What is the difference between pension plans? What is the difference between the pay as you go pension scheme, personal pension plans, fully funded pension plans and private pension plans? and what kind fall under social security?
Terms of pension can be extremely confusing. Here is a short primer of a U.S. perspective:
Pension Plan: Any program designed to provide income in old age.
Defined benefit plan: A retirement plan that is designed to provide a benefit under the pension. Contributions are usually adjusted annually to ensure that the benefit is finally funded. Example: A pension plan where the benefit is $ 50 per month for each year of service with a company, a person who has worked for 20 years could expect to get 20 x $ 50 = $ 1000 per month. This is often considered a pension plan "
Defined contribution plan: A retirement plan that is designed to provide a retirement benefit based on a fixed amount of contribution. Example: a company 401 (k) saves up to 10% of pay and matches the first 5%. A person who makes $ 40,000 a year could contribute up to $ 4,000 and $ 2,000 received as a game each year. The ultimate benefit at retirement is accumualted these contributions with interest.
Private Pension Plans: The term is used to distinguish between private and public sector plans or sponsored by the employer against the government. IBM's pension plan is a private pension plan. The New Jersey State Employees Retirement is a public sector plan. Social security is a scheme sponsored by the government.
A personal pension is a retirement plan like an IRA or a Keogh, which is not sponsored by an employer or a government entity.
Pay as you go vs. fully funded refers to the financial situation of a defined benefit plan and how contributions are calculated:
Pay as you go is a description of a political contribution to a defined benefit plan. A plan that is funded on a "pay as you go 'basis means that the money is invested in the plan, as retirement benefits become payable from the plan sponsor make payments directly. So No assets are held If the plan sponsor's bankruptcy, the retirees and other participants are the benefits due to waiting in line with other creditors. It is a method of financing illegal for Broad Based private pension plans in the United States USA.
Fully funded means that a pension plan well enough to pay all benefits earned to date, if someone do not make profits in the future, no additional money would be needed to pay current benefits. Retirees and other beneficiaries may be very confident that even if the plan sponsor goes under, their benefits are safe.
Social security is essentially a pay as you go program. Historically, FICA taxes were paid less for the payment of benefits to current retirees. If a large influx of new retirees have been entered, the federal government has the ability to increase the FICA tax rate to cover increased costs.
Since the early 1980s FICA taxes were higher than the payment of benefits in order to accumulate money to pay the baby boomers when they retire. The idea was to put this money aside investment income to use on it to reduce the FICA tax increases that would otherwise have been necessary. The program has not been the case almost fully funded.
In fact, it is a kind of shell game. Investments that Social Security can buy with this money is Gov. obligations of the United States. Thus, Social Security is to provide additional assets to the government to lead the country with the promise that the government will pay future taxes. You pay higher FICA now so that you do not pay FICA later. But more funding is the FICA taxes lower today who will rise later to finance the investment of social security is more CIFA.
Posted on February 4, 2010.