Results tagged “retirement” from EdLabor Journal

If the answer is "twenty-eight percent," what's the question?

Q1: What percentage of Americans will be insured under the new health insurance reform law?
Q2: How much can a one-percentage point difference in 401(k) fees reduce overall retirement income over a lifetime of saving?
Q3: What's the percent of Committee Members up for re-election in 2010?
Q4: How much has age discrimination increased?

Continue reading for the answer.

Pies were delivered to each Finance Committee Senator today with a slice missing representing the fees Wall Street takes from 401(k) accountholders. According to a Department of Labor bulletin, a one-percentage point difference in fees would reduce overall retirement income by 28 percent over a lifetime of saving.  

TO WATCH AN ARCHIVED WEBCAST OF A PRESS CONFERENCE ON THIS ISSUE, CLICK HERE.


Created with flickrSLiDR.

Important 401(k) fee disclosure provisions were part of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (H.R. 4213), legislation that the House of Representatives approved and sent to the Senate on May 28. Last week, Sen. Max Baucus introduced proposed changes to the legislation that included the elimination of the requirement that 401(k)-type plans disclose all fees that participants pay.

At a press conference that just concluded, U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, asked that Senate put the fee disclosure requirements back into H.R. 4213.

“The Senate should side with middle class Americans who want to know the facts about fees and charges that threaten their retirement savings, and restore these critical provisions,” Miller said.

Miller was joined at the press conference by: U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ), chairman of the Health, Employment Labor and Pensions Subcommittee; Karen Friedman, policy director, Pension Rights Center; Cristina Martin-Firvida, director of economic issues, AARP; and Christian E. Weller, senior fellow, Center for American Progress, and associate professor of public policy, University of Massachusetts Boston. Watch everyone's statements on our YouTube page.

Protecting Americans’ Retirement Security

A majority of American workers rely on 401(k)-style plans to finance their retirements. Most account holders report that they do not know how much Wall Street middle men are taking from their retirement accounts.  Just a 1-percentage-point in excessive fees can reduce a worker’s 401(k) account balance by as much as 20 percent or more over a career.

Workers should have the right to know how much Wall Street intermediaries siphon off from their savings. Provisions included in H.R. 4213 regarding fee disclosure were based on the 401(k) Fair Disclosure and Pension Security Act, which was authored by Chairman Miller and approved by the Education and Labor Committee last year.  Specifically, these provisions:

Marketplace radio has a story about H.R. 2989, the 401(k) Fair Disclosure and Pension Security Act of 2009. It lays out the reasons for more transparency in 401(k) fees.

As 401ks continue to weaken in a rough economy, lawmakers are paying closer attention to what they can control: the buried fees. Over a lifetime, 401k fees can add up to a six-figures number.

No doubt 401ks have taken a beating in the economic downturn. Retirement plans have lost an estimated $2 trillion -- and that's brought more attention to the buried fees charged by 401k plans. Today, a House committee takes up legislation that would address those fees.

Here's Marketplace's Dan Grech.

This Sunday, 60 Minutes will air a segment on how the economic crisis is affecting workers’ 401(k)s and retirement security, featuring an interview with Chairman George Miller. 60 Minutes airs on CBS at 7 pm eastern.

View the brief clip previewing the segment below.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) believes the many fees extracted from 401(k) accounts are adding insult to injury for millions of Americans whose accounts have been decimated by stock losses and whose retirements are now in jeopardy.

Miller talks to 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft for a report on how the recession is affecting 401(k) retirement plans to be broadcast this Sunday, April 17, 2009.

"There clearly has been a raid on these funds by the people of Wall Street and it has cost the savers - and the future retirees - a lot of money that would otherwise be in their accounts, independent of the financial collapse," says Miller, the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. The chairman also dislikes the hidden nature of the more-than-a-dozen fees that most Americans are not fully aware are being skimmed off their 401(k)s. "And I'll bet you won't find half of them here," he tells Kroft, holding out a prospectus from a popular mutual fund found in many 401(k) portfolios.

The various fees can include legal fees, trustee fees, transactional fees, stewardship fees, bookkeeping fees, sales fees, asset management fees, investment management fees, investment advisor fees, finder's fees and many more.

Miller has been trying to curb what he considers excessive fees. "We tried to just put in some disclosure and transparency in these fees and we felt the full fury of the financial lobby," he says. (From CBSNews.com)

Preserving and strengthening 401(k)s is nothing new for Chairman Miller and the Education and Labor Committee. In 2007, the Committee passed the 401(k) Fair Disclosure for Retirement Security Act of 2007 (H.R.3185). In late 2008, the Committee helped suspend a tax penalty for seniors who did not take a minimum withdrawal from their depleted retirement accounts in 2009, and in February held a hearing regarding how to strengthen worker retirement security.

Many of the issues Chairman Miller discusses in the 60 Minutes segment will be discussed at the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee hearing regarding the 401(k) Fair Disclosure for Retirement Security Act of 2009 at 10:30 AM on April 22, 2009.

You will be able to watch the live webcast here.

Today, I chaired a U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor hearing in San Francisco where we examined how the current financial crisis is affecting retirement savings.  Witnesses told us that after a lifetime of planning and saving, a growing number of retirees are facing shrinking 401(k)s and increasing insecurity as a result of the ongoing financial crisis.  While this crisis may have started on Wall Street, it's Main Street that stands to suffer the most. More than ever before, there is an urgent need to help Americans strengthen their retirement savings.

In December 2006, Rep. George Miller, the new Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, announced that the Committee would be dedicated to the mission of strengthening America’s middle class. And over the past two years, the Committee has delivered on its promise. America's students, workers, and families need help more than ever during the current financial crisis, and the Committee will continue its work to strengthen the middle class. Below is an overview of the Committee’s legislative milestones in the 110th Congress.