Current Actions

• Hold Financial Advisers Accountable

  President Obama and the Department of Labor have just announced a new rule that takes steps toward ensuring that brokers and other financial advisers who provide advice on how to handle 401(k) and IRA investments must do so in the best interests of their clients – and not provide advice that maximizes their own fees and commissions.

  The White House and the Labor Department estimate that the annual cost of conflicted investment advice is approximately $17 billion each year.
  

  To: All members of Congress

  This is an important victory for millions of current and future retirees, however, financial institutions and many on Wall Street who make a lot of money by selling these conflicted investments are already lobbying Congress to oppose this rule change. 

  The Department of Labor just released a new fiduciary rule, which takes significant steps toward protecting millions of current and future retirees from financial advisors who provide retirement investment advice that is not in the best interests of consumers. The White House and Labor Department estimate that conflicted investment advice costs workers and retirees approximately $17 billion each year. Please oppose any efforts to weaken this important rule. When you do, you are standing on the side of millions of current and future retirees – not on the side of financial advisers who provide conflicted investment advice to consumers.

• Stand with retirees to protect pensions

  Show your support for the Keep Our Pension Promises Act today!

  Late last year, Congress passed the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 as part of the must-pass omnibus spending bill. This legislation could result in deep cuts to the retirement benefits of millions of current and future retirees.
  
  Thankfully, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Marcy Kaptur have introduced the Keep Our Pension Promises Act, which would overturn this outrageous law and ensure that we are keeping our promise to retirees and their widows who count on their pensions to survive.

• Put Retiree Interests before Wall Street!

  Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the omnibus spending bill, leaving intact provisions that could cut retiree pensions by as much as 60 percent. That is unconscionable. Since we started writing to you about these retiree pension cuts, you have sent more than 45,000 letters to Congress. 
  
  We’re asking for your help one last time. The bill has now moved to the U.S. Senate, where it will be voted on today or tomorrow.
  
  Tell your Senators to strip the provisions that allow cuts in retiree pensions from the omnibus spending bill.

• URGENT: Congress to vote today on retiree pension cuts

  We need your help NOW! The House is poised to vote on the omnibus spending bill, which includes provisions that would allow pension plan trustees to cut the hard-earned pension benefits of current retirees – as a purported solution to shoring up certain financially-troubled multiemployer plans.
  
  Most members of Congress haven’t had a chance to review the pension-cutting provisions, so the Pension Rights Center has written a one-page explanation outlining the disastrous effects it would have on existing retirees.
  
  E-mail this explanation to your members of Congress TODAY! Tell them to strip the Kline-Miller amendment from the omnibus spending bill because it would cut benefits for existing retirees – violating a key provision of the nation’s pension law.
  
  This disastrous amendment, which was written in the dead of night without public input, would reverse decades of protections for retirees. But, if the House passes the amendment and the eventual bill, the Senate can still strip these harmful provisions.

• Tell Congress: Don’t make a last-minute deal to cut retirees’ pensions

  We need your immediate help to stop Congress from cutting retirees’ hard-earned pension benefits. With only days left in the lame duck session, Congress is considering passing legislation that would allow pension plan trustees to cut the hard-earned pension benefits of retirees – as a purported solution to shoring up certain financially-troubled multiemployer plans. Such an unprecedented measure would be devastating to hundreds of thousands of retirees and widows who count on these pensions to survive. 

• Protect federal and military retirees!

  The hard-earned pensions of veterans and federal retirees are being targeted by unscrupulous companies. Sign the petition below to demand that Congress act now to stop this predatory practice.
  
  In recent years, a number of companies have begun to market a deceptive financial product called a “pension advance” by preying on vulnerable federal and military retirees – often those with poor credit and in need of extra income. These companies are skirting state and federal laws by going after these hard-earned pensions. 
  
  The companies promise that pension advances offer “painless” borrowing, but they don’t disclose the hidden fees and high interest rates, which often range from  27 to 46 percent – high enough to plunge the retirees who take these loans even deeper into debt. 

  Fortunately, Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) has introduced H.R. 3310, the Annuity Safety and Security Under Reasonable Enforcement Act (ASSURE Act), which would make unfair pension advances illegal.

• Tell the new Congress: My pension is important!

  Now is the time to tell all members of the new Congress that your pension matters to you! Send your member of Congress a reminder and let them know how important your pension is to your overall retirement security.