New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday urged the city’s Police Pension Fund to divest from all assets related to gun and ammo manufacturing. The city’s Teachers’ Retirement System and its general Employees’ Retirement System have divested from gun holdings in recent years. Gun holdings make up approximately 0.0001% of the fund’s portfolio, … Continue reading NYC Mayor Wants Police Pension to Drop Gun Investments
Leo Kolivakis is a blogger, trader and independent senior pension and investment analyst. This post was originally published at Pension Pulse. Suzanne Woolley of Bloomberg reports, You’re About to Get Too Expensive for Your Pension Plan: The federal budget deal could speed the long, lingering death of old-fashioned defined-benefit pension plans, in which employers reward years of … Continue reading Budget Deal May Expedite Demise of Corporate DB Plans
Pension360 has occasionally covered the growing business of pension advances—businesses that apply the concept of a payday advance to retirement benefits by giving retirees an option to receive their pension as a lump sum. These schemes are rarely advantageous for retirees and are often predatory, but they remain largely under-the-radar and Missouri is so far … Continue reading U.S. Senate Hears Testimony on Pension Advance Schemes
In the past, we’ve briefly covered “pension advance” firms – firms that make very high-interest loans against retirees’ pensions, similar to a payday loan model. The business model itself is not illegal, except in Missouri. But federal and state regulators this week announced they’ll be taking two such firms to federal court for deceptive business … Continue reading Federal, State Regulators Take “Pension Advance” Firms To Court
Leo Kolivakis is a blogger, trader and independent senior pension and investment analyst. This post was originally published at Pension Pulse. Kathryn May of the Ottawa Citizen reports, PS pension plan accounting changes spark pre-election concerns: The federal government is changing the way it accounts for its employees’ pension plans — a change that would indicate the … Continue reading Pension Pulse: Accounting Changes Worry Canada’s Federal Unions?
The National Council on Teacher Quality released a report last week that graded the teachers’ pension funds of every state. [The full report card can be found here.] The report slapped the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) with a C- grade, calling the system underfunded, inflexible and not portable. But TRSL took issue with … Continue reading Louisiana Teachers Pension Fires Back at Think Tank Report
Retirees are telling Nebraska lawmakers that the state’s tax burden is too high, and additional tax cuts may be necessary to keep seniors from fleeing the state during retirement. One option retirees are pushing: exempting Social Security benefits from the income tax. A tax package passed last year attempted to shore up some of these … Continue reading Nebraska Retirees Ask Lawmakers for Social Security Tax Break
Republicans control both houses of Congress, and there are many leadership shifts underway at the committee level as well. These shifts open the door for changes to retirement plans coming from the federal level. One idea sure to be brought up is Senator Orrin Hatch’s SAFE Retirement Act. From Pensions and Investments: At the committee … Continue reading In Congress, Leadership Shifts Could Lead to Retirement Plan Changes
Last month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed a bill that would have granted certain war veterans a “jump-start” toward drawing a state pension. Some members of New York’s City Council are calling on state lawmakers to overturn that veto. From the Queens Chronicle: Members of the City Council’s Veterans Committee are urging state lawmakers … Continue reading New York City Council Members Urge State Lawmakers to Overturn Governor’s Veto of Veteran Pension Bill
Bruce Rauner won the Illinois governorship, in part, by campaigning as a reformer and a political outsider who would “shake up Springfield.” Rauner targeted the state’s underfunded pension systems as a prime candidate for reform in at least one campaign ad, when he noted that Illinois carries “$8,000 of pension debt for every man, woman … Continue reading Watchdog Report: Bruce Rauner Adviser Is Triple-Dipping “Prince of Pensions”
