My father and aunt grew up in Israel after its independence in 1948 and they both lived there for about a dozen or so years. \u00a0My aunt vividly describes her experience in much more fonder terms than my father does. My father notes that in early Israel, there was food rationing and times were tough. My aunt talks about it differently and glosses over the hardship because that time was the time of her youth. We often look fondly on the past and gloss over the tough times because it was a time when we were young.<\/p>\n
To be honest, while I grew up on Intellivision, I would rather have had a Wii in those days.<\/p>\n
While recent stories and critics have pointed out the shortcomings of 401(k) plans, an interesting article<\/a> by my friend Chris Carosa in Fiduciary News<\/a> asks whether it\u2019s time to bring back pension plans. While styles do come back and bellbottoms did, ruffled shirts from the 1970\u2019s and defined benefit plans will not. Thanks to financial concerns and regulatory burdens, employers will not be shifting funding retirement from the employee to the employer.<\/p>\n While defined benefit plans are celebrated with much lore, they weren\u2019t great benefits for those employees who didn\u2019t have them. For those that did have them, they had 10-20 year vesting schedules (prior to TRA 1986) and pensions may be partially lost if the PBGC had to take over the Plan and fully lost prior to the enactment of ERISA (ask the folks at Studebaker).<\/p>\n \u00a0Defined benefit plans were staples of larger companies, unionized industries, and governmental workers. Small businesses, the staple of this country\u2019s economy did not have access to low cost retirement plans because the plans in place at that time were employer contributory and therefore likely cost prohibitive. Thanks to 401(k) plans, simplified employee pension plans, and SIMPLE plans, many small businesses now have access to low cost retirement savings plans that they couldn\u2019t sponsor 35 years ago.<\/p>\n So while defined benefit plans are terrific benefits, I think more employers have greater access to offering retirement plans. If you have data to prove otherwise, I am willing to admit I\u2019m wrong.<\/p>\n I have never been covered by a defined benefit plan and I might never be covered by one and I am fine with that. While it would be nice if all employers would shift back to pension plans, so would world peace. I\u2019m not holding my breath for either.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My father and aunt grew up in Israel after its independence in 1948 and they both lived there for about a dozen or so years. \u00a0My aunt vividly describes her experience in much more fonder terms than my father does. … Continue reading