A comprehensive research study titled Global Silicone For Personal Care Market 2020 by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2025 comprises the current market scenario that demonstrates value chain structure, market size, regional analysis, application, and forecast. The report includes an important study on the global Silicone For Personal Care market along with a realistic overview of the industry. The report includes data about opportunities that will completely change the business environment in the coming years to 2025. The research covers the summary, market dynamics, competitive analysis, and leading players. This report analyzes the historical and forecasted number of companies, locations in the industry, and breaks them down by company size.

Past, Current, and Future Market Assessment:

The report offers a logical and calculative study on the former, present, and future market scenario. The report throws light on the potential opportunities for the market players and future trends of the global Silicone For Personal Care market. It determines industry overview, industry chain, market size (sales, revenue, and growth rate), gross margin, major manufacturers, development trends, and forecast from 2020 to 2025. This report highlights key segments and sub-segments, key drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges in the market. The impact of these aspects is assessed in the report.

NOTE: Our report highlights the major issues and hazards that companies might come across due to the unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19.

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List of top key players in the market report are: Dow Corning Corporation, Momentive Performance Materials, BASF SE, Wacker Chemie AG, KCC Corporation, 3M Company, Kaneka, Bluestar Silicones International, Evonik Industries

The global Silicone For Personal Care market report has examined the high-growth segments including product type, application, and end-users, taking into account their CAGR, share, and size. The manufacturers segment provides details about revenue by manufacturers, production and capacity by manufacturers, price by manufacturers, expansion plans, mergers and acquisitions, and products, market entry dates, distribution, and market areas of key manufacturers. Furthermore, the report gives information on the consumption in each regional market on the basis of country, application, and product type.

On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share, and growth rate of each type, primarily split into: Synthetic Rubber, Silicone Oil, Silicone Resin, Silicone Gel, Other

On the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, including: Chemicals, Medical, Automotive, Construction Of Buildings, Electrical And Electronic, Plastic, Textile, Other

Based on segmentation, the market report is made up of an in-depth investigation of the leading regions with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2015 to 2019, and forecast to 2025, including: North America (United States, Canada and Mexico), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia), South America (Brazil, Argentina, etc.), Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)

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In this report, graphics and diagrams are included to make the report more potent and easy to understand. The report states import/export consumption, supply and demand figures, cost, price, revenue, and gross margins. The report outlines the industrial chain structure and describes the upstream. With tables and figures, the report analyzes global Silicone For Personal Care market forecasts key statistics on the state of the industry.

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Global Silicone For Personal Care Market 2020 Industry Outlook Dow Corning Corporation, Momentive Performance Materials, BASF SE - Scientect

Briggs Healthcare

Personal Mobility Devices Market Segmentation:

Personal Mobility Devices Market, By Product

Wheelchairs Scooters Walking Aids o Rollators o Other Walking aids (canes, crutches, walkers)

Geographically, the Personal Mobility Devices market report is segmented as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. This analysis report similarly reduces the present, past, and future market business strategies, company extent, development, share, and estimate analysis having a place with the predicted circumstances. Moreover, the possible results and the exposure to the enhancement of the Personal Mobility Devices market widely covered in this report.

Personal Mobility Devices Market: Regional Analysis Includes:

Asia-Pacific (Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Australia)

Europe(Turkey, Germany, Russia UK, Italy, France)

North America (The United States, Mexico, and Canada)

South America(Brazil etc)

The Middle East and Africa(GCC Countries and Egypt)

This report also describes the key challenges and threats possible. The report presents a full description of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the Personal Mobility Devices market. The market report provides the analytical tools that help identify the key external and internal factors that should be considered for the growth of the market. The report also helps companies in marketing for tasks like identifying their prospective customers, building relationships with them, and retention.

Key Highlights of the Personal Mobility Devices Market Report:

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Our 250 Analysts and SMEs offer a high level of expertise in data collection and governance use industrial techniques to collect and analyze data on more than 15,000 high impact and niche markets. Our analysts are trained to combine modern data collection techniques, superior research methodology, expertise, and years of collective experience to produce informative and accurate research.

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Personal Mobility Devices Market is Booming Worldwide 2020-2027 | NOVA Medical Products, Performance Health, Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare, Medline...

WASHINGTON A rising generation of Republican stars offered an optimistic view of President Donald Trumps leadership, but were undermined on the opening night of the GOPs scaled-back convention by speakers issuing dark warnings about the countrys future and distorting the presidents record, particularly on the pandemic.

As Trump faces pressure to expand his appeal beyond his loyal supporters, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senates sole Black Republican, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, sought to cast the GOP as welcoming to Americans of color, despite the partys overwhelmingly white leadership and voting base.

I was a brown girl in a black and white world, Haley said Monday night, noting that she faced discrimination but rejecting the idea that America is a racist country. She also gave a nod to the Black Lives Matter movement, saying of course we know that every single Black life is valuable.

But the prime-time convention proceedings, which featured a blend of taped and live speeches, focused largely on dire talk about Joe Biden, Trumps Democratic challenger in the November election. Speakers ominously warned that electing Biden would lead to violence in American cities spilling into the suburbs, a frequent Trump campaign message with racist undertones. One speaker called Trump the bodyguard of Western civilization.

Scrambling to find a message that sticks, Trumps team tried out multiple themes and tactics over the course of the night. They featured optimism from those who could represent the GOPs future, attempts to characterize Biden as a vessel for socialists and far-left Democrats despite his moderate record, and humanizing stories about the 74-year-old man who sits in the Oval Office.

