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Associated Press | Boeing workers who assemble the giant C-17 cargo jets in Long Beach, Calif., are on picket lines in a dispute over pension and medical benefits.
The walkout began at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, and picket lines are up at several Boeing locations in Long Beach. Boeing, which is based in Chicago, is Long Beach’s largest employer with some 1,700 workers.
Get the full story: Boeing workers protest changes in benefits.
By Becky Yerak | Older, richer Chicagoans are more anti-social than affluent seniors elsewhere, a new survey indicates.
In retirement, 67 percent of affluent people age 65 and older
nationally say they plan to “focus on spending more time with family
and friends.” But only 57 percent of older Chicago fat cats profess
that high-minded ideal, the lowest among 14 U.S. cities, according to
the latest Merrill Lynch Affluent Insights Quarterly.
From Bloomberg News | Human resources consultant Hewitt Associates has some bad news about average 401(k) balances — they’re still off 2007 totals by 11 percent.
Read the full story: bloomberg.com
By Becky Yerak | Despite living through a serious recession, more than a third of
Americans would give themselves either a C, D or F on their
understanding of personal finance, according to a survey released Monday
by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.
Also, a third of adults don’t put any part of their annual household
income toward retirement. Although that’s unchanged from the last year’s
annual Consumer Financial Literacy Survey, that’s up 5 percentage
points since the 2008 survey.
From the Financial Times | Kraft Foods has asked about 3,600 people at British confectioner Cadbury Plc to choose between their present pension plan or possible pay increases.
Get the full story: ft.com.
Associated Press | The United Auto Workers union is hoping to raise at least $1.3 billion for its retiree health care trust fund by selling all of its 362 million warrants for Ford Motor Co. stock.
The trust will auction the warrants, which were issued in December 2009 as part of contract talks with the union, starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Ford said Monday in a statement. The automaker and union agreed to set up the trust to help Ford remove retiree health care costs from its books while it was in financial trouble in 2007.
By Ameet Sachdev
| Aon Corp.’s employee-benefit consulting unit has agreed to acquire JPMorgan Compensation and Benefit Strategies, a division of the bank’s retirement-plan services.
The transaction will expand Aon Consulting’s offerings in pension and health care actuarial services. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close at the end of the month, were not disclosed.
| Associated Press | The percentage of workers who say they’ve saved for retirement slid to 69 percent in January, down from 75 percent in 2009, according to a new survey released Tuesday by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Perhaps more alarming is the increasing number of workers who say they have little or no retirement savings. More than a quarter of those surveyed said they have less than $1,000 set aside. That’s less than a mortgage payment for many homeowners. |
See also • Survey highlights: Workers struggle to save for retirement |
From Crain’s Chicago Business | Every Chicago resident is on the hook for a whopping $5,821 in unfunded liability for pension promises to city and Cook County public employees. According to a new study of 10 funds — including from the city, Cook County, Chicago Public Schools, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Chicago Park District and the Chicago Transit Authority — the average fund had only 67.2% of the investments on hand at the end of fiscal 2008 that will be needed to pay retirement benefits.
Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com.
Associated Press | The Obama administration on Friday proposed new regulations aimed at
protecting workers’ retirement savings from unethical financial
advisers.
The safeguards would protect workers from conflicts of interest on the
part of advisers who manage their 401(k)s and individual retirement
accounts. The administration estimates that the protections would
affect 15 million workers.
From Pensions & Investments | A U.S. District Court judge in Chicago dismissed a Northern Trust counterclaim against BP Corp. North America alleging ERISA violations. BP’s savings and retirements plans’ suit against Northern Trust over investment losses is proceeding.
Read the full story: pionline.com
By Greg Burns | Everybody knew it was coming, but it arrived faster than almost anyone
expected. As of this year, Social Security will be running in the red
for the first time in a quarter-century, thanks to the lingering recession.
In fact, more than 2.7 million piled into the program last year as job prospects
dwindled, up almost half a million from a busy year in 2008.
Read the full story: chicagotribune.com/business
By Mary Ellen Podmolik | There may be some good news coming from your employer: a new survey
shows many are considering restoring company 401(k) matches that they’d
suspended or done away with during the worst of the economic downturn.
