Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Pensions! As we do most weeks, we have gathered the best stories about pensions and retirement security from the previous week. This is the news you need to know in the fight for a secure retirement.
Here are this week’s top stories:
- Managing pension funds isn’t easy, but should we be forced to work into our 70s? by Ben Valdepena: a court case moving in California could allow cuts to the promised pension benefits of public employees there. We know what happens when workers lose their pension benefits: retirement security is weakened. Valdepena lays out the facts in this powerful op-ed.
- Eric Trump says 401(k)s are doing great, but half of American families don’t have one by Christopher Ingraham: Eric Trump boasted recently that the president’s economic policies mean 401(k)s are doing great, but this ignores the reality that most working families either have no retirement savings or are not saving enough. 401(k) plans strongly favor the wealthy, as Ingraham points out: “The richest households are leaving everyone else in the dust. American capitalism is a well-oiled machine for creating winners and losers, and the winners are taking it all.”
- Strong fire and police pension management means stability for city, retirees by Tyler Grossman: the executive director of the El Paso police & fire pension fund writes about the success of his pension plan. The El Paso police & fire pension plan has been praised as not just one of the strongest plans in Texas, but in the nation. Grossman says: “let’s be clear: Pension stability takes work and commitment from all involved. In El Paso, efforts by both the city and our members to strengthen our pension fund go back more than a decade.”
- Colorado has a moral and legal obligation to PERA recipients by Mark Qualy: Colorado PERA must remain a defined benefit pension plan in order to fulfill the promises made to Colorado public employees. That’s the opinion of Qualy, a public employee who relies on PERA for his retirement security. As he says, the state has a moral and legal obligation to uphold the promises made to public employees.
Be sure to check back next week for the latest news in the fight for a secure retirement!
