DONG HOA, Vietnam (Reuters) – While coronavirus lockdowns caused many men across the world to grow their hair longer than usual, none compare with Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Chien who has gone almost 80 years without a trim. The 92-year-old from the southern Mekong ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – What happens to Social Security if we eliminate its funding? That is the question to ask after Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum here last weekend ordering the deferral through year-end of revenue collected under the Federal Ins... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Palmerston, the cat who has lived at the Foreign Office for four and a half years, will trade in his London residence for retirement in the countryside, where his mouse-catching duties for the diplomats will come to an end. Writing to the mo... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Charlie Rich, the late country music singer and songwriter, had it right when he crooned this famous line: “Oh, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.” We need to remind Congress of the truth of that line as it tries to push a plan ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The idea of using investments to promote environmental and social causes has grown quickly in recent years, and retirement plans looked like the next frontier – until the Trump administration weighed in last month. The U.S. Department of La... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tina Smets had long thought about getting a college degree, but that seemed impossible. As a mom of three kids, waitressing nights at a local restaurant in Kearney, Nebraska, the 31-year-old did not want to saddle her young family with ton... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Employer retirement plans are not known for their flashy investments – a majority of 401(k) investors these days use target date funds that invest in broad, diversified equity and fixed income mutual funds that automatically rebalance to mi... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The COVID-19 pandemic has put a bright spotlight on weaknesses in many of the systems designed to protect Americans from risks. But with older people more susceptible to serious illness and death from the virus, the problems in our Medicare... More »
(Reuters) – Human Interest, which helps small and medium-sized businesses set up 401K plans for employees, said on Wednesday it had extended its Series C funding round to $50 million due to more demand during the coronavirus crisis. The San Francisco-based sta... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Small businesses are among the hardest hit as the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause economic uncertainty in communities across the United States. As some state economies begin to reopen, we invited a group of small business experts t... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – At the Tokyo elder-care home where 27-year-old Yoshimu works, the coronavirus has stretched already tight staffing, leaving residents to sometimes sit longer in soiled diapers or to steal food from one another. “Everything’s slower. If feedin... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. jobless claims have exceeded 30 million since the coronavirus outbreak hit the country, wiping out a decade of job gains and sending many Americans scrambling to find work and cash in on government aid. As part of our weekly #AskReute... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – In what now seems like a galaxy far, far away, Republican lawmakers routinely talked up the idea of raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. In fact, we were in that galaxy just three years ago. A higher Medicare age was an awful... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – After closing their doors to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, many small businesses face an uncertain future following government-ordered lockdowns. As part of our weekly #AskReuters Twitter chat series, Reuters gathered a group of s... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Many Americans have found themselves quickly adjusting to new routines, offices and “co-workers” as mass lockdowns keep millions of employees confined to their homes and apartments. As part of our #AskReuters Twitter chat series, Reuters i... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday she was donating $10 million to coronavirus relief efforts, including a new venture to help get food to vulnerable Americans during the coronavirus epidemic. Winfrey, one of America’s richest and most infl... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The financial industry wants the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to hold off on parts of a new rule requiring brokers to disclose potential conflicts of interest, citing disruptions caused by the coronavirus, four people with kno... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. pension funds that delayed rebalancing their portfolios are likely to pump about $400 billion into stocks over the next two quarters, analysts at JP Morgan said, providing a potential boost to equity markets battered by the coronaviru... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The $2 trillion economic stimulus package racing toward passage in the U.S. Congress contains several important relief provisions for retirees, and for younger workers saving for retirement. Most of these provisions do a good job targeting ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When you see soda on sale at the supermarket, do you run screaming into the parking lot in a panic? Or do you buy six? This is the analogy Peter Palion, a certified financial planner in New York, uses to calm worried clients about volatili... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The breathtaking coronavirus-induced plunge of the stock market has unnerved retirement investors of all ages, but it poses special risks for people close to, or already retired. Unlike younger workers with many years ahead of earning and s... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Spoiler alert: None of the useful things you can do about your money right now involve your 401(k). Financial advisers tend to caution long-term retirement investors to stay the course during times of high volatility, like now with financi... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Former U.S. senator Alan Simpson summarized the argument well: seniors fighting Social Security benefit cuts were nothing more than “greedy geezers” stealing from young people “who are going to get gutted.” The Wyoming Republican’s memorabl... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – T. Rowe Price Group Inc said on Thursday it would ratchet up the risk in its target-date retirement portfolios, boosting stock allocations to as much as 98% for younger investors. Target-date funds are popular in 401(k) plans because they do... More »
