| The public pension squeeze
Officials in Frankfort are cringing over the future of an underfunded state retiree benefits system predicted to run out of money in 2022. But in cities and counties across Kentucky, the crisis is already squeezing budgets like a massive vise. Struggling to meet dramatic increases in contribution rates caused by rising pension and retiree health insurance costs, local governments are desperately looking for ways to cut costs and raise revenue for already tight budgets. In Florence and Bellevue, elected officials swallowed hard and raised taxes. And still, said Bellevue City Administrator Tom Eigel, he finds himself going through his budget line item by line item, trimming fuel, overtime, professional fees and supplies - "even if it's a few hundred here or a few hundred there." In Covington, officials have cut about a dozen positions over the last few years and have frozen salaries, straining relations with employee unions and complicating contract negotiations.
Tommie Brooks Named Symetra Financial's Chief Actuary
BELLEVUE, Wash., March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Symetra Financial announced today that Tommie Brooks has been named vice president and chief actuary. Brooks, who has been with the company for 15 years, will be the senior manager in charge of actuarial functions and guide the company's product pricing strategies, insurance risk analysis and reserving. Brooks will assume leadership of the actuarial division from Margaret Meister, Symetra's chief financial officer and prior chief actuary. Previously, Brooks served as managing actuary for Symetra's life insurance subsidiaries. Brooks began his career with Symetra in 1992 as an actuarial student in the Retirement Services division, and later went on to hold several managerial positions with actuarial teams throughout the company. He attained the Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in 1998 and is a graduate of Central Washington University.
Social Security is April 26 lecture topic
Retiring baby boomers and the future of Social Security will be topics of a lecture on April 26 hosted by the Economics Department at California State University, Fresno. It will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the University Business Center, room 192. Guest speaker will be Dr. Randall Wray, a professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Attempting to tackle the issues surrounding the future of Social Security, Wray will address the question, Can America afford to grow old? Wray also serves as a senior research associate at the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability and is a senior scholar at the Levy Economics Institute. He researches and writes on full employment policy, monetary theory and policy, Social Security and budget policy. For more information, call 559.278.2672.
IRAs can make your retirement years even more golden
If you've been paying attention in the last quarter century, you've noticed a gradual shift in responsibility for who's going to pay for your retirement. The message becomes more clear with each new piece of tax legislation and every time a major employer freezes its pension plan. More and more, it seems, we are on our own.
The largest generation America has ever birthed is reaching retirement age. By their very numbers, 78 million baby boomers are forcing society to rethink how retirement will be financed.
Yet as our responsibility for paying for retirement increases, so does the opportunity to make those years even more golden. We have powerful tools at our disposal, but it appears we've yet to learn how to utilize them fully.
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, individual retirement accounts held $3.67 trillion in assets in 2005.
AM Best Affirms Ratings of Lincoln National Corporation’s Subsidiaries
OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of A+ (Superior) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) of "aa" of the key life/health insurance subsidiaries of Lincoln National Corporation (Lincoln) (Philadelphia, PA) (NYSE: LNC). Concurrently, A.M. Best has affirmed the debt ratings on the group's existing debt securities. The outlook on all ratings is stable. (Please see link below for a detailed listing of the companies and ratings.) The ratings reflect the organization's prominent position in the wealth management and asset accumulation marketplace, strong operating and business profile, prudent approach to enterprise risk management as well as its diversified sources of revenue, earnings and cash flows. Lincoln's trends in variable annuity net flows continue to be favorable, and operating results from its life insurance and employer markets remain strong.
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