Trump and a parade of fellow Republicans misrepresented Bidens agenda through the evening, falsely accusing him of proposing to defund police, ban oil fracking, take over health care, open borders and raise taxes on most Americans. They tried to assign positions of the Democratic left to a middle-of-the-road candidate who explicitly rejected many of the partys most liberal positions through the primaries.

The opening night of the four-day convention reflected the rising urgency fueling Trumps push to reshape a presidential contest that he is losing, at least for now, with Election Day just 10 weeks away. It will continue on Tuesday when first lady Melania Trump will deliver remarks from the White House.

Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, are keeping a relatively low profile this week. In a tweet Monday night, Biden told supporters to stay focused.

The emphasis on diversity at Trumps convention was an acknowledgement that he must expand his coalition beyond his largely white base. Polling shows that Black Americans continue to be overwhelmingly negative in their assessments of the presidents performance, with his approval hovering around 1 in 10 over the course of his presidency, according to Gallup polling.

One of several African Americans on Monday nights schedule, former football star Herschel Walker, defended the president against those who call him a racist.

It hurts my soul to hear the terrible names that people call Donald, Walker said. The worst one is racist. I take it as a personal insult that people would think I would have a 37-year friendship with a racist.

But that emphasis clashed with Trumps instinct to energize his die-hard loyalists.

He featured, for example, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple charged with felonies for pointing guns at what prosecutors deemed non-violent Black Lives Matter protesters marching past their home.

What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country, Patricia McCloskey said, sitting on a couch in a wood-paneled room.

Theyve actually charged us with felonies for daring to defend our home, her husband said.

And Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said Democrats will disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door.

Trumps political future may depend on his ability to convince voters that America is on the right track, even as the coronavirus death toll exceeds 177,000 and pandemic-related job losses also reach into the millions

A deep sense of pessimism has settled over the electorate 10 weeks before Election Day. Just 23% of Americans think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Trump and his supporters touted his response to the pandemic while standing alongside front-line workers in the White House, although he glossed over the mounting death toll, the most in the world, and his administrations struggle to control the disease.

Organizers also repeatedly sought to cast Trump as an empathetic figure, borrowing a page from the Democrats convention playbook a week ago that effectively highlighted Bidens personal connection to voters.

Those cheering Trumps leadership on the pandemic included a coronavirus patient, a small business owner from Montana and a nurse practitioner from Virginia.

As a healthcare professional, I can tell you without hesitation, Donald Trumps quick action and leadership saved thousands of lives during COVID-19, said Amy Ford, a registered nurse who was deployed to New York and Texas to fight the coronavirus.

The first day of the 2020 Republican convention began early in the day as Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were renominated by delegates who gathered in Charlotte, the city that was originally selected to host the convention before the pandemic struck.

Trump paid a surprise visit and he city, where he warned delegates that the only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election, raising anew his unsupported concerns about Americans expected reliance on mail voting during the pandemic. Experts say mail voting has proven remarkably secure.

The fact that the Republicans gathered at all stood in contrast to the Democrats, who held an all-virtual convention last week. The Democratic programming included a well-received roll call video montage featuring diverse officials from across the nation.

The Republicans spoke from the ballroom in Charlotte and were overwhelmingly white before the proceedings moved to Washington for prime-time.

--By Steve Peoples, Michelle L. Price and Zeke Miller

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RNC 2020: Republicans open convention with rising stars, dark warnings - AL.com

By: Dr. Greg Cartin August 22, 2020

Everyone has first-tee jitters, but they can be tamed.

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Q: Whats the secret to dealing with first-tee jitters? Barker, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

A: All golfers get butterflies in the stomach on the first tee, mostly from anticipation. They creep in as you peek into the future and suddenly predict that something is about to go wrong. Because you havent yet experienced the actual moment, you feel helpless and out of control. Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle calls this the anxiety gap, and this attempt to control a future that hasnt occurred yet can be a scary proposition.

The need for control is normal. Its not the jitters that cause the bad shots; its the judgment you cast on yourself for simply feeling nervous. We judge ourselves negatively, for example, by wishing we were stronger mentally and could rule out all bad thoughts. Insisting on this kind of elusive self-control just increases tension. Instead, if you want to deal with the first-tee jitters, allow yourself to feel the anxiety without changing it. This can be a difficult task, because humans are continually seeking comfort, but accepting uncomfortable feelings ultimately creates the freedom you need to motor out of the blocks.

GOLFs new performance columnist Dr. Greg Cartin is the founder of GC3 Performance Consulting based in Belmont, Mass. He works with PGA Tour players and athletes of all levels and ages. Have questions? Send em to performance@golf.com.

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Ask an Expert: Whats the secret to dealing with the first-tee jitters? - Golf.com

Whatever we thought 2020 was going to look like, we were all dead wrong. The rapidly evolving world right now requires us to drop familiar mindsets, learn new skills, develop new habits and let go of old rules of life and making the most of it. Adaptability is required when circumstances change.

The right books can help you adapt as the world is going through a historic transformation, develop the right skills to prepare yourself for the world of work, challenge yourself professionally, practice mindfulness even when there is chaos around you and build mental toughness to keep moving.

Some of these books can help you improve your coping and adaptability skills to thrive in the new world.

The definitive guide on how to prepare for any crisis from global financial collapse to a pandemic. Civilization is still standing now, but that does not mean it always will Wed better know what to do in the event of a deadly viral pandemic, major asteroid strike, unprecedented hyper-inflationary (or deflationary) economic depression, third World War, or any other global disaster, Rawles argues. The Futurist

A remarkable combination of personal mediation and psychological and artistic inquiry, The Lonely City is always superbly written, fascinating and often sharply moving. Ultimately the book has a paradoxical effect: at the same time as it makes one aware of ones own inescapable solitude, it leaves one feeling less alone.Adam Foulds, author of In the Wolfs Mouth

A goldmine of surprising insights. Makes you smarter with every page James Clear, bestselling author of Atomic Habits

Urgent and important. . . an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance Daniel H. Pink, author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

A complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto. Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times Book Review

One of President Barack Obamas Favourite Books of 2019.

