August 2019

07Aug

Stanford analyzed 292 retirement strategies to determine the best one—here’s how it works

In 2017, the Stanford Center on Longevity analyzed 292 different retirement income strategies and determined the best way for most people to withdraw their savings. It’s called the “spend safely in retirement strategy” (SSiRS) and involves two basic components: delaying Social Security benefits and creating an “automatic retirement paycheck.” In a new 2019 report, “Viability of the Spend Safely in Retirement Strategy,” the research team took a deeper dive into the SSiRS and explored different ways to implement it....

August 7, 2019
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03Aug

The False Promise of Portman-Cardin Pension Reform

By Michael Doran This article analyzes the pension-reform bill introduced in 2019 by Senator Portman and Senator Cardin. Earlier Portman-Cardin bills, enacted in 1996, 2001, and 2006, substantially increased the amounts that higher-income families can save in tax-qualified retirement plans and IRAs, but they included only modest and mostly ineffective measures to encourage retirement savings by lower- and middle-income families. Despite the tens of billions of dollars in tax subsidies spent under the earlier Portman-Cardin legislation, retirement-account values today...

August 3, 2019
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03Aug

Multiemployer plans: evaluating a proposal to spread the pain

By Alicia Munnell, Jean- Pierre Aubry, Wenliang, Hou, Anthony Webb The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA) allows multiemployer plans facing insolvency to apply for approval from the Treasury to cut accrued benefits of plan members to prolong plan solvency—a departure from the benefit protections of Employee Retirement Income Security Act. To assess the law's impact, this paper models Central States Teamsters – by far the largest – plan to have applied under the new law to reduce benefits. Using...

August 3, 2019
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02Aug

US. DOL Small Business Retirement Plan Rule Not The Cure-All That’s Needed

In a nod to the small business community, the Department of Labor issued a final rule earlier this week that may nudge more employers to offer joint retirement plans—MEPs—but it’s not all that employers were hoping for. “This is NOT the MEPs that everyone has been so excited about,” says Nevin Adams, chief of marketing for the American Retirement Association via email. The DOL rule, effective September 30, allows companies in different industries to band together to create a...

August 2, 2019
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01Aug

US. Tennessee pension fund investments in marijuana company generates smoke

After discovering retirement plan invested in medical cannabis firm, pot-wary Tennessee to sell stock In a Republican-led state where many top officials, including Gov. Bill Lee, oppose legalizing even medical marijuana, Tennessee's massive $52 billion retirement plan holds a $720,000 investment in the nation's blazing-hot pot industry. The Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System's passively invested small-company stock fund, based on Standard and Poor's S&P Smallcap 600 index, owns 7,009 shares in San Diego-based Innovative Industrial Properties Inc. A real estate...

August 1, 2019
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01Aug

MetLife, Prudential Report Big Profit Gains

The nation’s two biggest life insurers posted sharply higher net income for the second quarter. MetLife Inc. nearly doubled its second-quarter profit, helped by improved investment results and derivative gains on a financial hedging program. At rival Prudential Financial Inc., net income rose to $708 million from $197 million a year ago. The year-earlier results were depressed by a net charge of $1.23 billion, primarily for bolstering Prudential’s reserves for long-term-care insurance policies in a product line it discontinued......

August 1, 2019
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July 2019

31Jul

US. Maybe Insurers Could Start Multiple-Employer Retirement Plans: DOL

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has given life insurers, and other financial services companies, an early Christmas present: an expression of interest in the idea of letting financial institutions start multiple-employer retirement plans. EBSA has just helped its parent, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), complete work on a set of final regulations that encourage small employers to offer association retirement plans — by treating small employers that join a multiple-employer plan (MEP) as one big employer, for...

July 31, 2019
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30Jul

US. DOL Releases Final Rule on ‘Association Retirement Plans’

The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a final rule to help more employers offer retirement savings benefits through association retirement plans (ARPs). The rule, which will go into effect on September 30, will permit employers to connect with associations of employers in a city, county, state, or a multi-state metropolitan area, or in a particular industry nationwide to provide retirement plans for their employees. The DOL says the rule will allow small and midsized plan sponsors to offer competitive...

July 30, 2019
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26Jul

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...

July 26, 2019
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26Jul

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...

July 26, 2019
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