John Iekel

We hear a lot about how well Americans are saving — or not — for their retirement. Legg Mason Global Asset Management has unveiled EZ IRA, a payroll deduction IRA program intended to provide a way to build that savings rate.“Hopefully — and I truly believe this — this is just the beginning.... READ MORE

The IRS and Social Security Administration have issued their cost-of-living adjustments relevant to retirement benefits for 2015.   IRS Limits The IRS on Oct. 23 announced COLAs affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for tax year 2015. Some of the limits... READ MORE

Education funding has figured prominently in the Michigan gubernatorial race, says fiscal analyst James Hohman, but not for the reason one may expect. In a piece in the Port Huron Times Herald, Hohman, who is assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, argues that... READ MORE

Public pensions can be fair game when a city government declares bankruptcy under federal law, the federal judge overseeing Stockton, Calif.’s bankruptcy has ruled.U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein on Oct. 8 ruled that the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause trumps California’s public... READ MORE

State pension plans, long beleaguered and adrift in a sea of red, may have turned a corner. A report by LifeHealthPRO says that data from Bloomberg show an increase in the states’ ability to meet their pension requirements. A slight increase, but an increase nonetheless.Bloomberg found that the... READ MORE

The fiscal pressure that public pension plan obligations exerts on state governments is not going away, a recently released report cautions. The Cato Institute expects that the cost of those plans will be a major driver of state budgets.Cato’s “Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors 2014... READ MORE

Pennsylvania and neighbor to the east New Jersey, no strangers to bracing news regarding the effect of their financially strapped public pension plans, have received yet more tough assessments. And the Keystone State’s neighbor to the west, Ohio, has as well.Fitch announced on Sept. 23 that it cut... READ MORE

Oregon State Treasurer Ted Wheeler recently presented the legislature with recommendations for increasing Oregonians’ retirement savings, access to a retirement plan and ability to enroll in one. The recommendations are the work of the state’s Retirement Security Task Force, which the legislature... READ MORE

The states may serve as laboratories and “try novel social and economic experiments,” wrote U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and a recent NTSA webcast addressed how they do that regarding retirement systems. In “Public Pensions in Flux? A Review of State Retirement System and Alternatives... READ MORE