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Our newest publication Time
is on Your Side provides savings tips for new entrants to the
workforce. While new entrants may have many demands on their income,
this publication describes in five short steps how to get started with
saving and investing early, to enjoy the benefits later on.
Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning is designed to assist
individuals who are within 10 years of retirement calculate their income,
savings and likely expenses in retirement – to get a better idea of
whether they are on track or how much they might need to save. The
publication includes worksheets that allow the user to evaluate current
assets and expenses, project future assets and expenses, and estimate
additional savings for retirement. There is also information on saving,
investment options, expense considerations, and how to make your assets last
throughout retirement. An extensive resource section provides other sources
of information on retirement, savings and investment issues. This
publication was developed with the Actuaries Foundation, the North American
Securities Administrators Association and AARP.
The brochure Women and Retirement
Savings, also available in Spanish,
provides helpful tips for women and a checklist of questions and answers on
saving for retirement. For women facing divorce and for practitioners who
advise them, the publication QDROs: The Division of Pensions Through
Qualified Domestic Relations Orders provides answers to commonly asked
questions.
Investing And
Diversification
Many employees now have the ability to choose or direct their investments
in their workplace retirement plans. A number of the Department’s
publications provide information on various types of investments typically offered in 401(k) and other employer retirement plans and the
importance of diversification.
Specifically, Savings Fitness: A
Guide to Your Money and Your Financial Future has information on pages 13
– 17 that describes different investments and explains how diversifying
investments can reduce investment risk. This publication is available in
English and Spanish. Pages 9-11 of Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement
Planning provides additional information on these issues. A Look at 401(k)
Plan Fees includes descriptions of different types of investments offered
through 401(k) plans on pages 7 – 11.
Other Sources Of Information On Investing And Diversification
Employer Retirement Plans
The campaign’s educational materials include
information about employees’ rights under their job-based retirement
plan and an explanation of how those plans work in the following
publications:
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A
Look at 401(k) Plan Fees [View]
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Employer
Bankruptcy: How Will it Affect Your Employee Benefits? [View]
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FAQs for Reservists Being Called to Active Duty
[View]
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Pension
and Health Care Coverage - Q&As for Dislocated Workers [View]
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What
You Should Know About Your Retirement Plan [View]
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QDROS: The Division of Pensions Through Qualified Domestic Relations Orders [View]
These and other publications are available free of charge by
calling toll free, 1.866.444.EBSA (3272).
The campaign is expanding its outreach nationwide to provide
assistance in person. The Department continues to expand the retirement
savings information available on its Web site and the many partners the
campaign works with to reach a wider audience of employees and employers.
Here are some helpful tools employees can use to
calculate how much money an individual will need at retirement:
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CNN
Money - This retirement planner helps you estimate how well your savings
program is preparing you for retirement. First it helps you figure
out how much you'll need. Then it tells you your chances of getting
there.
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American
Savings Education Council -
The Ballpark Estimate is an easy-to-use, one-page worksheet that
helps you quickly identify approximately how much you need to save
to fund a comfortable retirement. The Ballpark Estimate takes
complicated issues like projected Social Security benefits and
earnings assumptions on savings, and turns them into language and
mathematics that are easy to understand.
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National
Association of Securities Dealers - These financial calculators are meant to provide you with some
of the information necessary to make sound financial decisions and
to plan for the future.
Public Service Announcements
En Español
The Department of Labor has worked to educate small business owners
about the various simple retirement plan options available and the
advantages of starting a savings vehicle for themselves and their employees.
Through partnerships with the Small Business Administration, Internal
Revenue Service, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Women
Business Owners, and more, the Department has developed and distributed
educational materials about SEP/IRAs, SIMPLE plans, 401(k) plans, and other
savings vehicles.
The campaign has a number of
materials to assist small business owners understand the various
retirement savings vehicles available and to encourage them to start such
a plan for themselves and their employees including Choosing a Retirement
Solution for Your Small Business, developed with the Small Business
Administration, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Internal Revenue Service. The Department also has publications to provide important information on
plans and considerations in selecting a service provider to assist in
setting up the plan including 401(k)
Plans for Small Businesses, SIMPLE
IRA Plans for Small Businesses, SEP
Retirement Plans for Small Businesses, Payroll
Deduction IRAs for Small Businesses and Understanding
Retirement Plan Fees And Expenses.
The Choosing a Retirement Solution for Your Small Business video helps small employers and accountants understand the various options for providing a retirement program through four real-life experiences.
Note: These videos contain captioning, but you must enable this capability in your media player in order to see the captions.
The Department also has an interactive Web site to allow businesses to
review various savings vehicle options and the key features of each. Based
on the responses to key questions, such as the number of workers employed
by the company and whether or not the company will contribute to the
workers’ retirement savings, the savings vehicle options are provided to
the business owners. The elaws Small Business Retirement Savings Advisor , one of the
Department’s e-laws programs, provides a thorough description of each type of plan.
Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao launched a
nationwide campaign to improve workers' health and retirement security by
educating employers and service providers about their fiduciary
responsibilities under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
This is the latest in a series of compliance assistance
initiatives by the Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration
(EBSA).
Plan sponsors and other fiduciaries have a solemn
responsibility to protect the interests of the workers and retirees in their
benefit plans. The Department's program - "Getting It Right - Know Your
Fiduciary Responsibilities" - will provide employers and plan officials with an
understanding of the law and their responsibilities and will focus on steps for
avoiding the most common problems EBSA encounters in its enforcement
activities.
The program will emphasize the obligation of plan
sponsors and other fiduciaries to:
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Understand the terms of their
plans;
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Select and monitor service
providers carefully;
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Make timely contributions to
fund benefits;
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Avoid prohibited transactions;
and
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Make timely disclosures to
workers and their beneficiaries and reports to the government.
The Fiduciary
Education Campaign has information on related publications and
seminars.
The Department of Labor launched its Retirement Savings Education Campaign
(RSEC) in July 1995 to help women, minorities and small businesses take steps
to save for a secure retirement.
In 1997, the Savings Are Vital to Everyone’s Retirement
Act, known as the SAVER Act, was enacted, directing the Department of
Labor to continue its retirement savings education and outreach program.
In addition, the SAVER Act directed the Department to convene three
National Summits on Retirement Savings to be co-hosted by the White House
and Congress. The first summit, focusing on the challenges to saving for
retirement, was held on June 4-5, 1998. The second summit, focusing on
advancing generational prosperity, was held on February 27 – March 1,
2002. The third summit, focusing on trends, challenges and opportunities
in saving for your golden years, was held on March 1-2, 2006. For more
information on the Summits, including the materials from the Summits,
visit the National
Summit on Retirement Savings Web site.
To mark the fifth anniversary of the Retirement Savings Education
Campaign, the Department unveiled a new campaign logo and slogan, Saving
Matters, designed to more effectively reach its audiences and help change
their attitudes and behavior towards saving.
The Department also presented the Oseola McCarty Super Saver Award to
recognize low-income wage earners who have successfully prepared for the
cost of retirement through saving and investing. DOL presented the award to inspire
others by shining a spotlight on these individuals.
The Department has utilized many tools to encourage employees and small
businesses to save including publications, public service announcements,
outreach, and the agency’s Web site.
For more information about the Retirement Savings
Education Campaign, please contact:
U.S. Department of Labor
Employee Benefits Security Administration
200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Suite N-5623
Washington, D.C. 20210
Tel 202.693.8664
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