Workers' Compensation: Retirement

Workers' Compensation: Delay Retiring: A 'Smart' Decision

22 hours ago

March 6, 2014. If postponing retirement can improve one's financial security in old age, why do so many people rush to retire when they reach age 62? Much research has explored the financial and health reasons that explain ...

Workers' Compensation: Raising the mandatory judicial retirement ...

Oct 11, 2013

The New York City Bar Association says it supports a proposal on the state's Nov. 5 ballot to amend the New York Constitution to raise the mandatory retirement age to 80 for state Court of Appeals judges and Supreme Court ...

Workers' Compensation: Many Americans don't expect to ever retire

Oct 26, 2013

A new Wells Fargo study found that 37% of people don't ever expect to retire, but instead will have to "work until I'm too sick or die." Survey respondents say paying the monthly bills is their highest priority, and saving for ...

Friday, November 1, 2013

Aging Activities: Managing someone else’s money

As America's workforce ages new concerns are emerging for the growing aging population. From time to time we will be focussing on Aging Activities and issues, by providing information and commentary. Today's post is shared from consumerfinance.gov

Millions of Americans are managing money or property for a loved one who is unable to pay bills or make financial decisions. This can be very overwhelming. But, it’s also a great opportunity to help someone you care about, and protect them from scams and fraud.
We are releasing four easy-to-understand booklets to help financial caregivers. The Managing Someone Else’s Money guides are for agents under powers of attorney, court-appointed guardians, trustees, and government fiduciaries (Social Security representative payees and VA fiduciaries.)
The guides help you to be a financial caregiver in three ways:

They walk you through your duties.
They tell you how to watch out for scams and financial exploitation, and what to do if your loved one is a victim.
They tell you where you can go for help.

You can also order free print copies (including bulk orders) online soon.
We’re working hard to empower older Americans to have a secure financial future. Sometimes family members, caregivers and others in the community must pitch in. We’re here to help you, too.
4 Comments » | Categories: Featured | Fraud | Older Americans | Scams

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Most Americans accumulating debt faster than they’re saving for retirement - The Washington Post

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from m.washingtonpost.com

A majority of Americans with 401(k)-type savings accounts are accumulating debt faster than they are setting aside money for retirement, further undermining the nation’s troubled system for old-age saving, a new report has found.
Three in five workers with defined contribution accounts are “debt savers,” according to the report released Thursday, meaning their increasing mortgages, credit card balances and installment loans are outpacing the amount of money they are able to save for retirement.
The imbalance is expanding even as policymakers are encouraging people to set aside more by offering generous tax breaks and automatically enrolling workers in retirement accounts that in some cases automatically escalate the amount of money over time.
Currently, workers with retirement savings accounts put aside more than 11 percent of their pay for retirement — 5 percent in their own accounts, and 6.2 percent in Social Security.
Despite that — and despite the $2.5 trillion the report says employers have poured into defined contribution accounts from 1992 to 2012 — the retirement readiness of most Americans has been slipping, according to the report by HelloWallet, a D.C. firm that offers technology-based financial advice to workers and conducts research of economic behavior.
“Policy has tunnel vision. It tends to tackle problems on a piecemeal basis. The impact of policy on consumer finances is a bit like playing a game of...

Many Americans don't expect to ever retire

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.usatoday.com

retire-work

In a sign of just how bleak retirement prospects have gotten, more than a third of Americans say they will have to work until they literally can't anymore.
A new Wells Fargo study found that 37% of people don't ever expect to retire, but instead will have to "work until I'm too sick or die." Survey respondents say paying the monthly bills is their highest priority, and saving for retirement is a distant second.
"There were a couple of points I found shocking or troubling," says Laurie Nordquist, head of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. "One is the increase in the number of people who say paying bills was their top day-to-day concern."
NEW: USA TODAY Retirement Section
That's especially concerning, because the economy has improved in the last few years. "The middle class is not feeling it when it comes to their own situations," she says.
The annual Wells Fargo Middle Class Retirement study, a telephone survey conducted by Harris Interactive of 1,000 middle-class Americans between the ages of 25 and 75, was released Wednesday. Highlights:
• 59% say their top day-to-day concern is paying the bills
• 42% say both saving and paying the bills is not possible
• 48% are not confident they will be able to save enough for a comfortable retirement
• 34% say they will have to work until they are at least 80 because they have not saved enough.
"Americans are great bill-payers, but they are horrible savers," says Michael Chadwick, CEO of Chadwick...

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Aging Baby Boomers Continue to Postpone Retirement, Report Finds

Working into retirement age is changing the way workers' compensation programs must handle claims. Developing new techniques to handle aging worker claims requires new economic and social considerations. Today's post is shared from alfa.org.

A new survey reveals the financial impact the Great Recession has had on the Baby Boomer generation. 47 percent of working adults surveyed said they now expect to retire later than they previously thought, with an average retirement age of 66. This figure was nearly three years later than the respondents’ reported estimate when they were 40.

