The pension industry has its own version of the "which came first: the chicken or the egg" riddle. For years, members of our community have debated whether the return on asset (ROA) assumption is set and then asset allocation is...

A recent article in PlanSponsor highlighted the fact that Pension Risk Transfers (PRT) have impacted the premium income collected by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). During the 2015-2018 period, 8% of the companies insured by the PBGC transferred some...

I was very surprised (shocked) to read an article recently that described the Butch Lewis Act as a band aid. The pension crisis has been unfolding in our country for decades, and for various reasons it has hit multiemployer plans...

It has been reported that two more multiemployer pension systems - Arizona Bricklayers and the Michigan Carpenters - have filed for benefit relief under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA). This is the second application for the Carpenters...

Corporate America has been exiting from defined benefit plans for decades. There are many reasons why this trend exists, but one of the primary reasons cited often focuses on the excessive cost to insure these plans/participants with the PBGC. As...

Come on already! The multiemployer retirement crisis continues to worsen daily. When will we finally see action? Time for more review has long passed. Further delays are unacceptable. There certainly has been a lot of talk related to this evolving...

Participants in failing multiemployer pension plans have fought for years to have their benefits restored and pension reform legislation passed, and to this point those incredible efforts have mostly fallen on deaf ears. They have been close at times to...

I frequently read about issues within our pension industry, and there are many. Sometimes, and I am embarrassed to admit this, I fail to connect the problem that is being discussed with the harm that the issue in question brings...

National Retirement Security Week, held during the third week in October, is a dedicated effort to raising awareness and helping individuals take concrete steps towards a secure retirement. The week-long observance was initiated in 2006 after U.S. Senators Gordon Smith...

I read a stat the other day that got me thinking. The report from which I grabbed my nugget of information indicated that the Millennial cohort has roughly 3% of the total wealth in the US. It seemed like a...