Dawning of the DC plan age.(defined contribution)

Pensions & Investments, October, 2006 by Webman, Nancy K.

Byline: Nancy K. Webman When I think about pension reform, I am reminded of the song from the musical "Hair'' about the dawning of the age of Aquarius. Even though the need for reform was driven by defined benefit plan issues, the new law clearly signals Washington's acceptance of the growing dominance of defined contribution plans as providers of retirement income in America.

Congress tackled numerous huge defined contribution plan issues, including company stock (to prevent another Enron Corp.-like debacle), investment advice and automatic enrollment. That auto enrollment - when an employee has to opt out of participating, rather than opt in - is even included in the new law is stunning to me. Not too many years ago an attempted move to automatic...

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