Retirement Issues/title> </head> <body> <table class="zeroBorder" align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody> <tr> <td style="padding: 24px 5px 5px;" align="center" valign="top"> <table valign="top" class="zeroBorder" align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody> <tr> <td> <table class="zeroBorder" align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center"> <div style="color: rgb(0, 51, 102);"><b><font size="2">EMPLOYEE BENEFITS, <wbr>COMPENSATION & PENSION LAW <wbr>ABSTRACTS</font></b></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="font-weight: normal; padding-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 2px;" align="center" valign="top"><font size="1"> </font>Vol. 9, No. 40: Oct 24, 2008</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: center; padding-top: 3px; padding-bottom: 5px;"> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=237591&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">PAMELA J. PERUN, EDITOR</a><br> Policy Director, Aspen Institute - Initiative on Financial Security<br> <a href="mailto:pamela@planetnow.com" target="_blank">pamela@planetnow.com</a><br> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.ssrn.com/link/benefits-compensation-pension-law.html" target="_blank">Click here to browse ALL abstracts for this journal</a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td width="133"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr style="padding: 7px; background-color: rgb(181, 194, 212); line-height: 13px; text-align: center;"> <td valign="top"> <div> <div> <table style="font-size: 0.95em;" class="zeroBorder"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span style="color: white; padding-right: 2px;"><b>Links: </b></span> </td> <td> <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_managesub">Subscribe ~ Unsubscribe</a> | <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_publisher">Distribution</a> | <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_advisbd">Advisory Board</a> | <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://www.ssrn.com/update/forms/absubmission.html&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">Submit ~ Revise Your Papers</a> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div> <h3>Announcements</h3> <p> </p> <center><b> <br> Topic of This Issue: <br> Retirement Issues</b></center> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <div> <h3>Table of Contents</h3> <p><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1281582">Employment-Based Retirement Plan Participation: Geographic Differences and Trends, 2007</a></p> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=255137&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> Craig Copeland</a>, Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)<br> </p> <p><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1273939">Between Labour Market and Retirement Pension - Flexible Transition as a New Paradigm for Ageing Societies?</a></p> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=578463&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> Stephan Bredt</a>, Government of the Federal Republic of Germany <br> </p> <p><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1286078">A Legislative and Political History of Erisa Preemption, Part 3</a></p> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=290814&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> James A. Wooten</a>, University at Buffalo Law School, SUNY<br> </p> <p><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1284705">Erisa Misrepresentation and Nondisclosure Claims: Securities Litigation Under the Guise of ERISA?</a></p> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=947399&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> Clovis J. Trevino Bravo</a>, Geogetown University Law Center<br> </p> <p><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1282128">The Demise of Defined Benefit Plans for Private Employers</a></p> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=332489&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> Kathryn J. Kennedy</a>, John Marshall Law School<br> </p> <p><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1260962">Preemption and Civic Democracy in the Battle Over Wal-Mart</a></p> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=259851&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> Catherine Fisk</a>, University of California, Irvine Law School<br> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1097864&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> Michael M. Oswalt</a>, <i>affiliation not provided to SSRN</i><br> </p> <p><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1281565">A New Strategy to Maximize Retirement Withdrawals Using TIPS and Longevity Insurance</a></p> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=588076&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> S. Gowri Shankar</a>, University of Washington, Bothell<br> </p> <p><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1283987">Roth Retirement Accounts: A Practitioner's Approach</a></p> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1134579&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> Mark N. Mercer</a>, <i>affiliation not provided to SSRN</i><br> </p> </div> </td> <td><br> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#11d2d750ea8c3d56_top">^top</a></div> <hr> <div> <h3>EMPLOYEE BENEFITS, <wbr>COMPENSATION & PENSION LAW <wbr>ABSTRACTS</h3> </div> <div><a name="11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1281582"></a> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1281582&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">"Employment-Based Retirement Plan Participation: Geographic Differences and Trends, 2007"</a> <img alt="Free Download"></p> <br> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/PIP_Journal.cfm?pip_jrnl=255009&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">EBRI Issue Brief, No. 322, October 