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Consumer 'Driven' Benefit Plans?

"Over the last several years, the trend in employment-based retirement plans has been to put in place structures to make more decisions for workers through the expansion of automatic enrollment plan designs. At the same time, the trend in employment-based health plans has been to look for ways to better manage costs, while providing workers more choice, and flexibility in those choices, by looking to so-called consumer-driven health plans, or CDHPs."

New Government Figures Show Employee Retention Climbs a Bit

"[T]he latest data on employee tenure from the January 2012 Supplement to the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) show that the overall median tenure of workers ... was slightly higher in 2012, at 5.4 years, compared with 5.0 years in 1983. In fact ... the data ... show that those so-called 'career jobs' NEVER existed for most workers. Indeed, over the past nearly 30 years, the median tenure of all wage and salary workers age 20 or older has held steady, at approximately five years."

Very Few Senators and Representatives Have Experience with Major Benefits Legislation

"As the 113th Congress begins its work ... it is perhaps not surprising that the nuances of employee benefit plans and their tax treatment might not be an area of expertise for many on Capitol Hill.... [Y]ou might not be surprised to learn that no member of the current Senate was in office when Medicare, or even ERISA was signed into law. But ... just three of the current 100 members of the Senate were there when Sec. 401(k) became law, and only 10 were there when the Tax Reform Act of 1986 became a reality. Fewer than half of the Senate were in their current office when the Pension Protection Act of 2006 passed. The implications for policy making in the midst of that kind of turnover are significant for employers and employees alike."

Different Retirement Income Adequacy Definitions Produce Varying Projection Results

"As a growing number of Americans near, and head into, retirement, policymakers, retirement plan sponsors, and individual workers alike increasingly wonder -- will Americans have enough to live on when they retire? Unfortunately, as a recent EBRI publication explains, the answers provided are as diverse, and sometimes disparate, as the projection models that produce those results."

Does Automatic Enrollment Actually Increase Participant Savings?

"Are there those who once might have filled out an enrollment form and opted for a higher rate of deferral (say to the full level of match) that now take the 'easy' way and allow themselves to be automatically enrolled at the lower rate adopted for most automatic enrollment plans? Absolutely. However, as the EBRI data show -- and, for anyone paying attention, have shown for years now -- the folks most likely to be disadvantaged by that lack of action are higher-income workers."

Recent Retirement Savings Proposals: Varied Approaches But a Common Goal

"Despite their varied approaches to the common-stated goal of expanding retirement savings, all three [recent proposals] do have one other key commonality: All look to leverage the success of the work place and systematic payroll deductions in fostering retirement savings.... [T]hat's a foundation whose worth ... research has documented: the impact that eligibility for a work place retirement plan can have on retirement readiness, as well as the additional help that automatic-enrollment designs can provide."

Flaws in the Pew Report on Retirement Readiness

"[T]he Pew report appears to assume no further contributions, either by employer or employee, to the defined contribution balances as of 2010. That's right, no further contributions beyond the self-reported participant balances of 2010, and no earnings projection on those assumed non-existent contributions, either. This assumption likely serves to understate the future retirement readiness of younger workers, who have years, and in many cases decades, of savings ahead of them."

'The Retirement Gamble' Gambit

"The framing of the retirement 'gamble' was that 'it used to be much easier,' in 1972 when, the Frontline report states, '42 percent of employees had a pension'. But one point the Frontline report ignores (as do many general media reports on this topic) is that there's a huge difference between working at an employer that offers a pension plan ... and actually collecting a pension based on that employment."

'Myth Understandings' About DB Plans and Retirement Readiness

"There's no question that some Americans in the private sector have derived, and will continue to derive, significant retirement income from DB plans, and DB plans did and can deliver for the portion of the population that does stay with one employer/plan for a full career. The data show, however, that many Americans were not covered by those plans, even in the 'good old days,' and that even many of those who were covered, for a time anyway, were not likely to receive the full benefit that the design was capable of delivering because they didn't have, or take advantage of, the opportunity. Sound familiar?"

Saving for Retirement: Sooner or Later

"Here are six reasons why you -- or those you care about -- should ... save for retirement -- now: [1] Because you don't want to work forever.... [2] Because living in retirement isn't free -- and it might cost more than you think.... [3] Because you may not be able to work as long as you think.... [4] Because working longer may not be enough.... [5] Because you don't know how long you will live.... [6] Because the sooner you start, the easier it will be."