"The PBGC Special Financial Assistance program for troubled multiemployer plans had two new applications and several plans withdrawing and reapplying. Their summary page now has four worksheets showing plans Under Review (20), Approved (2), Denied (0) and Withdrawn (10) though all 10 of the Withdrawn plans reapplied and are included in the Under Review worksheet."  MORE >>

"For 2022, the IRS increased the amount employees can contribute to 401(k) and 403(b) plans, to most 457 plans, and to the federal government's Thrift Saving's Plan to $20,500.... The full retirement age for those born in 1960 or later is now 67.... The maximum annual earnings that are subject to Social Security withholding in 2022 are $147,000 per employee.... Last year to report coronavirus-related distributions."  MORE >>

"Under a relatively new structure that employs group negotiated contracts available through record keepers, the new offerings allow plan sponsors to collectively negotiate better pricing for record-keeping, plan administration, investment management and other services while keeping their plans separate as stand-alone plans. The organizers of the bundled deals ... typically negotiate the contracts with other plan service providers on behalf of the plan sponsors."  MORE >>

"[F]or 361 Fortune 1000 companies that sponsor [DB] plans and have a December fiscal year-end date [the] aggregate pension funded status ... is estimated to be 96% at the end of 2021, up sharply from 88% at the end of 2020. That is the highest funded status since 2007, the last year defined benefit plans of the Fortune 1000 were fully funded.... [T]he funding deficit is projected to be $63 billion at the end of 2021, significantly less than the $232 billion deficit at the end of 2020. Pension obligations decreased 8% from $1.89 trillion at the end of 2020 to an estimated $1.74 trillion at the end of 2021."  MORE >>

"This post includes basic information about tax-deferred investing, RMDs, and IRS tax regulations with respect to RMD tax payments and tax penalties. It also describes research findings about how many investors make RMD withdrawals and new life expectancy tables that debut in 2022. It concludes with six take-away action steps."  MORE >>

"For 2022 lifetime RMDs, the new Uniform Lifetime Table (and Joint Life Expectancy Table) will be used without any adjustment to account for the fact that pre-2022 RMDs were calculated using the old tables. However, beneficiaries (other than spouses) who inherited before January 1, 2022 and are using the Single Life Expectancy Table will be required to 'reset' their 2022 RMD."  MORE >>

92 pages. "Based on the latest data (2018), ... unfunded liabilities of the state and local pension plans in the United States can be stabilized and made fiscally sustainable by paying them down by about $141 billion or 0.8 percent of the economy. The $141 billion was about 3 percent of unfunded liabilities in 2018.... [S]tate and local governments may not have the needed amounts readily available to pay down unfunded liabilities right away. However, they can use stabilization funds to stabilize unfunded liabilities in, say, the next five years and then use the sustainability valuation approach to keep them stable and fiscally sustainable going forward."  MORE >>

"Over the past twenty-five years, Congress has enacted several major reforms for employer-sponsored retirement plans and [IRAs] ... In each case, legislators have claimed that the reforms would improve retirement security for millions of Americans, especially rank-and-file workers.... [T]he real beneficiaries of the retirement-reform legislation have been higher-income earners, who would save for retirement even without tax subsidies, and the financial-services industry, whose lobbyists have driven the retirement-reform legislative agenda."  MORE >>

"[In] one crucial respect our models may fail us: experts have worked out a set of recommendations for asset allocation and income spend-down in retirement, and a set of projections for building those models, which fall apart if our new low-interest world continues, ... rather than being a temporary situation that resolves itself as we recover from the pandemic."  MORE >>

"[1] Showcasing the importance of public sector roles ... [2] Tracking burnout ... [3] Supporting sustainable retirement benefits ... [4] Thinking beyond traditional benefits ... [5] Prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals ... [6] Focusing on the drivers of the Great Resignation."  MORE >>

"[E]mployees across all generations view workplace insurance benefits as more valuable today than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Those most interested in benefits were millennials (47 percent), followed by Gen X (33 percent), Gen Z (29 percent) and baby boomers (24 percent). So what do they each want in benefits? ... [T]he main consideration is where each age group is in their careers."  MORE >>