Retirement

Commentary: Distant financial needs are rarely addressed by workers on their own, which is why employers should enhance retirement education to make up the deficit.

The 6th Circuit recently reversed Rochow v. Life Ins. Co. of N. America in an en banc opinion. The new decision determined that unless there is a showing that that the remedy for denial of benefits under 502(a)(1)(B) is inadequate to make plaintiff whole, equitable relief under Section 502(a)(3) is unavailable.

Illinois’s remedy for the state’s worst-in- the-nation $111 billion pension-funding shortfall was disliked by lawmakers who voted for it, the new governor who inherited it and public employee unions who sued to void it.

Consumers Union, the owner of Consumer Reports, agreed to eliminate the March 15 deadline for approval of an employment contract that includes an adjustable pension plan employees had bargained for in 2013.

For small employers hesitant about the cost and workload involved with administering a retirement plan, benefit advisers can offer SIMPLE IRAs as an option.

As corporations continue to freeze or eliminate defined benefit plans, American workers may be getting increasingly concerned about their financial security in retirement and looking for guaranteed income options.

The vast majority of employers realize that retirement medical benefit security is important to their retirees, but rising costs and risk concerns have prompted many of them to adjust their offerings.

Republican House members are challenging the DOL’s efforts to require retirement advisers to follow a fiduciary standard, saying it reduces access to options and conflicts with the Dodd-Frank Act.

Two major deals were responsible for the $8.5 billion in total sales, a LIMRA survey finds.

In the past five years, employers have realized just how precarious a position their employees are in when it comes to retirement and they have begun to put plans in place to help get them moving in the right direction.