,000, and 81% of that cohort are worried about being able to fund their golden years. Coronavirus is making it worse, of course. Millennials, who have increasingly dipped into retirement funds to deal with the pandemic, have an average nest egg of just $23,000. Numbers aside, for an even more unsettling sense of...

January 4, 2021
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December 2020

30Dec

US. Multiemployer Pensions Update: A Lump Of Coal In Their Christmas Stockings

How do you write about something that didn’t happen? On Sunday night, President Trump, after much delay, signed the combo Covid-relief and omnibus appropriations bill. Since I had been bookmarking a variety of articles that anticipated the inclusion of retirement related provisions in that bill, and even more voices calling for the need to resolve the multiemployer pension crisis (which I myself last addressed in October), I looked at the text as soon as it was made available, went...

December 30, 2020
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29Dec

US. Pensions Swamped in a Sea of Negative Real Rates

Defined-benefit pension plans were already barely treading water heading into 2020. In the years ahead, the risk is as great as ever that a large swath of them will drown. As the name implies, defined-benefit pensions promise to pay a set amount to retirees. While corporate America has largely moved away from this structure in favor of 401(k) options (or “defined contribution” plans), virtually all state and local governments still offer these reliable retirement payouts. And they’ve been falling...

December 29, 2020
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28Dec

Companies end year by shipping off pension liabilities

Pension funds on both sides of the Atlantic offloaded $14.5 billion in liabilities through pension risk transfer deals this month alone, including two huge longevity swap announcements. Most of the action took place with U.K.-based plans, but in the U.S., General Electric Co., Boston, announced it transferred $1.7 billion of its U.S. GE Pension Plan obligations to retirement services firm Athene Holding Ltd. through an annuity buyout. As part of the transfer, Athene will provide payments to roughly 70,000...

December 28, 2020
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24Dec

US. Sustainability movements with staying power

It took the coronavirus pandemic and the death of George Floyd to convince Americans that racial inequality is a part of every facet of our economy. The awakening lifted several sustainability movements that will carry into 2021. Corporate America slowly is making progress on diversity. Environmental justice advocates have gained a foothold in Washington politics at the highest levels, underscored by President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees. Wall Street had its own epiphany. Asset managers, insurers, pension funds and foundations...

December 24, 2020
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23Dec

How an ERISA Fiduciary May Try to Save the World

By Albert Feuer On November 13, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) promulgated a final regulation regarding the investment duties of an ERISA fiduciary in selecting either direct plan investments or investment alternatives to make available to participants and beneficiaries of self-directed plans (the “Investment Duties Regulation”). The Regulation, like the proposed form of the Regulation, which provoked more than 8,000 public comments which were overwhelming critical, was intended to discourage what the DOL called ESG or sustainable...

December 23, 2020
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23Dec

US. Saving at Work for Retirement: A Perk Coming to More States in 2021

Denise Geske panicked two years ago when her accountant told her about a new Illinois law that would require her to enroll her employees in a retirement savings program. “As a small-business owner, I felt it was overwhelming,” she said. “I was terrified that I was going to be mandated to do one more thing.” Ms. Geske, co-owner of Fox & Hounds Salon and Day Spa in Bloomington, Ill., is close with her staff of 32 massage therapists, aestheticians...

December 23, 2020
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