The vast financial losses and uncertainty during the last year have forced all generations to reassess the funding, timing, and purpose of retirement. At this pivotal moment, Age Wave launched Retirement at the Tipping Point: The Year That Changed Everything™, a landmark national study conducted by leading research firm Harris Interactive.

The Public Fund Survey is an online compendium of key characteristics of the nation's largest public retirement systems and is sponsored by the National Association of State Retirement Administrators and the National Council on Teacher Retirement for the purpose of increasing knowledge and understanding of the public pension community.

Social Security Administration  in mid-October 2009 released a bulletin entitled "The Disappearing Defined Benefit Pension and Its Potential Impact on the Retirement Incomes of Baby Boomers." The percentage of workers covered by a traditional annuity, often based on years of service and final salary, has been steadily declining over the past 25 years.

The National Institute on Retirement Security on July 30, 2009, released a new study titled, The Pension Factor: Assessing the Role of Defined Benefit Plans in Reducing Elder Hardships.

The report finds defined benefit pensions, such as our own Washington State LEOFF 1 and LEOFF 2 retirement plans, besides being good for the members and their family, are a benefit to the community in general.

The National Institute on Retirement Security  published a February 2009 fact sheet based on 2006 information, which is the latest data compiled.

Expenditures made by retirees of state and local government provide a steady economic stimulus to Washington communities and the state economy. In 2006, 129,378 residents of Washington received a total of $2.35 billion in pension benefits from state and local pension plans, with $2.17 billion paid from plans within the state and the remainder originating from plans in other states.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in prices over time of goods and services purchased by households.  This article gives a very general overview.  Much more data can be found on the BLS site.

The Center for State and Local Government Excellence has issued its first issue brief on retiree health benefits, “The Crisis in State and Local Government Retiree Health Benefit Plans: Myths and Realities.” The brief, written by Robert L. Clark, examines the current financial status of state retiree health plans.

The 5.8 percent cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) – the largest in 26 years – is an important reminder that keeping pace with inflation is one of the attributes that makes Social Security benefits such a unique source of income. (The other is that the payments continue for life.)

An interesting case came before the Supreme Court of Washington recently requiring it to determine whether retirement health care and welfare benefits provided in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) vested for life employees who reach retirement eligibility during the term of the agreement.

Appellants were nine current or retired employees of the Port of Seattle, who were eligible to receive retirement welfare benefits pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement between the Port and their union. After the CBA expired, the Port ceased contributing to the welfare fund, which administered the welfare benefits provided to eligible employees and retirees.

WASHINGTON, DC, October 9, 2008: A lawsuit filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia charges the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with adopting policies that deny otherwise eligible retirees their rightful Social Security benefits if those retirees choose not to enroll in Medicare. The plaintiffs have asked the Courts to temporarily and permanently prohibit SSA and HHS from enforcing the policies,which were improperly adopted, the plaintiffs say, without required public notice and hearings.