A captivating, charming read on harnessing confidence and poise. Demystifying a century of science, Amy Cuddy shows how we can achieve greater success and sincerity by changing the way we carry ourselves. Adam Grant, author of Originals and Give and Take

The Reality Revolution is a powerful movement of awareness and empowerment, helping people discover the deeper truths about life and reality. Brians work continues to establish him as a respected individual in the field of reality creation and enables people to create their lives more consciously. Im honored to have been a part of his mission! Sunny Sharma, Personal Mastery Quest

Ripley is a voyeur on a mission. . . . Her conviction: Wed all stand a better chance of surviving a disaster if we understood what happens to our little gray cells when things get ugly. . . . Spiced with surprising factoids, this book might save your life one day. Bloomberg News

Irvine excels at giving a walking tour of the many schools of Stoic philosophy, from Greek to Roman traditions, identifying individual Stoic thinkers (many more than Seneca) and their principles and techniques, which Irvine argues are even more relevant in modern times than their own. Philosophical Practice

Ill be forever changed by Dr. Egers storyThe Choice is a reminder of what courage looks like in the worst of times and that we all have the ability to pay attention to what weve lost, or to pay attention to what we still have. Oprah

Egers unique background gives her amazing insight, writes Bill Gates, and I think many people will find comfort right now from her suggestions on how to handle difficult situations.

In this best-selling book, spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle teachers readers how to shift their mindset and embrace the power of mindfulness, recognize thought patterns, and learn to detach from their emotions. Business Insider

Happy reading!

This post was previously published on Kaizen Habits and is republished here with permission from the author.

***

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10 Books That Can Help You Stay on Top of a Rapidly Evolving World - The Good Men Project

Paying to much in taxes in retirement is for the dogs.

Assuming you still have some form of income, tax planning does not end once you retire. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will always expect you to pay taxes on your retirement income. For those who are well prepared to maintain their standard of living in retirement, many find their tax bills are similar to when they were working full time. Some of you may even find you are paying more in taxes; this is common for retiring business owners.

As the saying goes, nothing is certain except death and taxes. How can you make the most of your retirement investments and keep more of your hard-earned retirement income from getting sucked up by taxes? First, take the time to do the necessary tax planning to avoid the following retirement income tax mistakes that can drastically reduce your financial security as you age.Making tax-smart moves can help you get the absolute maximum enjoyment from your retirement income. Ignoring these retirement tax mistakes could lead to both paying more in taxes and running out of money earlier than necessary.

The Six Retirement Tax Planning Mistakes That Could Kill Financial Security

Tax Planning can help your have a happier retirement.

Retirement Tax Mistake #1:Assuming Your Taxes Will Be Lower in Retirement

Even if they were able to live tax-free, most Americans are not prepared financially to maintain their standard of living in retirement. Still, many assume their taxes will be lower once they leave the workforce. Those who do end up paying fewer taxes in retirement often do so by simply having a smaller retirement income, which is not likely the dream retirement.

After suffering through nearly four years of the Trump Presidency, we are in the midst of a global pandemic, and the national debt has skyrocketed. Tens of millions of Americans are out of work. Thousands of baby-boomers are reaching retirement age, leaving the workforce, and moving onto rolls of government programs like Social Security and Medicare. We have known for decades that changes will need to be made to keep these expensive government programs solvent. It is hard to see how that will happen without taxes being raised at some point in the future. As a financial planner, I know that cutting benefits would be untenable, politically, and devastating for the millions of retirees who rely on Social Security to meet their basic needs.

On a brighter note,Americans have saved trillions of dollars into tax-deferred retirement accounts like a 401(k) or IRA.Keep in mind that taxes will be due once funds are withdrawn from those accounts. If tax rates increase, you may have similar, or even higher, tax bills in retirement.

Have you ever heard of provisional income? Im guessing most of you said, No. Provisional income is what the IRS uses to determine whether or not yourSocial Security benefitswill be taxed. Yes, Social Security income can be subject to taxation from the IRS.

For those with distributions from retirement accounts like an IRA or 401(k), they count as part of your provisional income. These distributions are added to any 1099 forms you receive from your taxable investments and to one-half of your Social Security benefits for the year. If that income totals more than $34,000 for singles or $44,000 for a married couple, filing jointly, a whopping 85% of your Social Security benefits will become taxable at your highest marginal tax bracket.

Talk to your financial planner to determine whether you will be above those relatively small retirement-income numbers in retirement. There are a variety of ways to strategically minimize the taxes on your Social Security benefits. Lumping IRA withdrawals into one year and diversifying your retirement savings into taxable and non-taxable accounts are a couple of ways. Higher earners (above $200,000 per year) may want to check out theRich Person Roth IRA for even more tax-free income in retirement.

The contribution limit for a Roth IRA is just $6,000, per year, in 2020. For the average American, only saving that amount each year, and only having one type of retirement account, will most likely not be enough savings for retirement. Yes, you read that right. Solely contributing the maximum amount of $6,000 each year into a Roth IRA will not likely grow enough to help you achieve financial independence. Luckily, there is now a Roth 401(k) option with an annual $19,500 contribution limit.However, your employer has to offer this option as part of the employee benefits package.