2008</a> <div> <p> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=255137&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> CRAIG COPELAND</a>, <font size="1" face="Verdana">Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)</font><br> <font size="1" face="Verdana">Email: <a href="mailto:COPELAND@EBRI.ORG" target="_blank">COPELAND@EBRI.ORG</a></font><br> <br> </p> <p> This paper closely examines the level of participation by workers in public- and private-sector employment-based pension or retirement plans, based on the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS), the most recent data currently available. Among full-time, full-year wage and salary workers ages 21-64 (those with the strongest connection to the work force), just over 63 percent worked for an employer or union that sponsors a retirement plan, and 55 percent participated in a plan. The paper begins with an overview of retirement plan types and participation in these types of plans. Next, it describes the data used in this study, along with their relative strengths and weaknesses. From these data, results on participation in employment-based retirement plans are analyzed for 2007 across various worker characteristics and those of their employers. The paper then explores retirement plan participation across U.S. geographic regions, including a state-by-state comparison and a comparison of certain consolidated statistical areas (CSAs). In addition to the results for 2007, trends from 1987-2007 in employment-based retirement plan participation are presented across many of the same worker and employer characteristics as used for 2007. The paper concludes with a discussion of this study's findings. </p> </div> </div> <div><a name="11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1273939"></a> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1273939&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">"Between Labour Market and Retirement Pension - Flexible Transition as a New Paradigm for Ageing Societies?"</a> <img alt="Fee Download"></p> <br> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/PIP_Journal.cfm?pip_jrnl=133728&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">International Social Security Review, Vol. 61, Issue 4, pp. 95-112, October/December 2008</a> <div> <p> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=578463&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> STEPHAN BREDT</a>, <font size="1" face="Verdana">Government of the Federal Republic of Germany </font><br> <font size="1" face="Verdana">Email: <a href="mailto:stephanbredt@gmx.de" target="_blank">stephanbredt@gmx.de</a></font><br> <br> </p> <p>Increasing the pensionable age due to rising life expectancy meets strong political resistance. For health and labour market reasons it will always be impossible for some to achieve full pension eligibility directly from employment. Even if early retirement options are not restricted the scope for an accumulation of earnings to fund an early pension is often narrowly defined. Consequently, it is impossible for early retirees to compensate for the reductions in the pension they receive. Contrary to the general tendency to increase the pensionable age an alternative reform proposal is currently under discussion in German social policy circles. This involves free choice of retirement at age 60; unlimited accumulation of additional pension entitlements whilst earning; actuarial deductions for early retirement; and consideration of life expectancy in making adjustments to pension awards. This solution relieves the public pension system financially, raises the attractiveness of senior citizens on the labour market, offers the opportunity for a self-determined transition from work to retirement and reduces political resistance to pension reform. The effect on the labour market for senior citizens remains to be examined. </p> </div> </div> <div><a name="11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1286078"></a> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1286078&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">"A Legislative and Political History of Erisa Preemption, Part 3"</a> <img alt="Free Download"></p> <br> Journal of Pension Benefits, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 15-21, 2008<br> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/PIP_Journal.cfm?pip_jrnl=797131&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">Buffalo Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2008-27</a> <div> <p> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=290814&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> JAMES A. WOOTEN</a>, <font size="1" face="Verdana">University at Buffalo Law School, SUNY</font><br> <font size="1" face="Verdana">Email: <a href="mailto:JWOOTEN@BUFFALO.EDU" target="_blank">JWOOTEN@BUFFALO.EDU</a></font><br> <br> </p> <p>The preemption language in section 514(a) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is exceedingly broad. The preemption language in the law ERISA replaced - the Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act of 1958 (WPPDA) - was exceedingly narrow. There were four stages in Congress's journey from the narrowly circumscribed preemption of state law under the WPPDA to the sweeping suppression of state law under ERISA. This article covers the first three stages, tracing the evolution of ERISA's preemption language from the enactment of the WPPDA to the end of the Ninety-Second Congress. The next article in this series will describe the legislative history of the preemption provision in the Ninety-Third Congress, which enacted ERISA. </p> </div> </div> <div><a name="11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1284705"></a> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1284705&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">"Erisa Misrepresentation and Nondisclosure Claims: Securities Litigation Under the Guise of ERISA?"