Pension problems loom for boomers

[deadparrot]

The trend by companies to freeze or end their employee pension plans may have a big impact on baby boomers now on the cusp of retirement.

Boomers with pension plans have counted on monthly retirement checks at the end of their career, but more employers are ending their plans or halting future benefit accruals. Those at greatest risk include boomers in their late 40s and early 50s, who are still at least a decade from retirement but too old to save enough to make up the difference in their pension benefits.

An August survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that nearly half of companies that expect to change their pension plans in the next year are considering freezing benefits for all employees. More than a third that offered pensions have already pared back these benefits over the past three years.

"This will definitely be a problem for baby boomers," says Karen Friedman at the Pension Rights Center. "You've been at a company under the plan and worked for years with that expectation, and then it's taken away."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/pensionproblemsloomforboomers