Working in "Retirement"

The poll, conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, surveyed 1,024 people aged 50 and older nationwide. Those surveyed were asked questions about their employment status, financial situation, and plans for retirement.
Overall, men were more likely than women to postpone their retirement plans. Minorities, parents of dependent children, those without health insurance, and those with an annual income of less than $50,000 were also more likely to delay their plans.
Among those surveyed who had already retired, 4 percent said they were looking for a job and 11 percent are already working again. Among employed respondents, 82 percent said they were likely to seek at least part-time employment for extra income during retirement.

Retirement Savings and Ageism

When asked specifically about retirement savings, about an equal share of those surveyed felt secure about the amount of savings they have for retirement (46 percent) as feel anxious (45 percent). However, the researchers found that a significant portion of respondents gave signs of...

Monday, October 14, 2013

National Survey: Working Longer—Older Americans’ Attitudes on Work and Retirement

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has released the results of a major new survey exploring the views of older Americans about their plans for work and retirement. It provides in-depth information about a rapidly growing segment of the population that by choice or circumstance is working longer. The Great Recession has had a marked impact on retirement plans.

“The survey illuminates an important shift in Americans’ attitudes toward work, aging, and retirement,” said Trevor Tompson, director of the AP-NORC Center. “Retirement is not only coming later in life, it no longer represents a complete exit from the workforce. The data in this survey reveal strikingly different views of retirement among older workers today than those held by the prior generation.”

With funding provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted a national survey of 1,024 adults ages 50 and over. It is a segment of the population that is not only growing rapidly in numbers, but is also becoming substantially healthier. Projections show that the U.S. population age 65 and over will increase to 19 percent of the population by 2030, up from 13 percent in 2010, an estimated 72 million people. At the same time, people age 55 and over comprise the fastest growing segment of the workforce. By 2020, approximately one fourth of American workers will be...

Friday, October 11, 2013

Raising the mandatory judicial retirement age to 80

Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com

The New York City Bar Association says it supports a proposal on the state’s Nov. 5 ballot to amend the New York Constitution to raise the mandatory retirement age to 80 for state Court of Appeals judges and Supreme Court justices.
The state constitution currently requires all state judges to retire at age 70.
However, judges of the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, and justices of the state’s main trial court, the Supreme Court, may serve for up to six years after retirement so long as court administrators certify every two years that the judge’s services are necessary to expedite the business of the court, and he or she is mentally and physically able and competent to perform the full duties of the office.
“The City Bar supports Proposal 6, consistent with our longstanding position that the mandatory judicial retirement age, which was enacted in 1869, is outdated,” the bar association said in a statement Monday.
“Many individuals who reach the age of 70 have a substantial number of productive years ahead of them. Many states and the federal judiciary permit judges to serve past the age of 70, and New York should as well.”
The association argues that raising the retirement age would ease a strained court system — in particular, permit the transfer of Supreme Court justices to the state’s overburdened family courts.
In Pennsylvania, three groups of judges sued over...

Workers' Compensation: Aging Population Requires More Attention

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Do I Need To File A Tax Return On My Workers Compensation?

Today's post comes from guest author Paul J. McAndrew, Jr. from Paul McAndrew Law Firm.

If you received workers’ compensation benefits, you may be wondering if you will need to report this money to the IRS and pay taxes on it. Under the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Act, money that you receive as workers’ compensation benefits is not taxable, with a few exceptions. You will have to pay taxes on your work comp benefits if:

if the benefits are retirement plan benefits (this is true even if you retired due to disability)
if part of your workers’ compensation benefit money lowers the amount you receive from your Social Security or Railroad Retirement Benefits. In that case, that the part of your workers compensation benefits is considered part of your Social Security (or RRB) and may be taxable.

If you return to work, your salary will be taxable again, as is it was before you received workers’ compensation benefits.

Who Thought That This Would Be The Last Generation to Retire?

If retirement is going to become history in the US, state legislatures may need to consider the age cap to workers' compensation benefits that is becoming an all too trendy reform concept. The employment landscape in the US is rapidly changing, and retirement maybe going by the boards, but workers' compensation planners may have inadvertently designed reforms that terminate benefits pre-maturely.

The Alliance for Retired Americans has now initiated a campaign to alert workers throughout the nation that benefits maybe the target of a takeback effort by the U.S. Congress as the year and budget process wraps up.

Some anticipated revisions that are expected to be offered in lieu of statutory cuts are the following:

Raising the Social Security age to 70

Reducing the Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA)

Raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67

Cutting the Medicaid funding that helps seniors afford long-term care

Taking away traditional Medicare benefits, leaving seniors at the mercy of insurance companies.

Related Blogs on the Aging Workforce and Retirement

Jul 07, 2012

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Jan 20, 2011

Susan M. Collins (R-Maine) has asked for an investigation by the Government Accounting Office to determine if too many Federal employees of retirement age are receiving workers' compensation benefits. She stated, ""I am ...

CMS Issues Announcement on Submitting Rated Age

Apr 22, 2009

"Effective immediately [April 21, 2009] , submitted rated ages that do not conform to CMS' standards for acceptable proof of Rated Age, which includes being independent, on the letterhead of an insurance carrier or settlement ...