It Won't Be Your Parents' Retirement
As the "Baby Boomers" approach retirement age, the vision of a work-free retirement is giving way to a new idea of a work-filled retirement. This new idea will affect not only older workers, but employees at all stages of their careers as well as employers.
In a recent survey, A Work-Filled Retirement: Workers' Changing Views on Employment and Leisure, approximately 70% of the employees surveyed indicated that they expect to continue working full-time or part-time following retirement from their main job. Only 13% expect to stop working altogether. The survey was conducted by the John J. Heinrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut.
At the same time, employers concerned about a shrinking labor pool are trying to keep employees on the job for as long as possible. But the law doesn’t make such programs easy. Historically, pension benefits can be legally paid only when a person stops working entirely. But the rules are changing and the Internal Revenue Service has proposed regulations that make phased retirement more plausible in handling retirement plans. The law firm of Feagre & Benson, LLP recently published an article that provides guidance on the proposed phased retirement rules applicable to pension plans, as well as the issues that are likely to arise regarding health and welfare plans and traditional employment law.