July 2019

26Jul

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...

July 26, 2019
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26Jul

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...

July 26, 2019
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26Jul

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...

July 26, 2019
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25Jul

US. House approves loan program for troubled pension plans

The House voted 264-169 on Wednesday to pass legislation that would create a new Treasury Department agency to provide taxpayer-backed loans to endangered multiemployer pension plans and some other types of endangered plans. The loans would be distributed by a Pension Rehabilitation Administration and would go to programs listed in “critical and declining” status by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal agency that insures the plans. The bill, which is dubbed the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act, or...

July 25, 2019
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25Jul

How healthcare can enable healthy aging

One of the most pressing issues facing healthcare today is population aging. Sometimes called the “grey wave” or “silver tsunami,” population aging is the shift in average age of a population from younger to older ages. Current projections from the U.S. Census Bureau point to 2030 as a milestone year in which older people will outnumber children for the first time in history. All baby boomers will be older than age 65 and one in every five residents will...

July 25, 2019
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24Jul

US.New Rule to Encourage Retirement Plans by Smaller Companies Coming Soon

Small businesses would have an easier time banding together to create joint 401(k) retirement plans for workers under a rule the Labor Department is set to finish soon, according to a senior administration official. The expected rule would broaden the ways companies could join together to offer retirement accounts. Under a proposal floated in October, different types of businesses, say landscaping companies and real-estate firms, could create a joint plan as long as they are located in the same...

July 24, 2019
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24Jul

US. How The Decline Of Pensions Furthered The Racial Wealth Gap

The gulf between those who will enjoy their golden years and those who will struggle is growing. An ever larger number of American workers will have to make large and painful cuts in their standard of living after they stop working. The retirement crisis comes on the heels of declining defined-benefit (DB) pensions. Riskier and costlier defined contribution (DC) accounts such as 401(k)s and IRAs have taken their place. At the same time, the workforce has changed as non-white...

July 24, 2019
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23Jul

US. Bernie Sanders Introduces “Right to a Secure Retirement” Plan

Independent senator and 2020 Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders unveiled his “right to a secure retirement” plan Friday. The plan includes expanding Social Security; protecting pensions; guaranteeing housing, food assistance and care for seniors; and providing fully covered healthcare through Medicare for all. Sanders introduced the plan as he and 16 other Democratic hopefuls participated in the AARP presidential forums in Iowa over the past week and weekend. Read more @Democracy Now

July 23, 2019
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22Jul

US. What Congress Could Do To Stop a Pension Crisis

A looming retirement crisis is facing the U.S. taxpayer that will become an economic tsunami if Congress doesn’t act. The pensions of 1.3 million workers in certain multiemployer pension plans and the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) are set to collapse. Only Congress can prevent this from cascading throughout the economy, to taxpayers and into healthy pension plans and their employers. How things spiraled into this crisis is complicated, but important to understand. Some say it’s a...

July 22, 2019
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19Jul

Reconstructing Retirement: Work and Welfare in the UK and USA

By David Lain In the United Kingdom, retirement programs are being reconstructed to follow the American practice of abolishing mandatory retirement and increasing state pension ages. This timely book compares prospects for work and retirement at age sixty five-plus in both the United States and the United Kingdom. After exploring the shifting logic behind both nations' policies--policies that increase both the need and opportunities to work past age sixty five--David Lain presents an original comparative statistical analysis on the...

July 19, 2019
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