</a> <img alt="Free Download"></p> <div> <p> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=947399&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> CLOVIS J. TREVINO BRAVO</a>, <font size="1" face="Verdana">Geogetown University Law Center</font><br> <font size="1" face="Verdana">Email: <a href="mailto:cjt25@law.georgetown.edu" target="_blank">cjt25@law.georgetown.edu</a></font><br> <br> </p> <p>As a result of recent corporate scandals and dramatic market downturns, many employees whose defined contribution plans were heavily invested in employer stock have experienced substantial losses in their anticipated retirement savings. To recover for their losses, plan participants have filed a number of lawsuits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA") alleging that plan fiduciaries made misrepresentations or failed to disclose material information about the suitability of investing in the company stock. These controversial suits are derivative or companion cases to securities class actions based on the same allegations of misrepresentations or nondisclosures. Even though there is a significant overlap between the ERISA and the securities suit, the procedural, remedial, and substantive rules governing the two actions are substantially different. By juxtaposing these rules, this Article examines whether ERISA fiduciary misrepresentation and nondisclosure claims amount to securities litigation in disguise; and if so, whether these claims should be allowed to proceed in the absence of the procedural safeguards imposed by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act ("PSLRA"). </p> </div> </div> <div><a name="11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1282128"></a> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1282128&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">"The Demise of Defined Benefit Plans for Private Employers"</a> </p> <br> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/PIP_Journal.cfm?pip_jrnl=233581&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">Tax Notes, Vol. 121, No. 2, 2008</a> <div> <p> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=332489&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> KATHRYN J. KENNEDY</a>, <font size="1" face="Verdana">John Marshall Law School</font><br> <font size="1" face="Verdana">Email: <a href="mailto:7kennedy@jmls.edu" target="_blank">7kennedy@jmls.edu</a></font><br> <br> </p> <p>This is the third report in a trilogy, which began in 2005, in which the author examines the change in pension rules set forth in both ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code, applicable to defined benefit plans maintained by private employers. The original title was in the hope that Congress would revisit ERISA's and the code's pension funding rules in order to restore the viability of single-employer defined benefit pension plans. Unfortunately the new rules promulgated by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA '06) do not foster the growth of existing or new defined benefit pension plans, except for those of small employers. <br> <br> In this third report, the author analyzes the new minimum pension funding rules and the new restricted benefit rules (which also affect a defined benefit plan's qualification status) enacted by PPA '06, effective beginning in 2008. As noted in a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, many employers are responding to these rules by freezing benefit accruals for existing and/or new entrants under the plan. Coupled with these new rules, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has introduced a new accounting reporting requirement that will have important financial effects for plan sponsors of underfunded single-employer defined benefit plans. Attorneys and actuaries alike are responding to these challenges by offering a variety of strategies for plan sponsors. These requirements and the responding strategies have been summarized at the end of this article. </p> </div> </div> <div><a name="11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1260962"></a> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1260962&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">"Preemption and Civic Democracy in the Battle Over Wal-Mart"</a> <img alt="Free Download"></p> <br> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/PIP_Journal.cfm?pip_jrnl=163283&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">Minnesota Law Review, Vol. 92, p. 1502, 2008</a><br> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/PIP_Journal.cfm?pip_jrnl=1139980&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2008-10</a> <div> <p> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=259851&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> CATHERINE FISK</a>, <font size="1" face="Verdana">University of California, Irvine Law School</font><br> <font size="1" face="Verdana">Email: <a href="mailto:cfisk@law.uci.edu" target="_blank">cfisk@law.uci.edu</a></font><br> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1097864&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> MICHAEL M. OSWALT</a>, <font size="1" face="Verdana"><i>affiliation not provided to SSRN</i></font><br> <font size="1" face="Verdana">Email: <a href="mailto:moswalt@gmail.com" target="_blank">moswalt@gmail.com</a></font><br> <br> </p> <p>Where Wal-Mart goes, debate over the labor practices of the world's largest retailer seems inevitably to follow. While the company's expansion plans sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, the setting for these disputes rarely changes; the battle over Wal-Mart is fought primarily at the state and local levels. This battle pits activists committed to a 'producerist' vision for the economy where workers are paid well, treated with respect, and have access to affordable health care against Wal-Mart's 'consumerist' economic vision where low prices are the ultimate measure of societal well-being. The important debate over these two competing visions of social and economic welfare can occur in a truly democratic way only at the local level. There, however, the intensely democratic