Tuesday, November 27, 2012

What will the Government want Next.....Maybe your 401(K)/IRA?

An Investment Company Institute study published this month found that U.S. retirement assets totaled $18.5 trillion at the end of the second quarter 2012, of which 3.5 trillion was in IRAs and $5.1 trillion was in 401(k) plans. 
Since 2010, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Department of Labor have been holding combined hearings on various plans designed to introduce government-mandated retirement plans and investment options, including government annuities invested primarily in U.S. Treasury debt, into the private retirement savings market. 
“This hearing was set up to explore why Americans are not saving as much for their retirement as they could,” explained National Seniors Council National Director Robert Crone, describing a recent Treasury-Labor hearing held in the Labor Department’s main auditorium. 
“However it is clear that his is just the first step toward a government takeover. It feels like the beginning of the debate over health care and we all know how that ended up.” (emphasis mine)
Because 78 million working Americans lack some form of employer-based retirement plans Team Obama endorsed plans for an 'Automatic IRA':
The remedy proposed on page 147 of the FY 2013 Budget Proposal is “a system of automatic work-place pensions that will expand access to tens of millions of workers who currently lack plans” by providing their employees with a government-mandated “direct deposit IRA account,” exempting only businesses with 10 or fewer employees and providing participating businesses with tax credits to compensate for the businesses implementing and administering the plans.
Read the whole article HERE.

I hate to say it, but this smells like the beginning of a total Government takeover of traditional private retirement plans............. Can you say Argentina?

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1 comment:

Katrina L. Lantz said...

The people can't save. So we'll save for them.

How's that working out for Social Security?