Personal Finance Advice and Commentary

If you forgot about a pension benefit from a former employer, the PBGC could be looking for you.

There’s no question America is suffering from a retirement crisis. Some big names in retirement policy offer creative solutions.

Given a choice between taking a pension or a lump sum, think hard before you give up the promise of income for life.

Last week, General Motors followed Ford Motor Co. in offering retirees with a monthly pension payment a lump-sum buyout.

Hurray for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal pension insurance agency that protects consumers from losing their corporate pensions. The PBGC  isn’t rolling over and accepting bankrupt American Airline’s move to dump its pension obligations on the PBGC. Instead, the PBGC filed liens today against American Airlines after the airline failed to make all

For many people who are employed in public service jobs, this year’s retirement planning dilemma is the downsizing of retirement benefits. These cuts usually don’t affect people already retired or retiring soon — although reductions in interest rates and inflation adjustments may. For some public employees close to retirement age, retiring right away will net

Keeping up financially with our retired parents could prove to be an impossible challenge for many Americans, especially as we swallow the reforms that will help the country avoid default. Look at it this way, let’s say your parents have a $40,000 per year pension — not an unusual, or even particularly generous, number for many

Here’s how to make a boomer happy. Let him or her celebrate a 62nd birthday, draw Social Security and still keep working at full pay. Unfortunately, the system doesn’t work that way. Today, people who are between 62 and full retirement age — 65 or 66, depending on their age — can claim Social Security, but if

The state pension funds in 31 states are in jeopardy and could be exhausted by 2030, according to a new study by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Within 10 years, the pension funds in Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana, Oklahoma and Hawaii are expected to be in particularly serious trouble. How