ERISA Archives - RetireAware Blog : RetireAware Blog

Allen Steinberg

22.06.2018 10.46 GMT+0000

Over 20 million Americans are employed by state and local governments, including teachers, police officers, and social workers. ERISA, and the fiduciary protections of ERISA, do not apply to these governmental employees. This represents a risk to the retirement security of these employees - a risk that is likely to become more significant in the future.

Public Employees: (Un)Equal Protection Under the Law

Governmental employee retirement savings do not have the same protections as employees in the private sector.

ERISA fiduciary Governmental

ERISA’s fiduciary protections do not apply to governmental plans and participants in governmental plans do not receive the same fiduciary protections as employees in corporate or private, non-profit plans. This gap places governmental employee retirement savings at risk and as the role of defined contribution plans in the governmental sector expands, it becomes increasingly important that these risks are addressed.

Allen Steinberg

26.10.2017 07.33 GMT+0000

Retirement plan assets are an attractive target for financial services firms. These firms (often including providers hired by the employer) have a wide variety of ways to steer employees to high priced products and services. And, despite efforts to help employees save and invest for retirement, employees remain vulnerable. Employers need to do more if they want to protect employees – and themselves.

Employees (Still) at Risk: Distributable Events

Protecting Employers by Protecting Employees’ Accounts

disclosure ERISA fiduciary

Employers provide lots of information to retirement plan participants about their investment choices and distribution options. Despite these efforts, there is a significant gap in efforts to protect employee savings. The gap occurs because financial services firms make a lot of money by steering employees to higher priced investment and insurance products. New Department of Labor regulations will still leave gaps – gaps that financial firms are sure to exploit. There is more that employers can do to protect plan participants – and themselves. But it will require a new approach.