NEW YORK(Reuters) – Allen Lomax knows how retirement is supposed to go: By your golden years, you should have paid off your house, built up a big pot of savings, and be able to face the years ahead without fear. The future is not quite shaping up like that for... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – New York state’s top pension fund official said it was reviewing whether to divest from 27 coal companies and could make decisions on $98 million in holdings within two months. The reviews by the third-largest U.S. state pension system, with... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Emotions — and expenses — often run high during a divorce, but people and their bank accounts can bounce back given enough time. A new study from Fidelity Investments, released Tuesday, shows that by five years after a divorce, most people... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The French capital’s Opera Bastille has been silent for nearly a month because its orchestra is on strike, but on Tuesday the musicians performed on the steps of the opera house to bring attention to their anger at planned pension reforms. Th... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Ballerinas in white tutus danced scenes from Swan Lake on the forecourt of the Paris Opera on Tuesday to protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to scrap their special pension benefits. Backed by musicians from the Paris Symphony Or... More »
(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) By Mark Miller CHICAGO (Reuters) – News flash: Members of Congress managed to walk and chew gum at the same time this week. In the midst of the impeachment furor, U.S. lawmakers ad... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – It is not often that a spending bill in Congress will make regular Americans run to their financial planners for emergency help before the holidays. But the Senate is poised to pass a spending bill on Friday that includes a huge swath of l... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Four branches of France’s hardline CGT union, including railway and transport workers, threatened on Sunday to step up protests unless the government withdraws its pension reform proposal this week. In a major overhaul of France’s complex pen... More »
CHEVILLY-LARUE, France (Reuters) – When French doctor Christian Chenay saw his first patients in 1951, penicillin was state of the art. Now 98 years old, he is still working and opens his surgery in the Paris suburbs two mornings a week for patients, some of w... More »
(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) By Mark Miller CHICAGO (Reuters) – The cost of Medicare is going up next year – way up. Federal officials announced late last week that the standard monthly premium for Medicare Pa... More »
(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) By Mark Miller CHICAGO (Reuters) – The current record-high level of income inequality in the United States affects all segments of society, but two new reports shed light on how th... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Fisher Investments founder Ken Fisher said there will be no lay-offs at his Washington state investment firm despite some $3 billion in withdrawals by pension funds and others over allegedly sexist remarks he made at an investor conference. ... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – A Texas retirement system and Goldman Sachs Group Inc pulled a combined $584 million from Fisher Investments on Friday, after allegations that firm founder Ken Fisher made sexist comments at a conference. The withdrawals come despite an apol... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – The Los Angeles fire and police pension system voted to terminate Fisher Investments on Thursday over allegedly sexist comments made by founder Ken Fisher earlier this month. Five of the system’s nine commissioners voted during a webcast mee... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Fallout from Kenneth Fisher’s alleged insensitive remarks about women escalated on Friday when a large Iowa pension plan cut ties with the money manager, whose firm has lost more than $1 billion in assets under management in the last week. T... More »
(Reuters) – A $34 billion Iowa pension plan on Friday said it will terminate an investment contract with Kenneth Fisher, whose alleged insensitive remarks about women has cost his firm more than $1 billion in assets under management. The Iowa Public Employees’... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Commissioners of a $23 billion Los Angeles fire and police pension fund are ready to drop the firm of money manager Kenneth Fisher, who is under fire for allegedly making insensitive remarks about women. Several members of the Los Angeles Fi... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) are expanding the employee-benefits services they offer, hoping to gain market share in the dull-but-reliable business of managing wealth for companies and employees. The banks, which ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) Just a few years ago, Democratic politicians were debating whether to accept cuts to Social Security benefits. No more: the only Social Security reform debate w... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you are seriously ill and homebound, or starting to be prone to forgetfulness, do you have someone you trust with your ATM code to run out and get you some cash? Are you really sure? Elder financial abuse runs the gamut from stranger da... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) Medicare experts often advise enrollees to re-shop their plan coverage during the annual fall open enrollment period. This is the time when you can make unlimit... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker was set to unveil a plan on Monday to greatly increase funding for elderly Americans needing long-term health care, and also to increase funding for people who look after them. Booker, a U.S... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Federal policy on retirement security is one chaotic mess right now. Just consider the contradictory state of affairs when it comes to pensions and retirement income. On the one hand, a bill called the Setting Every Community Up for Retirem... More »
(Reuters Health) – Preventing falls among elderly patients who’ve just left the hospital is an important part of keeping them safe, a large U.S. study shows. When elderly patients are discharged, one of the major reasons they end up back in the hospital is tha... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The days of guaranteed pensions from work are long gone, but can annuities make up the difference for millennials? Congress is on the cusp of passing retirement reform legislation that will open 401(k) plans to annuity products which guara... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A worsening customer service crisis at the Social Security Administration has prompted three of its former commissioners to urge the U.S. Congress to fix the annual budgeting process that has starved the agency of the resources it needs to ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Saving for retirement is such a lofty goal that the U.S. government has always been willing to give tax incentives to encourage people to do more of it. But times change, and the retirement reform bills that are on a fast-track through Con... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Why does the word “old” come to mind for so many of us when the topic of Social Security comes up? Retirement benefits are the biggest component of Social Security. But the program also is very important for disabled people of all ages, as ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Philadelphia Energy Solutions will defer retirement payments to union members until next year, the company said in a letter to the union last week, the latest sign the refiner is struggling to find its financial footing after emerging from... More »
