Search
Categories
Tags
Date
If you’re a devoted reader of Defined Benefit, then you know there is one way to ensure a pension plan is well-funded: employees and employers alike must make contributions to the plan annually – and in full. State employees like…
Roughly half of private sector workers do not have access to a retirement plan through their employer. For most of these workers, that means they will have little to retire on, except for Social Security. A half-dozen states have taken…
A report released today finds that three-fourths of Americans- both Democrats and Republicans- are concerned about their ability to retire securely. Unfortunately, this lack of retirement preparedness affects some communities more profoundly than others. Black households earn significantly less income…
What happens when a state abandons its defined benefit pension for a riskier, 401(K)-style plan? Taxpayers lose – According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, “for a given level of retirement income, a typical 401(k) plan costs 91% more…
Just like most legislators, former presidents receive a lifetime pension for their service. How much is that pension and what other perks do former presidents enjoy? Read on to find out! Pensions for former presidents were established by the Former…
Donald Trump has been president for a few weeks now. During the campaign, we speculated on what his presidency might mean for your retirement. Now that he is actually in office, we are beginning to see the signs of his…
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan recently proposed creating a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan for state employees. Future state employees would have the option of participating in this plan instead of the traditional defined benefit pension plan. Current state employees would not…
President Donald Trump has nominated Andrew Puzder to be Secretary of Labor. Puzder is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which is the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. Puzder’s confirmation hearing in the Senate has been delayed four times…
Today is Groundhog Day. Everyone’s favorite groundhog- Punxsutawney Phil- will stick his head out of the ground and look for his shadow. Legend has it that if Phil sees his shadow, we’ll have six more weeks of winter. Many of…
It’s still early in 2017 and the fight to protect pensions is just beginning. John Arnold is on the attack against pensions in Nebraska, South Carolina, and Texas. Anti-pension legislators in Michigan are threatening to reintroduce legislation that would gut…
It’s well-known that public pension funds took a major hit during the financial crisis. We’ve written before about the steep drop in funding levels from 2008 – 2009 when the economy was crashing due to Wall Street greed and incompetence.…
Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas is at it again. If you’ve followed our blog over the last couple of years, as well as the news, you know that Kansas is in fiscal disarray. In 2011, when he first took office,…