Where Art Thou Pension Reform?
Imperative to our discussion this month on the future of defined benefit pension plans, are two important issues:
(1) The Cash Balance Conundrum. The powers to be need to eliminate the legal uncertainty surrounding cash balance pension plans in order to permit / promote the defined benefit pension system.
(2) Passing of Pension Reform. Currently a congressional panel is trying to conciliate a compromise between the two very different bills passed by both the Senate and Congress last year.
Therefore, the question before us all needs to be - Will Congress pass so-called pension reform this year and if so, when and what will it look like? There is no definitive answer to this question, only predictions by many.
Early predictions of having legislation being passed by April 15th, and by Memorial Day have proven wrong and I doubt that the current hopeful date of July 4th will turn out any better.
It is safe to say that there are many other problems in the United States today and pension reform doesn´t necessarily have the full attention needed. And whatever attention pension reform does have, that attention is being clouded by different ownership agendas and compounded with other issues such as the recent new rules being considered by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).
So if I were to roll the dice, I would bet that even if Congress were to do something soon, that something would be too little to have any beneficial effect on our pension system.
In the meantime my advice to all you Boomer´s considering retiring - Work ´til you drop.
We welcome feedback and hope you will respond by using the appropriate button "Add Comment" on my blog page.
Before I sign off, I just want to take a few seconds to advise or remind you of our next Employer of Excellence annual conference this year at the beautiful Red Rock Casino Resort Spa in Las Vegas from October 24-27th. This year there will be a separate Global Benefits Track - Rolling Dice Across Borders sponsored by IBIS (International Benefits Information Service) in addition to our normal benefits workshops. I look forward to seeing you all there!