Many of you reading this will likely make too much money to contribute to a Roth IRA. Married couples making more than $203,000, per year, in 2020 are not eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA at all.

Some of you might be asking, Why is ignoring a Roth IRA a problem? The reason is that having both a Roth IRA account and traditional IRA or 401(k) allows you to diversify some of your tax-rate risk in retirement. If you have a big-income year, or taxes are higher in one year, you can pull more money from the Roth (tax-free withdrawals) and less from the 401(k) (taxable withdrawal).

Retirement Tax Mistake #4:Ignoring Taxes All Together

Have you ever looked at a retirement calculator, or projection, and said, I could live off that amount of retirement income.? Perhaps you did not realize that the retirement income estimate was before taxes? This problem is easy to fix when you are years away from retirement. When you have already left the workforce, it will be much harder to make up the difference. It is essential to point out that for those with large retirement nest eggs, federal taxes can be as high as 37% (current tax rates for 2020).

Additionally, state taxes can also be high. Californias tax rate is 13.3%. States with lofty tax rates often cause people to ask themselves,Should I move from my high-tax state after I retire?

Retirement Tax Mistake #5:No Strategy to Minimize Taxes

For retirees relying solely on Social Security, there is not much tax planning needed. For everyone else with higher retirement incomes, a penny saved is a penny earned, as the saying goes. Be proactive with tax planning. That will help you keep more of your hard-earned money out of Uncle Sams hands. If you need a little push, contact aCertified Financial Plannerwho can help you develop a strategy to minimize taxes.

Retirement Tax Mistake #6: Taking Withdrawals from your retirement accounts in the Wrong Order

Throughout this article, we have been talking about putting off taxes as long as possible and how to minimize taxes in retirement. This often leads people to spend down their post-tax investment accounts first, in retirement. This can lead many to feel like they have more money than they do. Without taxes being due on withdrawals, you will take home more money from a post-tax investment account compared to IRA or 401(k) accounts.

You may see your net worth continues to grow even after withdrawals. That has been especially true over the last few years of the bull market. If that has been the case, you could be sitting on a tax time bomb. Once the post-tax money is gone, all your retirement income will be taxable (assuming funds are held in IRA or 401(k) accounts). You will have little to no options to minimize taxes once that happens.

While it is a bit more complicated, most people will benefit from taking some money from accounts like a 401(k) now. Yes, you would pay taxes when you withdraw the money, but the goal would be to minimize taxes over your entire retirement while paying as little as possible on each withdrawal.

Bottom line - Do not forget about taxes when planning for retirement. A little proactive tax planning will help you earn income in your golden years as efficiently as possible. Also, you want to pay the least amount of taxes as possible so you can keep as much of your hard-earned money as you can.

See the article here:
Tax Mistakes In 2020 That Could Ruin Your Retirement - Forbes

3. You've researched your healthcare costs

Healthcare is the one expense that tends to catch seniors off-guard. Though it's impossible to predict exactly what healthcare will amount to for you, Fidelity estimates that the average 65-year-old woman retiring today can expect to spend $155,000 on it throughout retirement, while the average 65-year-old male can expect to spend $140,000. If your health is terrific, you may find that healthcare costs you a bit less. If your health is poor, you might spend more. But either way, it pays to do your research so you understand how much money to allocate to taking care of your health.

It used to be the case that setting aside 10% of your income in an IRA or 401(k) would be enough to buy you a secure retirement. Not anyone. These days, you're better off socking away 15% to 20% of your earnings (or more) to help ensure that you're able to keep up with inflation and cover all of your eventual needs. If you're currently saving a smaller amount, percentage wise, then it may be time to look at your expenses and find ways to free up more cash for your nest egg.

The knowledge that you're on track for retirement could buy you the peace of mind so many older workers crave. If you don't think you're on track for retirement, take steps to change that so you don't want up disappointed once your time in the workforce eventually comes to a close.

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Are You on Track for Retirement? Here's How to Know - Statesville Record & Landmark

The Trump administration is pushing dramatic changes to the American retirement system that will benefit Wall Street but push average citizens into plans that are riskier, less profitable, and loaded with high and hidden fees.

In the past two months, the Trumps Labor Department has introduced two pending changes to deregulate vulturous private equity firms and multi-trillion dollar retirement managers like Vanguard, Fidelity, and BlackRock. A third proposed change would restrict retirement investments with an underlying environmental, social, or governance mission mainly to boost the struggling fossil-fuel industry.

If finalized, the result will be death by a thousand cuts to Americans diminished retirement nest egg, amounting to an all-out Wall Street looting of American retirement.

Pushing this through is Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who for many years was one of Wall Streets most prominent litigators, representing corporations like Chevron, Walmart, and Facebook, as well as over a dozen banks and financial firms during his tenure at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a law firm with a robust corporate lobbying wing.

Secretary Scalia is still working for his former clients, said Barbara Roper, director of Investor Protection at the Consumer Federation of America. This is a multipronged attack on Americans retirement security.

How Wall Street Works Over Workers

For the millennials and zoomers in the crowd, perhaps a quick review of the basics of retirement is helpful. Retirement refers to a period toward the end of a human life during which ordinary people could use money theyd saved and invested combined with Social Security payments to stop working but still live comfortably.

This used to be considered a core part of the American dream. But for reasons having very much to do with the growth of the financial sector, austerity budgets eroding the welfare state, and the decline of union membership (and having absolutely nothing to do with avocado toast), retirement as a concept has become more of a goal than a guarantee.