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Two major institutional investors are backing Cinctive Capital, a new hedge fund being launched later this year by industry veterans Richard Schimel and Larry Sapanski, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Employees Retiremen... More »
(Reuters) – Pacific Investment Management Co has named Rene Martel, a managing director at the Newport Beach, Calif.-based firm, as its head of retirement, a new role for the firm, a spokesman said Tuesday. Martel, who will report directly to PIMCO CEO Emmanue... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Thousands of people took to the streets of Moscow and two other cities on Sunday to rally against tighter internet restrictions, in some of the biggest protests in the Russian capital in years. Lawmakers last month backed tighter internet co... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Laura Hirsch of Keller Texas had to find a rehabilitation center to help her father recover from a difficult surgery in September, the caregiving service Cariloop saved her a whole day. A case manager at Cariloop, based in Richardson,... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. pension funds are asking electric utilities to accelerate efforts to cut carbon emissions but will not force the issue with proxy resolutions this spring, hoping market shifts and falling prices for renewable energy have already mad... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Greetings from Illinois, a state that never tops the rankings of places to retire. We have one of the great American cities, but also polar vortexes and an enormous state budget deficit – and now there is renewed talk about taxing retiremen... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Jill Schlesinger got her start on Wall Street, and that is where she learned a lot of what she knows about the financial world. But she has built a career dishing out personal finance advice by pulling back the curtain on myths about invest... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – When Medicare prescription drug insurance was created in 2003, the idea that beneficiaries with very high drug costs should pick up 5 percent of the tab seemed reasonable – but that was well before specialty drugs were invented that carry p... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters – It took 52-year-old social worker Nancy Peterson a combination of five different grants and low interest loans to accumulate $80,000 for the downpayment she needed to become a first-time home buyer in Seattle last summer. Peterson’s modest i... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. agency that insures worker pensions sought permission on Friday to take over two underfunded Sears Holdings Corp pension plans, after objecting to Sears Chairman Eddie Lampert’s proposed $5.2 billion buyout of the bankrupt retailer.... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. pension funds are projected to shift $12 billion into bonds from stocks in a rebalancing of their investments at the end of January, amid a rebound in the stock market following a sharp sell-off in late 2018, Wells Fargo Securities an... More »
(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters) By Mark Miller CHICAGO (Reuters) – Jack Bogle did more to help the average American working household save for retirement than anyone else in the modern era of investing. When Bogle... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) One of the biggest trends in retirement saving over the past decade has been the shift to target date funds – broadly diversified mutual fund products that auto... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – At the Springdale Ice Cream and Beverage factory in Cincinnati, workers were coming to the human resources department with money troubles, wanting cash advances on their pay. Some could not afford car repairs, which meant they could not ge... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Ai-jen Poo wants to transform caregiving into real work. By “real,” she does not mean more difficult. Rather, the activist and author is seeking recognition of the value of domestic work, and to raise its status and pay accordingly. “It’s t... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will plead to euro zone peers this week that the costly emergency measures he announced to quell anti-tax protests were needed to ensure he could press on with his ambitious reform agenda, an official said on ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Insurance companies do not need any help marketing Medicare Advantage plans – just ask anyone over age 65 about the pitches that clog their mailboxes every year during the fall enrollment period, or check out the television ads that flood c... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When companies try to tackle rising healthcare costs, shifting more of the burden to employees is increasingly the strategy of choice. But Activision Blizzard, an entertainment company that employs more than 6,000 people in the United Stat... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – American homes are showing their age – not the houses, but the people living in them. In 2016, about 55 percent of U.S. households (or about 65 million households) were headed by someone aged 50 or older, according to the Joint Center for H... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Karyn Golden’s income was approaching $200,000 as she lived a carefree single existence at the peak of her career in Chicago, 20 years ago. She brokered real estate deals, served on boards and lunched with political leaders. She never imagi... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – In any history of hip-hop, one name keeps popping up over and over again: Andre Harrell. From working alongside Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons to founding his own label Uptown Records, Bronx-born Harrell seems to be everywhere at once ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Roberta Dell has worked for 46 years making lollipops, and she loves her job. But she worries that retirement may not be as sweet as the Dum Dum lollipops she bags. Dell works for the Spangler Candy Company in Bryan, Ohio – a family-owned b... