I have had a couple of interesting conversations recently about CalPERS considering going to index/passive investing. As I have noted in the past, if a major and highly influential pension fund goes that route, how long will it be until others follow, seeking both safety in numbers and the potential defense to breach of fiduciary
Pensions
Why Jobs are Job 1, to Steal from an Old Ford Ad
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Pensions
Here’s a great piece – and not just because I am complimented in it – by Susan Mangiero on the continuing problem of workforce participation, and the impact on retirement financing of a less than robust job market. As Susan has pointed out in other posts, less workers, in a nutshell, equals fewer taxpayers and…
Doubling Down on a Bad Bet: Liability for Portfolio Company Pension Obligations After Sun Capital
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Pensions
Just what more is there to say about Sun Capital at this point? The decision, out of the First Circuit, concerns the withdrawal liability for a multiemployer pension plan of the private equity owners of a portfolio company that was a member of the pension plan, with the First Circuit finding that, while a certain claim…
The Lessons of Detroit for Private Sector Retirement Plans
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Much has been written over the years about the transition of employees from pension plans to 401(k)s by private industry over the past decade or so, with pensions disappearing and the obligation to fund – and risk of underfunding retirement – passed to employees. There is much to be said both for and against this…
To Boldly Go Where No Class Action Plaintiff Has Gone Before: Church Plan Class Actions
By Stephen Rosenberg on
One of the interesting developments that caught my eye recently, and likely many of yours as well, was the filing of class action complaints challenging whether certain plans were, in fact, church plans for purposes of ERISA and thus, exempt from many of its requirements. This excellent paper on this development, by Wilber Boies and…
Pensions as a Moral Issue, and the Role ERISA Can Play
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Pensions, Retirement Benefits
When you approach the Moakley federal courthouse in Boston from the direction of Boston proper, your eye is invariably drawn to a series of quotes engraved on the courthouse wall. I have walked to that courthouse an untold number of times, and still, each time, I read the quotes as I go by as though…
Going the Way of the Horse and Buggy: Comments on the Future, or Lack Thereof, of Pensions
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Pensions
These are two oddly complimentary stories, that tie closely to topics I have discussed regularly on this blog, including, among others, the difficulty faced by smaller shops of running a pension or other benefit plan, and the fact that no one at all wants to run a pension anymore. The first story is about a…
On Getting Out of the Pension Business
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Nobody wants to be in the pension business anymore (other than, I guess, vendors who provide defined benefit plan services, annuities, etc. to plans and their sponsors). The Washington Post had an interesting article recently on the vanishing pension, and of course everyone who works in this field has long known that plan sponsors have…
Monday Morning Quarterback: What NFL Referees Tell Us About the Public Pension Crisis
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Pensions
Here’s an interesting juxtaposition of two stories from over the weekend (if you consider a Monday morning story about football over the weekend to qualify temporally), the first this one from Saturday’s Wall Street Journal about the massive underfunding of state public employee pensions. If these were private pensions, the fiduciaries of the plans would…
The Zeitgeist of Chris Carosa
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I used to be a fan, back in the old days when The New Republic was actually meaningful and influential, of its zeitgeist table, as it really did, in a glance, sum up what people were thinking and talking about, albeit in a humorous way. I couldn’t help but think of that this morning when…