There are a few things still working in our favor, however, including federal rules aimed at making sure we get the most out of the money we save for retirement. The 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) gives the Labor Department control over all areas of retirement investing including defined contribution plans like 401(k)s and defined benefit plans like union pensions.

Pensions are a retirement fund where employers guarantee a certain level of payout (a defined benefit) and agree to be on the hook for covering that payout, even if the pension funds investment returns cant cover it. Also, financial professionals manage pensions, thus reducing the likelihood of retirees being confused or swindled by complex financial arrangements. This even allows pensions to take on higher-risk products like private equity funds. But today, only 27.3 percentof retirees, shrinking with nationwide unionization rates, have a pension.

For everyone else, there is a 401(k), where workers and retirees pay in their defined contribution and then get payouts from it based on how well the investments perform. An employers human resources department usually provides the retiree with a menu of 401(k) investment options, but few HR managers are financial professionals so their menu is rarely curated to the workers wants or needs. Originally, 401(k)s were meant to supplement pensions, but today, only 6.8 percent of retirees have both types of plans, and Social Security, as intended.

The federal government, and the Labor Department in particular, have a big role making sure these plans work the way theyre intended, and in (at least in theory) preventing people from getting swindled by investment managers. One of the main guardrails aspiring retirees have is whats known as fiduciary duty, a rule that requires managers of both pensions and 401(k)s to provide the best possible service here, meaning the best quality investments for the lowest possible cost or face liability.

The fiduciary duty combined with workers being on the hook make the 401(k) sector a fertile breeding ground for high-stakes, multiparty lawsuits, where employers fight off accusations by workers and retirees of selecting low-performing and/or high-fee funds for their 401(k)s. An employer may negligently choose a retirement investment manager because they were the most readily available, or they didnt have the resources to find an optimal plan, or they were mistaken of a funds potential. Other times as was alleged against the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys retirement plan last year when the school received a $5 million donation from Fidelity Investments the employer might have an incentive for choosing a certain fund.

For many years, one of the most prominent employer-side litigators was Eugene Scalia himself. None of the prior secretaries of labor, either Democratic or Republican, have been people who have been on the firing line against workers and retirees, said plaintiffs attorney Jerome Schlichter, whose law firm pioneered retirement excessive-fee litigation. Schlichter directly butted heads with Scalia in an ongoing retirement fund suit right up until his secretarial appointment.

Andy Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a nonprofit that rates the financial sector for its ethical standards, said that Scalias three most recent DOL rulemakings suggest a personal vendetta. Hes couldnt win as an attorney, so hes changing the rules, Behar said.

The Private-Equity Exposure

One of the Trump administrations planned changes to retirement rules will open up 401(k) investments to high-risk, high-fee private equity funds. Its a major break with past practices, but it wasnt done through a formal rule process that would allow for scrutiny and public input.

Instead, in early June, the DOL sent a high-profile information letter to Pantheon Ventures, a private equity firm, codifying conditions, such as a 15 percent cap, for a 401(k) to invest in private equity. The letter formalized private equitys entry into the 401(k) marketplace, creating a blueprint for copycats and sending shockwaves throughout both sectors.

Private equity is a type of hedge fund comprising private investors who buy privately held, struggling companies in order to rehabilitate or liquidate them, collecting extremely high fees and enriching shareholders either way. Direct investments in private equity and other types of hedge funds are typically restricted to high-net-worth individuals or institutions. This is because high-net-worth individuals and large institutional investors have extra, discretionary money to handle private equitys huge risks, long-term illiquidity, astronomical fees, and capital calls, investor fundraisers demanded at the drop of a hat. In other words, high-net-worth individuals and huge institutional investors can afford to burn that money if the investment goes south.

The average retirement investor, however, has always been considered uniquely reliant on their savings, which is why ERISAs fiduciary duty requires a very conservative investment strategy. Considering private equitys many risks and costs, the government, until now, and 401(k) plaintiffs attorneys have largely opposed it in retirement plans.

According to Wally Okby, a senior analyst at Aite Group, the pool of available capital from high-net-worth investors for private equity has recently dried up. And considering the shrinking state of pensions, private equity is chomping at the bit to enter the $8.9 trillion 401(k) marketplace. Theyre looking for cash anywhere they can get it, Okby said. Therefore, they go to 401(k)s, where investors typically dont understand what theyre investing into.

In an ensuing press release, Secretary Scalia said the Pantheon letter helps level the playing field for ordinary investors. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton also praised the letter as improving investor choice.

Investor advocates disagreed. The use of private equity in retirement plans is fraught with peril. It was a vehicle that was created for wealthy, sophisticated investors, not for average people, Schlichter said.

The letter is part of a broader private-equity lobbying, pressure campaign, and creation of complicated fund structures designed to prey on more of Americans hard-earned savings. Clayton and other lawmakers have made several moves to lower barriers for private fund access to Main Street investors. On July 28th, one senior SEC director at a conference openly solicited the financial-industry attendants on what SEC rules should be changed to open up working peoples money to hedge funds and private equity.

The letter also comes in light of a recent SEC warning that some retail fund managers have been receiving undisclosed kickbacks from private-equity investments.

The industry has supported the letter on the disputed belief that private-equity investments outperform the stock market at large. George Gerstein, an attorney for the financial industry and co-chief of fiduciary governance at Stradley Ronon, believes that increased private-equity exposure will increase performance of retirement plans, especially as a counterweight to other economic headwinds. But a recent study at Oxford University found that, after fees, top private-equity funds have performed no better for pension funds over 15 years than if the money were passively indexed to the stock market.

Further, private-equity disclosures lack any standard date or metrics, so its disclosed performance data is inherently misleading, Roper argued.

