Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit From the Nest Eggs of American Workers

Senior Citizen holding three golden eggs in a bird&#039;s nest.

(Image credit: DNY59)

published 25 August 2017

Author: Ellen E. Schultz
Publisher: Penguin, 256 pages

We’ve all heard of the “retirement savings crisis.” Many Americans aren't socking away nearly as much money as they'll need to retire. But how did this predicament come about? Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Ellen E. Schultz minces no words: It was “no demographic accident,” she writes. “It was manufactured by an alliance of two groups: top executives and their facilitators in the retirement industry—benefits consultants, insurance companies, and banks” who helped to engineer the rapid decline of workers’ pensions and benefits. Schultz explores how some companies have slashed benefits to boost their earnings, turned pension plans into cash, and used pension assets to finance downsizings. The C-suite drama is interwoven with powerful stories of real retirees struggling to cope with unexpected benefit cuts. Retirement Heist is essential reading not only for pension participants but also anyone seeking to understand how Americans’ retirement security evaporated.

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Laise covers retirement issues ranging from income investing and pension plans to long-term care and estate planning. She joined Kiplinger in 2011 from the Wall Street Journal, where as a staff reporter she covered mutual funds, retirement plans and other personal finance topics. Laise was previously a senior writer at SmartMoney magazine. She started her journalism career at Bloomberg Personal Finance magazine and holds a BA in English from Columbia University.