activism and civic dialogue generated by Wal-Mart and its opponents are severely constrained by the legal doctrine of preemption. A federal court ruling that state or local law is preempted not only takes away the power of state and local government to address an issue, it takes away the power of grassroots organizers to engage in democracy's most fundamental behavior: to debate whether and how law should address a social problem and to see organizing efforts made into law. Although much has been written about federal preemption of state and local law, almost no attention has been paid to the effect of preemption on political and civic engagement. <br> <br> This article explains the importance of local activism against the backdrop of the failure of federal law to constrain Wal-Mart's efforts to lower costs by paying inadequate wages and benefits and to thwart unionization by both legal and illegal tactics. Local activists pursue two common strategies to regulate Wal-Mart: fair-share health care legislation and zoning to exclude large low-wage retailers from a local market. Showing how preemption either derails local organizing (by invalidating fair-share laws) or deforms it (by forcing fights over working conditions into the alien territory of land-use law), we argue against excessively broad interpretation of the preemptive scope of federal law, particularly the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). ERISA does not preempt local democratic initiatives, such as those recently attempted in Maryland. These initiatives force companies that do not provide adequate wages or health benefits to pay a tax to offset the cost to taxpayers of providing health care and basic social welfare protections to the working poor. We show that the split decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in "Retail Industry Leaders Ass'n v. Fielder", which found ERISA to preempt the Maryland Fair Share Health Act, was based on an erroneous reading of the Supreme Court's leading ERISA cases. Moving beyond the technical arguments about the scope of ERISA preemption, we argue - based on an extensive literature on theories of organizing and civic democracy - that courts should narrowly construe the scope of federal preemption in the field of low-wage work and affordable health care. We thus bring to the law of preemption a new focus on the extraordinary importance in a democracy of local activism, organizing, and debate over social welfare. In sum, we contend that activists are right to persist in fighting for local democratic initiatives like the Maryland Fair Share Law even in the face of broad federal preemption, and lawyers for progressive local movements can properly find a space within ERISA preemption doctrine to defend the validity of these local initiatives. </p> </div> </div> <div><a name="11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1281565"></a> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1281565&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">"A New Strategy to Maximize Retirement Withdrawals Using TIPS and Longevity Insurance"</a> <img alt="Free Download"></p> <div> <p> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=588076&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> S. GOWRI SHANKAR</a>, <font size="1" face="Verdana">University of Washington, Bothell</font><br> <font size="1" face="Verdana">Email: <a href="mailto:shankar@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">shankar@u.washington.edu</a></font><br> <br> </p> <p>Previous studies suggest that retirees face the risk of financial ruin even with (real) withdrawal rates as low as 4%. This paper proposes a new retirement investment strategy using TIPS and longevity insurance that would permit annual withdrawal rates in excess of 5% without any risk of ruin, while allowing retirees to retain ownership of most of their savings in retirement. The strategy can be implemented at minimal cost by retirees and their financial advisers. Institutional providers could also use this strategy to develop products that would provide inflation adjusted lifetime annuities without requiring retirees to irrevocably commit their entire retirement savings. </p> </div> </div> <div><a name="11d2d750ea8c3d56_paper_1283987"></a> <p><a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1283987&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">"Roth Retirement Accounts: A Practitioner's Approach"</a> <img alt="Free Download"></p> <br> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/PIP_Journal.cfm?pip_jrnl=285106&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank">Journal of Retirement Planning, Vol. 11, No. 5, 2008</a> <div> <p> <a href="http://hq.ssrn.com/Journals/RedirectClick.cfm?url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1134579&partid=237591&did=34352&eid=47624951" target="_blank"> MARK N. MERCER</a>, <font size="1" face="Verdana"><i>affiliation not provided to SSRN</i></font><br> <font size="1" face="Verdana">Email: <a href="mailto:mnmercer@ramercercpa.com" target="_blank">mnmercer@ramercercpa.com</a></font><br> <br> </p> <p>Mark Mercer describes the factors that must be considered when choosing between a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA. Many published articles and analyses of the Traditional vs. Roth decision framework produce results that are not consistent and often times lead to conclusions that are incorrect. Indeed, many articles claiming to clarify common myths and misconceptions in the decision making process also contain results that are not supported by any underlying theory and often lead to results that vary from analysis to analysis.<br> <br> This article describes a method of "proofing" the results reached in financial projections by observing after-tax returns on theoretical post-tax deferred wage asset allocations. Absent this "proof", often times the comparison of the Traditional vs. the Roth is simply playing with numbers. </p> </div> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <br> </body> </html>