A 401(k) was designed to allow a worker to select different investments in the employer-provided menu to suite their wants and needs: shorter-term or longer-term growth funds, high or lower risk, smaller- or larger-sized company exposure. But in reality, workers overwhelmingly do not make any changes to their 401(k) investment lineup, Roper said. That means that even if private equity did disclose its risks, most people probably wouldnt change anything. Plus, any disclosure could be found on the 40th page of dense legalese. Maybe because the typical worker isnt a financial analyst, Roper understated.

Undoing the Fiduciary Duty

On June 29th, 2020, the Department of Labor unveiled its second major shift, a proposed update to the breadth and depth of the retirement professionals fiduciary duty money managers requirement to provide the best possible service or face liability.

The proposed rule would reduce the fiduciary duty to cover fewer transactions and parties, opening up enormous loopholes wherein a retirement professional has to uphold their fiduciary duty.

Shockingly, it would also allow any retirement professional to receive third-party payments for their recommendations, so long as they adhered to an undefined best interest standard and didnt materially mislead investors. This part of the rule is perhaps akin to a doctor being allowed to take kickbacks in exchange for prescribing certain pharmaceuticals. Scalia said his rule expanded investor choice.

Once again, investor advocates disagreed. [T]he proposal is designed to preserve financial firms ability to place their own interests ahead of their customers interests and profit unfairly at their expense, argued a public letter co-signed by several investor advocate groups.

That Scalia is the one proposing the rule is, to many, an inverted justice. When Scalia was a Wall Street attorney, in one of his most notorious cases, he led litigation for Wall Street groups in successfully overturning an Obama DOL rule that enhanced the scope of a financial professionals fiduciary duty to retirees.

Given Scalias role in the prior rulemaking, both Schlichter and Roper believe Scalias role in its replacement was conflicted, and that many believe he should have recused himself from fiduciary rulemaking. Gerstein disagreed with both assertions.

A spokesperson for the Department of Labor noted that Scalia sought advice from the DOLs career ethics attorneys, who also consulted the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, and they determined that neither relevant ethics rules nor the Trump administrations Ethics Pledge required his recusal from the rulemaking.

A Fossil-Fueled 401(k)

The investment world has recently been choosing to invest heavily in renewable energy, diverse workplaces, and companies with fair-labor practices. So-called environmental social governance (ESG) investing has become incredibly popular, with US SIF estimating that today one-quarter of all U.S. dollars invested have some form of an ESG mandate, an 18-fold increase between 1995 and 2018. Financial firms have been working doggedly to create new funds and products that meet customers growing demand.

And its popular not just because of some charitable spirit. Performance data shows that not only does ESG investing outperform traditional investments in a good economy, but it also loses less in a downturn, though there is some disagreement. Most ESG-sector growth has remained outside of retirement due to retirements need for perceived low-risk investments, but given ESGs growth, it was inevitable that it would eventually enter retirement investing.

Or at least, it was inevitable, until mid-June, when the DOL unveiled its third monumental retirement rule proposal, this time from authority from a Trump executive order promoting fossil fuels. The Labor Departments slash-and-burn rule will subject all ESG in retirement plans to the stigma of heightened scrutiny. While on its face, the rule clarifies what is already the law that retirement investments must meet fiduciary-level scrutiny it also forbids retirement plans from having investments that promote some non-pecuniary purpose, such as not destroying the planet, no matter retirees wishes.

Private employer-sponsored retirement plans are not vehicles for furthering social goals or policy objectives that are not in the financial interest of the plan, Scalia said in a press release.

The consensus in the financial sector is that this rule will have a chilling effect on ESG and benefit the Trump-allied fossil-fuel sector.

Basically the rule that they proposed is deeply internally conflicted. On the one hand, you have to make decisions on financial returns, and yet if you did that, youd have to exclude fossil fuels, Behar from As You Sow said. Why is the DOL saying that fiduciaries should steer clear of less risk, steer clear of outperformance?

Like the other regulatory shifts, the DOL is not acting alone. The SEC has scrutinized and criticized ESG, alongside the New York branch of the DOL and the White House itself. Despite this antagonism to ESG, European regulators, Democratic lawmakers, investor advocates, and even the investment industry itself support expanding and standardizing the ESG sector.

The ESG rule is just straight political, Roper said.

Foxes Guarding the Retirement Coop

Together, the Trump administrations plans contribute to a remaking of a retirement system that gives financial firms new opportunities to cash in at the expense of greater risk to workers, while making it harder for us to use our money to build the kind of world wed like to retire into.

The most perplexing aspect of these rules is their open contradictions. The Labor Departments justifications for the private equity letter and the standard of conduct rule were to expand investor choice. While the rule on environmentally and socially conscious investing effectively shuts out investor choice. The rules allow a retiree to choose a high-risk, high-fee investment, or to choose a retirement adviser who gets a kickback for their imprudent recommendations. But retirees may not choose an investment that promotes the idea that cutting carbon emissions or increasing diversity are in and of themselves good investments.

You could understand if they took alaissez faire approach to both. or if they took a restrictive approach to both, Roper said. This is about picking winners and losers. And the losers are going to be retirement savers.

They just dont like transparency; they want to put us in the most risky, nontransparent vehicles they can find, Behar said. I guess that kind of squares with this administration.

Discouragingly, the rules seem likely to go forward. The private-equity letter effectively lets the horse out of the barn. And while the two formal rules havent been finalized, theres little to stand in their way, as legal challenges seem unlikely after a related SEC decision was upheld in June.

