The Latest Pension News
Vanguard shows why most 401(k) plans leave savers short
Source: Modesto Bee Automatic enrollment signed millions of American workers up for a retirement plan, creating a sense of progress that may not reflect the underlying numbers. Vanguard’s How America Saves report, covering nearly five million workplace retirement accounts through 2025, suggests the picture is more complicated than the headlines imply. Participation across Vanguard-administered plans reached a record 86% of eligible employees in 2025, with automatic enrollment driving that rate to 94%. The average total contribution rate also reached a [...]
Public Pensions Reach Strongest Fiscal Sustainability Position in More Than 20 Years
Source: NCPERS Public pensions have reached their strongest fiscal sustainability position in more than 20 years as they continue to make significant progress towards aligning long-term pension obligations with the economies that support them. NCPERS’ new research shows that in 2018, 45 states had pension liabilities growing faster than their economies. Today, that number has fallen to just two. The report, Measuring the Fiscal Sustainability of Public Pensions, builds on NCPERS’ sustainability valuation framework, introduced in 2022 as a complement [...]
Retirement Insecurity 2026: Americans’ Views of Retirement
Source: National Institute on Retirement Security As affordability pressures squeeze household budgets, Americans increasingly fear they will not be financially secure in retirement, while also expressing caution about artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency in retirement planning, according to a new national public opinion report, Retirement Insecurity 2026: Americans’ Views of Retirement. The research finds that 80% of Americans say the nation faces a retirement crisis, up sharply from 67 percent in 2020. Additionally, more than six in ten Americans (61 percent) [...]
The Benefits of Choosing a Job With a Pension Plan vs. 401(k) Contributions
By Deanna Ritchie Source: Due.com Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that just 15% of private industry employees have access to a pension, also known as a defined benefit plan. Employers began moving away from these plans in the late 1970s when the 1978 Revenue Act began allowing employees greater control over their retirement savings by using pre-tax dollars for 401(k) contributions. Some employers saw this as a potential opportunity to reduce risk and long-term financial obligations, ultimately [...]
Private vs. Public Pensions: How Does Their Funding Stack Up?
Source: American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries Running any pension plan entails challenges and has characteristics different from those of other retirement saving vehicles. But even among pension plans themselves there are variations. Pension plans run by private-sector employers and those run by governmental entities for their employees share their ultimate purpose of providing dependable and predictable revenue to their covered retirees. Still, however, they do vary from each other. One of the ways that private and public pension [...]
Caregivers facing greater financial strain, lower retirement confidence
Source: Benefits Canada Employees with caregiving responsibilities face greater financial strain, lower retirement confidence and more concern about future retirement risks than employees without caregiving responsibilities, according to a new survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. The survey, which polled more than 2,500 U.S. employees aged 25 and older, found just 36 per cent of caregivers said their health status is excellent or very good, compared to 45 per cent of non-caregivers. Nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) said caregiving [...]