Just Got Word

For those of you wondering what the future holds for union pension plans, here's a quick glimpse of what the future will bring.  This just in from the Duluth News Tribune: "An estimated 700 people packed Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday to oppose major pension cuts proposed by the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Plan. One by one the Teamsters, many of them retired, stepped to the microphone to ask the U.S. Treasury to reject the cuts and find a different solution to the sea of red ink threatening to swallow the giant retirement fund. “We worked hard for our money,” said Teamster Dennis Henderson of North St. Paul. Others angrily described the proposed cuts as unfair and devastating. Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury appointee who hosted the session, said he was determined to make sure retirees were heard. It’s the seventh feedback session on the cuts he’s held around the country. There was a similar turnout for a session in Detroit on Monday. ...

Kudos to Amy Howe of ScotusBlog for a well written 3/4/15 piece on the oral arguments presented to the Supreme Court on the merits of continuing the "state-based" Obamacare subsidy (King v. Burwell). If you don't have the time or the interest in reading the article, but you are interested in knowing if the subsidies will be killed off and spawn an insurance "death spiral," then let me sum it up as per Amy's interpretation of the questions and answers between counsels and judges. The judges tipped their hands by the questions they asked and the concerns that they raised. They are very much behind keeping things exactly the way they are now. As Amy puts it: "Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg all seemed like solid votes for the federal government, defending the subsidies, while the challengers could clearly count on the votes of Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito." I wasn't a math major, ...

Just Got Word LLC was recently awarded a custom website development contract by a major construction company based in Colorado.  Just thought we should get the word out that we can help your organization design and post custom websites.  If you need your old website replaced by something imaginable and creative, please contact us.

It's tough for financial writers to come up with new material so they have to be creative.  Unfortunately, the following attempt at saying something new demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the current bond market, which affords no opportunities for the small investor.  In fact, it's safe to say that with the current benchmark bond interest rates in play, the bond market is dead. This is one of the main reasons the Dow has surpassed the 17,000 mark -- money that would otherwise go into a vibrant bond market is instead finding its way into equities markets, and driving up stock values along the way. In the article, "Retirement Investing, Are You Doing It All Wrong?" the writer refers to an expert economist who argues investors should own more stocks the older they grow, not fewer, which also means those approaching retirement should cut back their participation in the bond market. What bond market is this author referring to? There is currently no bo...

An easy way to do this is to provide your employees with an annual total compensation statement like the one we just did for a blue chip financial services firm based in downtown Manhattan.  Here is a sample of the one-page statement we did for their employees.    Sample total compensation statement We can do personalized annual statements for your organization too.  Contact Just Got Word LLC for information and rates.

Since the dark days of 2008, employers have taken some steps to fix the 401k, the backbone of the nation's private retirement savings system. But Nobel laureate Robert C. Merton says that in the rush to upgrade these plans, sponsors and administrators have overlooked one big problem: They are managing the plans with the wrong goal in mind. "The only way to avoid a catastrophe is for plan participants, professionals, and regulators to shift the mind-set and metrics from asset value to income," explains Merton , who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1997. In recent years, employers have tried to improve 401k's by introducing features such as automatic enrollment and products including target-date funds. But these moves are not likely to be sufficient. To fix the 401k, he argues, employers and the financial services companies that manage the plans must get past the ongoing obsession with two things: account balances and annual returns. These metrics, M...

As a result of Obamacare, employers must understand, navigate, and adapt to a quickly changing, highly complex, and still uncertain marketplace for health benefits.  Here are some of the critical challenges: ·          Helping Employees, Dependents, and Retirees Understand Obamacare: Effective internal communications is an essential ingredient for an engaged, productive workforce with low turnover.  This is heightened under the dynamics and complexities of Obamacare. Unfortunately, employees will look to their employer to explain Obamacare (i.e., Affordable Care Act), even if the employer is not changing benefits.  Employees have friends and family who will need help understanding Obamacare.  The airwaves, mail boxes, and street corners will be packed with messaging from all angles and interests – some pro, some con, some partisan, some factually wrong, some even fraudulent, much of it confusing, and all of it...