In theory, individuals could sue their retirement-investment managers on a case-by-case basis if they felt the money was being mismanaged, but thats no substitute for a system that works to protect them in the first place something Scalia seems hell-bent on trying to dismantle.

Then again, Scalias only calling the shots so long as Trump is in the White House.

Read more:
Wall Street Is Looting the American Retirement System. The Trump Administration Is Helping - Rolling Stone

Retiring is a huge life event, and it isnt one that comes with many do-overs. You have to get it ... [+] right the first time.

Retiring is a huge life event, and it isnt one that comes with many do-overs. You have to get it right the first time.

Luckily, there are ways to prepare for retirementand even practice itto help ensure youre ready when the day comes.

What to do first

A few years before you plan to retire, have a practice run. If you have a retirement plan that gives you a clear picture of how much money youll have to live on annually, spend a full year to two years living only on that amount. If you dont, your first step is to meet with a financial advisor to get sense of your retirement income estimate.

If you can live comfortably on the decided amount, thats great. If not, its better to know that now rather than later, and its time to devise a plan to increase your future income.

Have a timeline for your decisions

Do you know when you must make certain retirement-related decisions? Do you even know what decisions youll need to make? Having a clear idea of these decisions and a timeline to make them will reduce your stress and make retirement a smoother event.

Pre-retirement decisions

Before you retire, youll need to determine if you have any debts that need to be refinanced. Its hard to refinance mortgages or other loans when you dont have demonstrable income, so do this long before you give notice at work.

Youll also need to decide how youll handle long-term care expenses and if you want to use long term care insurance for some of those potential costs. Applying for this insurance should ideally be done ten years prior to retiring, and three to five years before is basically the last chance for it to be affordable.

Retirement day decisions

Retiring likely means losing your employer-sponsored benefits, so youll need to make decisions about health insurance. If youre retiring at or after age 65, then you can seamlessly transition into Medicare. Make sure you remember to enroll in Medicare Part A 60 to 90 days before your 65th birthday whether youre planning to retire or not. For Part B, you can wait to enroll until after your retirement as long as youre at least 65 years old. You can learn more about Medicare in this episode of my podcast.

If youre retiring after age 63 , you can use COBRA provisions to continue your employer health plan for up to 18 months until youre eligible for Medicare. However, if youre retiring earlier than that, youll either need to join your spouses health plan or to use the health insurance exchange in your home state.

If youre one of the fortunate few people who will still be receiving a pension, youll need to decide how youd like to receive your benefit. You will likely be given the option to maximize your benefit as a single personmeaning it expires after your deathor a few options on how youd like a spouse to receive income from your pension should he or she outlive you.

Post-retirement decisions

Social Security is a very complex benefit, and timing your benefit claim is an important decision youll need to make. You and your spouse must determine whether to claim immediately at age 62 or to wait until full retirement age or even age 70 to begin receiving benefits. The decisions you and your spouse make can greatly impact how much money youre eligible to receive during your lifetimes and during a period of widowhood for either of you. While I could go on and on about this, Ill let those interested read more in this article I published on the topic.

Youll also want to review your current insurance coverages to see where you can save money. Since youre no longer commuting to work, you may be able to lower your car insurance premium. If youre paying for disability insurance, youll no longer need it and can let it expire. Lastly, if you have term life insurance, you may no longer need the extra death benefits and can consider discontinuing the coverage after claiming your Social Security and pension income.

The most important step

The most important thing to do before you retire is make sure you have a substantial nest egg youve built up over the years.

You dont know what the future will hold, and having access to capitalespecially funds not subject to market volatilityis vital to a successful retirement.

The lesson

Theres a lot to consider when youre thinking about retiring. Starting to make decisions and prepare for the life change early will help you be successful in your retirement.

Retirement is the one thing you cannot borrow money to accomplish, so make sure youre able to live off the income youll have. Returning to work out of necessity after youve started your retirement is not only the opposite of what youll want to do, but it can also be incredibly difficult to do so.

The rest is here:
How To Know If Youre Ready To Retire - Forbes

Americans have traditionally saved for retirement through their employers, whether it was via traditional defined benefit pensions or todays more common 401(k) retirement accounts. But how is Americas employer-based retirement savings system faring? Some have grave doubts, but the data show clearly that, via employer-sponsored retirement plans, more Americans are saving more for retirement than ever before.

My friend and fellow Forbes contributor Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor of economics at the New School for Social Research in New York City, argues in a recent Forbes article that this relationship was always miscast. Prof. Ghilarducci writes that Retirement plan coverage situation has been falling for 20 years, even before the COVID 19 recession. Even when the economy was doing well at the end of 2019; only 36% of workers age 25-64 had a retirement plan at work (a fall in coverage rates from 41% in 2015.

Ghilarducci seemingly has the data to back up her claims: figures from the federal governments Current Population Survey indeed indicate that declining shares of U.S. workers are saving for retirement at work. According to CPS data, the share of U.S. workers participating in a retirement plan has dropped by nearly one-third since 1999.

But heres something that ordinary readers wouldnt consider but which retirement policy analysts are familiar with: the Current Population Survey data Prof. Ghilarducci relies on are almost certainly wrong. More reliable data sources tell a very different story on Americans retirement savings.

There are three basic ways to figure out how many Americans participate in a workplace retirement plan. We can simply ask people, as the Current Population Survey does. Or we can ask employers whether they offer their employees a retirement plan. The Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey does that. Or, we can use tax data which indicate whether a given taxpayer participates in a retirement plan. The IRSs Statistics of Income data take this approach.

