Supporter,

When the Pension Rights Center started in 1976, the landmark private pension law, ERISA, was just going into effect, and our role was to help people understand the law and to make sure that the protections that Congress had just enacted weren’t undercut. 

Nearly 40 years later, because of our work, there are stronger retirement protections for retired, widowed, and divorced older Americans. But there also are new challenges:

• Congress has eviscerated ERISA through the passage of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 by allowing trustees of pension plans to reduce the benefits of people who are already retired – in some cases by nearly 70 percent.

• Government agencies have allowed religiously-affiliated hospitals, schools, and social services organizations to jeopardize their employees’ retirement security by allowing them to convert their federally-guaranteed pension plans to uninsured “church plans” solely to save money.

• Employers have replaced traditional pension plans with insecure do-it-yourself savings plans such as 401(k)s that provide inadequate income – and further increase income inequality.

With your help, we are determined to continue to protect and promote retirement security for American workers, retirees, and their families for decades to come.

Please make a year-end tax deductible donation to the Pension Rights Center today. Your contribution will go directly toward vital services and advocacy that benefit workers, retirees, and their families.

We are working hard to make sure that:

• The nation’s pension and Social Security programs are strengthened and expanded to provide adequate and secure income for all retirees. 

• Promises made to current and future retirees – and their surviving and former spouses – about their retirement benefits are promises kept.

• Every person with a retirement plan problem is able to get the help they need from a pension counseling project in their state. 

• Individuals who have been improperly denied retirement benefits are able to find attorneys, bring lawsuits, and otherwise have a level playing field in the courts. 

• The remaining inequities in our private and public pensions systems, particularly those affecting widows and divorced women, are ended.

Together, we are working to achieve these goals and ensure every American  is able to retire in dignity.

Please donate to the Pension Rights Center today to support vital advocacy and legal assistance programs for current and future retirees.

Thank you, 
Karen Ferguson
Director