Retirement Security Law Commons^™

Lump Sum Vs Annuity Payments: Which Is Right For Me?, Pension Action Center, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Pension Action Center Publications

As employers are looking to reduce pension plan liabilities, more and more participants are being given the option to receive a one-time lump sum payment from their pension plan in lieu of receiving monthly annuity payments for life. Deciding on which form of pension benefit to take is a very important decision that requires careful consideration. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. While a lump sum may make sense for one person, it may be a serious mistake for another. And it is a decision that you will have to live with for the rest of your life. Anyone who …

Eliminating Arbitrary Age Descrimination In 401(K) And Pension Plan Eligibility Requirements: A Simple Fix To Encourage Younger Workers To Save For Retirement, Andrew J. Clopton

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Current federal law allows companies to exclude their youngest workers from participating in 401(k) and other pension plans. Public policy should encourage young workers to contribute to retirement as early as practicable, rather than impose obstacles to saving. Workers who begin saving even a few years earlier improve their retirement security and reduce the likelihood they will be dependent on the government later in life. While “age discrimination” is conventionally thought of as the mistreatment of older workers, this concept applies equally to employees who are differentiated based solely on their young age. Thus, Congress should amend the Internal Revenue …

A Public Pensions Bailout: Economics And Law, Terrance O'Reilly

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In several states, public pension plans are at risk of insolvency within a decade. These risks are significant, and the solutions currently contemplated are likely to fall short of what is necessary to contain the problem. If public pension plans do become insolvent, it seems likely the federal government will bail them out. This Article proposes that the federal government prepare for the prospect of federal financial support of public pension plans by instituting an optional regulatory regime for public pensions. If a state elects not to participate, its public pension plans would be ineligible for federal financial support. In …

A Failure To Supervise: How The Bureaucracy And The Courts Abandoned Their Intended Roles Under Erisa, Lauren R. Roth

Pace Law Review

This Article addresses how courts failed to adequately supervise employers administering pension plans before ERISA. Relying on a number of different legal theories—from an initial theory that pensions were gratuities offered by employers to the recognition that pension promises could create contractual rights—the courts repeatedly found ways to allow employers to promise much and provide little to workers expecting retirement security. In Section III, this Article addresses how Congress failed to create an effective structure for strong bureaucratic enforcement and the bureaucratic agencies with enforcement responsibilities failed to fulfill those functions. Finally, in Section IV, this Article discusses how the …

A Failure To Supervise: How The Bureaucracy And The Courts Abandoned Their Intended Roles Under Erisa, Lauren R. Roth

Scholarly Works

This Article addresses how courts failed to adequately supervise employers administering pension plans before ERISA. Relying on a number of different legal theories — from an initial theory that pensions were gratuities offered by employers to the recognition that pension promises could create contractual rights — the courts repeatedly found ways to allow employers to promise much and provide little to workers expecting retirement security. In Section III, this Article addresses how Congress failed to create an effective structure for strong bureaucratic enforcement and the bureaucratic agencies with enforcement responsibilities failed to fulfill those functions. Finally, in Section IV, this …

When A Promise Isn't A Promise: Public Employers' Ability To Alter Pension Plans Of Retired Employees, Gavin Reinke

Vanderbilt Law Review

The economic downturn has placed enormous pressure on state budgets. The recession hit state pension funding plans for public employees particularly hard. Some projections indicate that, even with as much as an 8% return on their pension fund investments, seven states' funds will be out of money by 2020, and half of states' funds will be fully depleted by 2027.

State legislatures are scrambling to pass measures designed to return their pension funds to solvency. Most proposals only call for decreases in the amount of pension benefits provided to future retirees, but four states have gone much further. Colorado, Minnesota, …

Protecting Our Aging Retirees: Converting 401(K) Accounts Into Federally Guaranteed Lifetime Annuities, Lawrence A. Frolik

Articles

America’s retirees are faced with a potential financial disaster. Economic security in retirement has long depended on Social Security, private savings and employer provided retirement plans. While much attention has been paid to the financial problems of Social Security and the lack of private saving for retirement, little attention has been paid to an alarming development in employer provided retirement plans: the likely inability of retirees during the long years of their retirement to successfully manage their retirement funds accumulated in 401(k) and similar accounts. We as a society have set up a funding system for retirement that assumes retirees …

Contemporary Social Policy Analysis And Employee Benefit Programs: Boomers, Benefits, And Bargains, Dana M. Muir

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

1996 Pension Simplification, David M. Graf

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Closing The Massachusetts Mutual V. Russell Gap: Monetary Damage Awards Under Erisa Section 502(A)(3)

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Changing The Rules Of The Game: Pension Plan Terminations And Early Retirement Benefits, Dana M. Muir

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines whether early retirement benefits are included among the liabilities that an employer must satisfy before that employer can receive a reversion of excess assets. Part I reviews the background of plan terminations and how they affect early retirement benefits. It also discusses the general structure of ERISA. Part II examines the controversy surrounding whether ERISA's definition of "accrued benefits" includes early retirement benefits. ERISA requires that employees receive all of their accrued benefits before the employers receive any reversions. However, the circuits have disagreed as to whether early retirement benefits are accrued benefits and, therefore, covered by …

The Slaughter Of The Innocent: Disagreement Regarding The Interpretation Of Section 402(A) "Rolls On"

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unrecognized Statutory Labor Exemption From Antitrust And Pension Fund Leverage And Antitrust , W. Michael Kaiser

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Still Short Of Its Goal: A Critical Look At Individual Retirement Accounts, Peter A. Arntson

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Who's Afraid Of Erisa Wolf?: § 405(D) And Other Houses Of Straw For Trustees Under The Employee Retirement Income Security Act Of 1974

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Proposed Amendments To The Welfare And Pension Plans Disclosure Act, Stephen E. Dawson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Proposals to regulate private pension and deferred profit-sharing plans are by no means new to Congress. With the rapid growth in size, number and complexity of such plans in the late 1940's and early 1950's, Congress began to give increasingly close attention to their defects and, particularly, to their mismanagement. The first congressional attempt to reduce the instances of private pension plan mismanagement occurred in 1958 when Congress enacted the Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act. The Act was amended once in 1962, and further proposed amendments are presently before the Congress. This note will examine two of the proposed …

Tax Of Qualified Deferred Compensation Plan, Lucius C. Gossick

Cleveland State Law Review

One of the primary reasons for the steady growth in the number of qualified deferred compensation plans described in Section 401 (a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 19541 is their usefulness as tax planning devices. An important tax consideration in adopting such a plan is that the taxation of plan benefits to employee-participants or their beneficiaries, provided by current employer contributions, will be deferred to some future time. Because of the rapid changes that occur in the income tax law this article will cover general tax considerations applicable to such benefits that exist presently. Consideration will be given the …

Legislation - Old Age Pensions

Michigan Law Review

Out of our changing social theories has grown modern social legislation. The tendency is nowhere better illustrated than in the development of legislation for the care of aged persons. During the last decade great strides have been made in enacting such legislation, and the present year has seen increased activity, leading to the passage of old age pension laws in five states and to numerous other legislative accomplishments.