June 2026
18Jun

Vanguard’s alarming state of retirement in 2026: The average American has $167,970 in their account—or they have $44,115

For 25 years, Vanguard has been keeping score on the great American retirement experiment. Every year, it publishes the most comprehensive snapshot in the industry of how workers save, how much they accumulate, and whether any of it will be enough. The 2026 edition is out. Spoiler: It depends on which number you’re looking at. The number Vanguard leads with is $167,970—the average 401(k) balance across nearly 5 million accounts the firm administered at year-end 2025. That’s a record high, up 13% from...

June 18, 2026
News, ,
Read more...
17Jun

US. Retirement savings set record high — but so do hardship withdrawals: Vanguard

There's some good news and some not-so-good news on the retirement front from Vanguard. Americans set aside a record amount of money in their 401(k) accounts last year, according to Vanguard's "How America Saves 2026" report. But while savings rates are up, so are the number of Americans tapping their 401(k) for emergencies. Vanguard said 6% of participants made a hardship withdrawal in 2025, the largest share ever and up from 5% in 2024. "Pressures such as inflation and rising interest rates contribute...

June 17, 2026
News, ,
Read more...
16Jun

US. Investment Returns Outweigh Small Liability Jump for Pension Finances

Surging investment returns outpaced slow-growing liabilities in May, bringing the funded status of the 100 largest U.S. corporate defined benefit pension funds to 109.6%—the highest ratio recorded since the 109.9% mark observed in July 2001—according to Milliman’s Pension Funding Index. Thanks to last month’s robust 2.22% investment return, more than quadruple Milliman’s expected rate of 0.53%, the market value of Milliman 100 plan assets grew $22 billion during May. The projected pension liability for Milliman 100 plans increased by $4 billion over...

June 16, 2026
News, ,
Read more...
16Jun

US. NYC comptroller launches search for new pension fund asset managers

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine announced Friday that the city’s pension funds would undertake a search for new asset managers to provide passive indexing of public equity stocks for the city’s five public pensions systems. Levine and the city’s pension funds said the search specifically includes seeking indexes that are weighted by market capitalization, alternatively weighted or those based on ESG factors and limits on carbon, so long as they are consistent with each pension system’s investment guidelines, according...

June 16, 2026
News, ,
Read more...
15Jun

US. Federal Rescue Stabilizes Pension Benefits for 1.8 Million Workers

A new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on multiemployer pension plans lands at a tense moment: a $77.9 billion federal rescue program enacted under the Biden administration has stabilized the retirement benefits of 1.8 million workers, but unresolved questions about improper payments, structural vulnerabilities, and the long-term health of hundreds of plans are now up to a Republican Congress and a Trump administration with a very different view of federal intervention in private sector pensions. More than 11 million workers...

June 15, 2026
News,
Read more...
12Jun

LGBTQ+ Labor Market Outcomes

By Travis Campbell & Yana Van Der Meulen Rodgers The emerging field of LGBTQ+ economics has convincingly demonstrated that LGBTQ+ individuals face distinct labor market disparities. This chapter provides an overview of their unfavorable labor market outcomes and then focuses on several specific issues for transgender workers. Previous studies show that gender-affirming care can improve mental health, whereas conversion therapy, which denies an individual's gender identity, damages mental health. An unexplored question is whether these mental health effects extend to...

June 12, 2026
Articles, Labor Market, , , ,
Read more...
11Jun

A $600 Billion Experiment Kicks Off at the Biggest US Pension Fund

Stephen Gilmore’s 40-year tour of global finance has given him a front-row seat to the Russian debt crisis, the bailout of a financial giant and the rise of sovereign wealth funds. It’s also taken him to a war zone. As the International Monetary Fund’s representative in Tajikistan in the 1990s, Gilmore hunkered down in his office for three days as a militia advanced on the capital city of Dushanbe. Now he has what many consider the hardest job in investing....

June 11, 2026
News,
Read more...
10Jun

US. How Saving More and Starting Early Can Significantly Improve Retirement Happiness

Many retirees regret not saving enough or starting sooner, since both can shape their financial security and happiness later. Even small amounts saved early can grow significantly over time, thanks to the power of compounding interest. With longer lifespans and fewer pensions, saving more now can give you more room to enjoy retirement—not just cover the basics.Retirement has changed due to longer life spans, shrinking pensions, and rising health care costs. What was once a quiet chapter in...

June 10, 2026
News, ,
Read more...
09Jun

US. As retiree pensions shrank, Colorado PERA paid its staff millions of dollars in bonuses

In 2022, the Colorado state pension fund had its worst year since the Great Recession, losing $9.8 billion. The losses were so large, they set the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association’s finances back for years, digging a hole that the pension is only now starting to climb out of. But in the aftermath, PERA’s investment managers took home some of their largest bonuses ever. On average, PERA’s investment staff more than doubled their take-home pay, earning bonuses of $299,000 — the equivalent...

June 9, 2026
News,
Read more...
09Jun

US. This is the most underrated retirement savings move you should know about, says the head of Citizens Wealth Management

Americans are becoming less sure about their ability to retire well. Indeed, workers’ confidence in having enough money to live comfortably in retirement fell 6 percentage points from 2025 to 61%, according to a 2026 survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. For some, that might mean a trip to a financial adviser to solidify plans (you can find an adviser at CFP Board, NAPFA or through this free tool that matches you to fiduciary advisers, from our ad partner SmartAsset)....

June 9, 2026
News,
Read more...