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) Thinking of adding a Medigap supplemental policy to your Medicare coverage? Beware: you could be charged higher rates or be turned away completely if you have a... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – (The writer is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are his own.) Over the past year, Angela Bassett has been showing her wide acting range as mother of superhero T’Challa in “Black Panther” and a CIA director in the new “Mission:... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – (The writer is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are his own.) Based on the years Alan Alda has spent in your living room, you may think the 82-year-old actor is one of your best friends. His ability to connect with audiences –... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Credit Suisse has carved out a new role to lead its handling of sexual harassment claims and examine group-wide policies, as Switzerland’s second-biggest bank seeks to boost equal opportunities and create a fair treatment environment. The ap... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, the world’s largest pension fund, lost 5.5 trillion yen ($49.7 billion) on its investments in the first quarter as worries about U.S.-China trade friction pushed down stocks in Japan and abroad, the... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Two of Europe’s leading macro hedge fund investors are backing a machine learning data analytics firm that aims to give traders an edge in picking winning bets across stocks and indexes. Alan Howard, founder of Brevan Howard, and Jens-Peter ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The writer is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.) Navigating Medicare can be complicated, but one big change recently introduced requires that you do absolutely nothing beyond opening an envelope. In fact, doing just ... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC is putting a new generation into top leadership positions roughly five months after bringing in an outsider as chief executive to end a battle for control of the investment firm. The New York-based firm ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The writer is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.) Ed Slott is a certified public accountant by training, but he admits that his professional colleagues have their faults. “By nature, we are history teachers – we’ll te... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – TV news viewers may recognize one reporter who pops up in trouble spots all over the world: From the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, to the Boko Haram kidnappings in Nigeria, to assorted crises in Mali, Thailand, Algeria and the Mideast. In an e... More »
CHICAGO – (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) Joseph Gallagher was starting to think about retiring from his construction job in 2008 when the bear market “beat me up pretty badly,” he said. Gallagher waited until 20... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Massachusetts’ securities regulator on Monday accused MetLife Inc of making false statements to investors related to its failure to pay pension benefits to thousands of retirees that it improperly treated as “presumed dead.” Massachusetts Se... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – (The writer is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are his own.) What is a fitting follow-up to Steve Ballmer’s career at Microsoft, where he was one of the tech giant’s first employees and longtime CEO? How about becoming co-own... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The writer is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.) Most Americans do not want to go back to the bad old days when health insurance companies could charge sick people more for coverage or turn them away altogether. But ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The demographic trend is no secret: the populations of the United States and other major industrial countries are getting older, and fast. That means workforces are aging too, but employers are doing surprisingly little to prepare to meet t... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Without music, life would be a mistake, according to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Yet some of the world’s most famed musicians did not begin their careers belting out hits onstage. They had to endure scrappy jobs, just like ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Fewer Americans are asking Social Security to “show me the money” as soon as possible. The share of workers claiming Social Security retirement benefits at the earliest possible date has plunged in recent years. That probably reflects growi... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The growing number of apprenticeships in the U.S. has more to do with European companies importing the practice into their American operations than with the long-running NBC television reality show and its former host who now lives in the ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Study after study shows that money stress can be as bad for workplace productivity as back pain. The latest study, released by PwC on Tuesday, found that a quarter of U.S. workers said financial worries caused them health problems. Forty p... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – In September, the federal government will mail a handbook on Medicare enrollment to 43 million households. “Medicare & You” is an important, authoritative source on a wide array of plan options for the annual enrollment period that runs fro... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The writer is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.) Americans do not agree on much these days, but we are united on the cost of medicine. Large majorities of Republican, Democratic and independent voters say they would ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When optimism and realism about college savings collide, you get parents who are confident that they will meet their goals – as long as they reduce the amount of money they save, that is. According to the latest “How America Saves for Coll... More »
NEW YORK(Reuters) – (The writer is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are his own.) In Hollywood, fame can be fleeting and a career with staying power is even more unusual. Antonio Banderas has managed to fashion the latter, developing from a young ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – (The writer is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are his own.) There are plenty of challenging jobs in America. But as anyone with a child will tell you, the hardest one of all is being a parent – and it is not even a close cal... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish pop icons ABBA will release their first new music for 35 years with two new songs set for broadcast in December, the quartet said on Friday. ABBA is one of the most commercially successful music groups in history with more than 37... More »
