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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26Jul

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...

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

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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