Are you concerned about your pension? In today’s tumultuous business environment, you have every right to be. With revised pension laws and under-the-table pension cuts by companies making waves, you have to be ever vigilant about protecting what you have. Protecting Your Pension For Dummies helps you do just that. This easy-to-follow guide explains all the latest pension laws, what your rights are, and the best ways to keep your money safe. It demystifies the various types of pension plans and outlines just what it takes to qualify for a pension. Once your plan is set up, you’ll see how to navigate company bankruptcies, mergers, and pension cutbacks, as well as divorces, loans, and personal bankruptcy—and take action if you’ve been shortchanged to recoup what is rightfully yours. You get all the expert guidance you need to: Understand the Pension Protection Act of 2006 Evaluate different pension plans Plan for retirement while you’re working Ensure that you get your pension Request essential plan documents Understand eligibility, accrual, and vesting Guard your pension from your employer—and from life’s ups and downs Understand pension distributions And much more Complete with a glossary of terms and an appendix of charts and forms discussed throughout the book, Protecting Your Pension For Dummies is the fun and easy way® to grasp all the important pension rules—and retire with a full nest egg!

The Pension Protection Fund offers protection to some 12.4 million pensioners in private sector defined benefit (often known as final salary) pension schemes should their employer become insolvent. The Fund currently manages its assets well and has not been exposed to severe losses in the recession. In 2008-09, the Fund's investments increased in value by 13.4 per cent. The Fund's standard investments saw a return of minus 3.4 per cent in 2008-09 (against the market average for the same combination of asset classes of minus 3.6 per cent). But, as the Fund's assets grow, the investment operation will require additional skills and the Fund should consider adapting its investment processes. The Fund's deficit increased during the recession - from £517 million in March 2008 to £1.2 billion in March 2009 - largely because of the combined deficit of the increased number of schemes being assessed on whether they should be transferred to the Fund. However, the value of the Fund's assets far outweighs its annual compensation payments: at the end of March 2009 its assets were £3.2 billion but its current compensation payments amount to £70 million a year. The Fund has developed a suitable model to assess future liabilities and this has proved resilient to a range of stress tests. The model's longer-term projections are sensitive to important assumptions, so the Fund should establish a framework for illustrating the sensitivity of output from its long-term risk model.

Pension fund members across OECD countries have seen the loss or reduction of pension benefits in recent years. This has been associated with declining assets and increasing liabilities, with accounting and regulation changes crystallising these ...