By Matthew Makowski Nearly all corporate pensions have been replaced by contribution-based 401k plans. There are all kinds of reasons why companies have switched from benefit plans to contribution plans.
Most employees don’t stay with an employer long enough to benefit from pension plans anymore. And on the employer side of the equation, many large companies said they couldn’t compete with rivals not offering similar retirement plans… The cost of supporting pension funds was simply too high.
The death of pensions has been criticized quite a bit over the years. After all, pensions were a more stable plan for the prospective retiree. Under this plan, …read more