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Month: September 2017

U.S. Retirement Security Slipping

U.S. Retirement Security Slipping

Natixis Global Asset Management and CoreData Research recently released their 2017 Global Retirement Index (Index)–their fifth such Index to date assessing retirement security in 43 developed countries. The Index utilizes 18 drivers of retirement security, grouped into four categories: health, finances, quality of life, and material well being. The data respecting the United States is disappointing. From 2016 to 2017, the U.S. slipped three places in overall retirement security-from number 14 to number 17–due to increasing income inequality and declines…

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Whether You Are An “Employee” Or, Instead, An”Independent Contractor” Could Impact Your Right To Pension Benefits

Whether You Are An “Employee” Or, Instead, An”Independent Contractor” Could Impact Your Right To Pension Benefits

ERISA [the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which governs most private-sector pension plans] seeks to protect employees’ interests in their employer-provided pension benefits. Therefore, in order to recover pension benefits under an ERISA-governed plan, one must be an employee of the sponsoring employer. The same holds true if you work for a governmental employer; that is, you must be an employee of the governmental entity. Disputes sometimes arise when parties disagree as to whether a worker is an employee or,…

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Nurse Who Worked 20 Years For The Same Employer Never Vested In Her Pension

Nurse Who Worked 20 Years For The Same Employer Never Vested In Her Pension

Pension plan participants sometimes call me about a dispute they are having with the plan administrator as to whether they are vested in their pension benefits. As part of their inquiry, they want to know the rules governing pension vesting. Here are the general rules, along with a real-life example of how they worked for a caller who, after 20 years of service with the same employer, was denied a pension on the ground that she was not vested. In…

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Older Americans May Be More Financially Well Off Than Previously Thought

Older Americans May Be More Financially Well Off Than Previously Thought

The typical method of learning people’s financial well-being is to conduct a survey and ask them questions about their savings, assets, and income. However, people are often confused by survey questions. This is especially true when knowing what counts as income. For a number of years, the U.S. Census Bureau has conducted a survey to determine household income and poverty rates (Survey). In 2012, the Survey showed that, for persons age 65 and older, median household income was $33,800 and…

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