Interesting - that insurance/financial industry insiders must have bought off the Obama administration. And here you thought Democrats were for the little people and the working man.
Sick.
Watson Wyatt, Towers Perrin and the American Benefits Council (representing large corporations) were the key players in the decline and death of the defined benefit pensions and built the schemes of converting DB pensions to so called hybrid cash balance plans, screwing employees through a conversion that often resulted in a less than half what it should have been. J Mark Iwry was deeply involved in justifying that screw job. In my opinion, a crook of the lowest order. None of these organizations could be considered a friend of employees and retirees.
David Certner, now legislative counsel for AARP, was a lawyer for the Pension Rights Council which led the opposition to cash balance conversions noted above. He and Karen Ferguson are good people - I've talked to both in the past.
All of those financial and insurance companies have billions of reasons to support this - an easy way to extract profits from unsuspecting retirees.
And what happens when those insurance companies investments fail and they can't pay out those annuity payments? I'm thinking AIG.
Whenever you see insurance companies involved in anything financial, it cannot possibly be good for you.
The article in question doesn't even mention Roths.
Pushing annuitization while account balances are down is stupid, that guarantees you won't be able to catch up your losses.
Forcing retirement plans to buy Treasuries is much worse than either mandatory annuitization or stripping Roths of their tax benefits. The attack on Roth accounts as being "for the rich" is obvious, though the annual contribution limits (~$15k for Roth 401k, ~$5k for Roth IRA) are so low you can't get rich owning a Roth account.
Interesting - that insurance/financial industry insiders must have bought off the Obama administration. And here you thought Democrats were for the little people and the working man.
ReplyDeleteSick.
Watson Wyatt, Towers Perrin and the American Benefits Council (representing large corporations) were the key players in the decline and death of the defined benefit pensions and built the schemes of converting DB pensions to so called hybrid cash balance plans, screwing employees through a conversion that often resulted in a less than half what it should have been. J Mark Iwry was deeply involved in justifying that screw job. In my opinion, a crook of the lowest order. None of these organizations could be considered a friend of employees and retirees.
David Certner, now legislative counsel for AARP, was a lawyer for the Pension Rights Council which led the opposition to cash balance conversions noted above. He and Karen Ferguson are good people - I've talked to both in the past.
All of those financial and insurance companies have billions of reasons to support this - an easy way to extract profits from unsuspecting retirees.
And what happens when those insurance companies investments fail and they can't pay out those annuity payments? I'm thinking AIG.
Whenever you see insurance companies involved in anything financial, it cannot possibly be good for you.
The article in question doesn't even mention Roths.
ReplyDeletePushing annuitization while account balances are down is stupid, that guarantees you won't be able to catch up your losses.
Forcing retirement plans to buy Treasuries is much worse than either mandatory annuitization or stripping Roths of their tax benefits. The attack on Roth accounts as being "for the rich" is obvious, though the annual contribution limits (~$15k for Roth 401k, ~$5k for Roth IRA) are so low you can't get rich owning a Roth account.
Heh, Captain, your post reminds me of a joke...
ReplyDeleteQ: What's the difference between a pessimist and a cynic?
A: The pessimist says, "The world's gonna end and we're all gonna die." The cynic says, "The world's gonna end and we're all gonna die. HA HA HA!!!"
But as a wise man once said, realism is often mistaken for cynicism by those who don't have it.
http://perotcharts.com/
ReplyDeleteRoss Perot's blog. He illustrates our issues through charts and statistics.
Is it "too early" to cash in my retirement accounts and sock it into gold bullion/silver bullion/Swiss francs? (Other suggestions??)
ReplyDeleteWere the Pompeiians who ran away from the vicinity of Herculaneum called "paranoid" before H. exploded, destroying Pompeii?
Are we at that point, Capt.C??
BTW, Robert Ringer and Gary North suggested liquidating retirement accounts over 20 years ago!
Is it "too early" to cash in my retirement accounts and sock it into gold bullion/silver bullion/Swiss francs? (Other suggestions??)
ReplyDeleteWere the Pompeiians who ran away from the vicinity of Herculaneum called "paranoid" before H. exploded, destroying Pompeii?
Are we at that point, Capt.C??
BTW, Robert Ringer and Gary North suggested liquidating retirement accounts over 20 years ago!