Lost in the tumult of the last few weeks is a rather significant piece of pension legislation that was buried in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 that was signed into law on December 27, 2020. You know it more for its granting an extra $600 to Americans that were qualified to receive...
Choosing which is worse, the COVID-19 pandemic or the Great Recession of 2008 is like being asked to choose between having a root canal or a colonoscopy. They are both awful but they are awful in different ways. In terms of retirement plans though, it is certainly worth asking the question:...
Most of the deadlines for various forms of relief provided by the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act have passed. But not all. However, as we wait for this awful year to finally be over, there are deadlines looming wuth regards to utilizing these special provisions for...
In the timeless children’s book Are You My Mother?, a baby bird goes in search of his mother. When a mother bird’s egg starts to jump, she hurries off to make sure she has something for her little one to eat. But as soon as she’s gone, out pops the baby bird. He immediately sets off to find his...
Congress often gets chided (and justifiably so) for moving at the speed of a glacier, but there are times when they do act with deliberate speed. The CARES Act was one of those times.
They acted quickly to pass legislation that increased the size of loans that participants can take from...
Tens of millions of Americans are out of work while the stock market’s wild swings are making you dizzy, and you wonder… what are the rules of retirement in this new world we now live in? Has there really been a shift in the tried and true rules to a secure retirement? The answers are yes and...
Every day, 10,000 Americans turn 65. Life spans are lengthening and the contingent medical bills that inevitably accompany old age rise as well. Half of American families in the 56 – 61 age bracket had less than $21,000 in retirement savings (based on a study by the Economic Policy Institute)....
We know that the CARES Act doubled retirement plan loan limits for qualified individuals eligible for a Corona-Virus Related Distribution (CRD) to be the lesser of $100,000 or 100 percent of the participant's vested account balance. To qualify, the loan must be made within 180 days after the...
I thought that the most important thing that I could do with this month’s newsletter is to provide you with an update of any retirement related legislation as it moves through Congress.
Though negotiations are not over, on March 22nd Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-KY) released...
We’ve seen these images and advertisements so many times that we don’t pay much attention to them anymore. They are on the booklets that the recordkeeping providers give out at enrollment meetings. They flash across the TV screen as part of the retirement based commercials for insurance...
Changes The Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Rules
Increases The Age That Living Participants Must Begin Taking RMDs: SECURE changes the RMD rules. It extends the initial required beginning date for living participants from the April 1st following the year in which the participant attains...
Amidst all the strum and drang going on in Washington, little noticed by anyone other than pension geeks (like me), Congress passed the most sweeping retirement plan legislation in 13 years. It was signed into law by the President on December 20th.
Interest rates charged by credit card lenders are at an all-time high which I know seems counterintuitive because the Federal Reserve has recently lowered the prime rate (several times!). The competition for credit card customers has never been fiercer. As a result, banks have been forced to...
This lawsuit has something for everyone: a respected and revered institution (MIT), one of the leading providers of services to the retirement plan industry (Fidelity) and a prominent law firm in the field of fiduciary litigation (the firm of Schlichter Bogard & Denton LLP). Even Jeffrey...
Consumer-debt that is years or even decades old is known as “zombie” debt in the debt buying industry and represents a growing cause of concern for consumers. Just like real life zombies (that is probably an oxymoron) these “almost dead” consumer debts can see new life many years after they...
Well OK. Chicken Little notwithstanding, the sky is not actually falling. But for millennials, it might as well be. The barrage of depressing news coupled with the fact that the impact of climate change seems to be accelerating leaves many of them to be pessimistic about the future. 88% of...
Everyone would save more for retirement if they only had more disposable income. The Wall Street Journal recently sat down with a group of financial experts, one of whom is a Nobel prize-winning economist. Want to hear their take on why Americans have so little savings and struggle to save...
“Social Security is going broke.” So said John Stossel in a piece that he did for Fox News in August of 2018. Other financial gurus and economists have weighed in with similar opinions. But is it really going broke? Is Social Security going bankrupt or merely headed for insolvency? And is...
Last month I talked about the importance of factoring inflation into your retirement planning expenses, without specifically targeting any one area. This month’s article focuses on one specific post-retirement expense: inflation’s impact on health care costs. Fidelity has something called the...
For those at or near retirement, the topic of inflation is certainly a cause for concern. A study several years ago by the Society of Actuaries revealed that 71% of folks approaching retirement were “very or somewhat concerned about inflation risk.” Many baby boomers are now or will shortly...
Seniors with student debt? Surely that is some sort of a mistake. No, it’s not. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) shined a light on a little known and growing problem. Seniors that have taken on student debt. Some took out loans to help pay for their children’s college tuition...
Environmental, social and governance investing – better known as ESG to those in the know (by the way, I was one of those not in the know) is a hotly debated topic in the 401(k) world.
Research from Cerulli Associates, which specializes in worldwide asset management and distribution analytics,...
Findings from MassMutual’s 2018 “State of the American Family” illustrates that on average, respondents expect to retire at age 62, as opposed to age 64 when the study was last conducted five years ago in 2013. Surprisingly, 40% of the respondents from the study intend to retire before age 60,...
For many Millennials saving for retirement has become a binary choice. Either they choose to pay down their student debt or they choose to save for retirement. Either one or the other. As many Millennials are in the earliest years of their working careers, difficult choices about how to allocate...