In theory, all these approaches should yield the same answer. But they dont. A 2011 Social Security Administration study compared how Americans answered a survey question asking about retirement plan participation versus what their tax returns showed. The SSA researchers concluded that the participation rate in [defined contribution] plans is about 11 percentage-points higher when using W-2 tax records rather than survey reports. The best explanation is simply that, when asked, people sometimes get the answer wrong.

And we dont need to look far for proof. Consider full-time state and local government employees, where the BLSs National Compensation Survey finds 99 percent retirement plan coverage and 90 percent participation. (Or, if you dont believe the NCS survey, see if you can find a state or local government that doesnt offer full-time employees a retirement plan.)

But only 71 percent of full-time state and local government employees tell the CPS theyre offered a retirement plan at work. And only 64 percent said they actually participate. The same holds for federal employees, 100 percent of whom are automatically enrolled in both a defined benefit and a defined contribution retirement plan. But only 63 percent of full-time federal workers tell the CPS theyre participating in a retirement plan. The Current Population Survey data simply arent credible on this front.

Retirement coverage and participation among full-time state and local government employees, 2019.

On top of these basic reporting errors, in 2014 the federal government redesigned the CPSs retirement plan questions. That survey redesign reduced reported retirement plan participation by about six percentage points in a single year, and since then the CPSs participation rate has fallen even further. The Employee Benefit Research Institute has repeatedly drawn attention to this issue, warning that relying on [the CPS] to understand trends in [retirement plan] coverage is dangerous and misleading at best.

So what do these other data sources show regarding retirement plan participation in the U.S.? Pretty much the opposite of what Prof. Ghilarducci claims. The chart below denotes Ghilarduccis Current Population Survey-based figures in blue, showing, as she notes, a decline in retirement plan participation among workers aged 25 to 64. The rapid decline beginning in 2014, which no one has explained other than by reference to the CPS survey redesign, is evident.

Percent of employees participating in employer-sponsored retirement plan.

The orange line running from 1999 through 2019 shows the employer-based National Compensation Surveys figures for all private sector employees (not, as in Ghilarduccis CPS-based figures, both public and private sector workers aged 25 to 64). The NCS data show a distinctly different pattern from Ghilarduccis figures: rather than a decline in participation from 2014 onward, retirement plan participation actually increases to the highest level on record!

The yellow line beginning in 2010 is NCS data on both public and private sector workers. Even in 2010 the NCS shows a participation rate of 55 percent, eight percentage points higher than Ghilarduccis figures. By 2019 the NCS data again shows record high retirement plan participation, with the NCSs 56 percent participation rate a full 20 percentage points higher than the CPS figures that Ghilarducci touts.

And then theres IRS data, shown in grey, which cover all taxpayers with wage income aged 25 to 64. The IRS data show that in 2017, 58 percent of workers aged 25 to 64 participated in a retirement plan, versus Ghilarduccis claimed rate of only 38 percent.

Even the CPS itself now contradicts Prof. Ghilarduccis argument: the CPS also asks individuals whether they received any income from a retirement account, such as interest on savings. As EBRIs Craig Copeland put it, if workers earned income in a retirement account, it is safe to assume that they had a retirement account, meaning they were participating in a retirement plan. By this approach, Copeland finds that 62 percent of full-time employees in 2018 participated in a retirement plan, a massive increase compared to the levels Ghilarducci reports.

Moreover, the 401(k) contribution limits are high enough that most married couples could save adequately even if only one spouse had access to a workplace plan. IRS data show that in 2017, 81.4 percent of two-earner households had at least one spouse contributing to a workplace retirement plan. If we assume that 90 percent of married couples with access to a plan had one or both spouses participate, this implies that 91 percent of married couples were offered at retirement plan at work. This isnt a massive coverage problem.

None of this is a trade secret. Researchers are well aware of how the CPSs figure are inconsistent with other data sources. Why would a researcher ignore what seems to be better data pointing to better outcomes?

Im not a mind-reader, but a comment in Prof. Ghilarduccis article may provide insights: We should have never expected dynamic, mostly nonunion, American employers to be reliable sponsors of what workers need. Regardless of whether this perspective is correct overall, in a specific case it can lead a person to believe data that supports their prior views and reject data that contradict it.

With open minds we can see a very different retirement landscape. Even as labor unions and traditional defined benefit pensions have declined, Americans are saving more than ever for retirement. Department of Labor data shows that contributions to private sector retirement plans rose from 5.8 percent of employee wages in 1975 when traditional pensions, usually in unionized industries, were at their peak to 9.6 percent of wages in 2017, a two-thirds increase in the amounts Americans are saving for retirement. Retirement savings rose both because 401(k)s are more widespread than traditional pensions ever were and because 401(k)s have two contributors both employer and employee while only employers contributed to defined benefit pensions.

Employer and Employee Contributions to Private Sector Retirement Plans, as Percent of Private ... [+] Industry Wages and Salaries.

Prof. Ghilarducci laments that employers arent contributing enough to their employees retirements: If every worker had an employer that contributed 3% of their salary in a retirement plan at work it would cost employers $192 billion a year. Right now employers spend only $73 billion per year for retirement contributions. In fact, data from the National Income and Product Account figures show that in 2019 private sector employers contributed $291 billion to retirement plans, equal to 3.1 percent of private sector wages and salaries.

The data are clear: Americans are saving more than ever before for retirement, and it came not from government edicts or labor union pressures, but by making retirement plans more readily available, less burdensome on employers and funded by both employers and employees. Americas private sector retirement system has never been stronger than it is today. We should be willing to follow the facts rather than our preconceptions.

The rest is here:
Follow The Facts: Employer-Based Retirement Savings Are Stronger Than Ever - Forbes