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Employers Must INDEFINITELY Maintain Records Sufficient to Determine Their Employees’ Pension Eligibility

Employers Must INDEFINITELY Maintain Records Sufficient to Determine Their Employees’ Pension Eligibility

I cannot tell you how many times over the years pension plan participants have called me to complain that their employer or pension plan administrator has told them they cannot find documents needed to determine whether they are eligible for a pension and, if so, the amount. That is ridiculous! Under §209 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), employers must maintain records with respect to each of their employees sufficient to determine any benefits which are, or may…

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Oh Where Oh Where Is My Pension?

Oh Where Oh Where Is My Pension?

It just might be in a state “unclaimed” property fund. A recent research paper issued by the Center for Financial Security of the University of Wisconsin-Madison puts a spotlight on these funds and the many unclaimed retirement accounts in them: “Frictions in Saving and Claiming: An Analysis of Unclaimed Retirement Accounts” by Corina Mommaerts and Anita Mukherjee. In the paper, the authors use data collected from state unclaimed property databases to estimate that nationally in 2016 there were 70,000 unclaimed…

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Out of a Job Due to Covid-19? You May Be Eligible for a Fully Vested Pension

Out of a Job Due to Covid-19? You May Be Eligible for a Fully Vested Pension

Most of us would be hard pressed to find anything positive to say about the Covid-19 pandemic. But, if you lost your job on account of the pandemic and were a participant in a pension plan where you had not yet vested in your pension, there may be a wee bit of good news. Under the Internal Revenue Code, participants automatically become vested in their accrued pension benefits upon the termination or partial termination of the pension plan. In the…

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Financial Impacts of Coronavirus Could Significantly Reduce the Social Security Benefits of Persons Who Turn Age 60 This Year

Financial Impacts of Coronavirus Could Significantly Reduce the Social Security Benefits of Persons Who Turn Age 60 This Year

An intriguing working paper authored by Andrew Biggs issued by the American Enterprise Institute posits that the financial impacts of the Coronavirus could significantly reduce the Social Security benefits of persons who turn 60 this year; that is, of persons born in 1960. See “American Enterprise Institute: How the Coronavirus Could Permanently Cut Near-Retirees’ Social Security Benefits.” Biggs explains that, in calculating a worker’s Social Security benefit, Social Security initially indexes the worker’s earnings each year to economywide earnings as…

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