Nevin's Data "Points"

There’s no one silver bullet likely to close the nation’s retirement plan coverage gap—but the target is pretty easy to spot. As it turns out, the nation’s retirement plan access coverage gap is almost exclusively found among small businesses, and it’s not hard to imagine why. The failure rate for small businesses is daunting—and those who’ve managed to avoid that fate are doubtless focused on trying to avoid becoming a statistic. Under those circumstances one can well appreciate that offering benefits, much less RETIREMENT benefits, probably seems like a luxury for another time, if not another business. A recent issue brief by Anqi Chen and Alicia Munnell of the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College examined the issue, and drawing on previous research [i] cited the following three main barriers: uncertain revenues that make it hard for a firm to commit to a plan; employee preferences for wages and other benefits; [ii] and the cost associated with esta...

As the nation enters its third month under the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems a dramatic understatement to say we are living in uncertain times. Let’s face it, even as the nation begins to (re)open, concerns about the coronavirus remain widespread, and the markets, though stabilizing, remain volatile. Unemployment rates, though optimism remains that they will be short-lived, are at levels not seen since… well, at levels never seen before. And then, in the midst of all this, as a nation, we are reeling from a fresh wound—the tragedy and implications of George Floyd’s death—and while many are hopeful that meaningful change can finally come from this, there’s sadness—and anger—that the protests calling for that change have been accompanied by acts of violence. Amidst all this worry and uncertainty, it’s hard to believe that the CARES Act —and the Payroll Protection Program —have only just been drafted, executed, and implemented to help stave off at least ...

Delegates to last week’s NAPA DC Fly-In Forum had a lot to learn and say about a wide array of topics – but multiple employer plans (MEPs) dominated the discussion. The reason, as has been noted in previous coverage on NAPA Net, is the Small Business Employees Retirement Enhancement Act, introduced earlier this month  by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), which includes provisions regarding so-called “open” MEPs, a type of employee benefit plan that can be maintained as a single plan in which two or more unrelated employers participate. This is a concept that has received bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, and of which the American Retirement Association has been largely supportive, viewing it as a device that could broaden coverage by encouraging employers to offer a plan. However, under this bill, employers that have 100 or fewer employees who earned at least $5,000 during the preceding year and that participate in a pooled employer plan (PEP) registered with the Labor D...