Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes reading my blogs knows that I am a huge fan of DB plans as the primary retirement vehicle for participants. I personally like the idea of a 401(k) plan as a...

Another one bites the dust Another one bites the dust And another one gone, and another one gone Another one bites the dust… Thank you, Queen, for the perfect opening to this blog post. With FedEx's announcement earlier this week...

Since the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) many pension plans have shifted assets into either Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) or real assets (commodities) or both. The question that I'd ask is what are they trying to hedge? Is it asset inflation...

Asset consultants continue to play a vital role in the management of defined benefit plans. Occasionally, a plan has to conduct a search for a new one based on several reasons. An industry colleague recently asked me what questions they...

With the bipartisan effort recently put forward by the U.S. Senate to support funding for the nearly collapsed United Mine Workers pension system, Congress is finally showing an interest in supporting the American worker that was promised a benefit, but...

My wife and I are blessed with four grandchildren, and with that gift comes many opportunities to "sing" nursery rhymes to our little ones. One of my favorites is the "Wheels On The Bus", which as you know go round...

The Chilean pension system, adopted in the early 1980s, was once heralded as a "model of privatization" and imitated by other countries, but has recently been derided for failing to provide the promised benefits. The pension plan is a defined...

One of the ideas bandied about within the Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans was the idea that discount rates (for plan liabilities) should be adjusted for all multiemployer pension systems to reflect a more realistic valuation,...

A Washington Post article is suggesting that negotiations for the Butch Lewis Act may be moving in the right direction after a suggestion to tack on the BLA to the USMCA (the former NAFTA trade deal). Conversations between Representative Richard...

It has been reported by the WSJ that Murray Energy's bankruptcy filing removes from the Coal Miners Pension system the last major contributor. This action places in jeopardy the retirement benefits for roughly 90,000 former and current workers and their...