According to New York Post reporter Dareh Gregorian ("Screw the Pooch," June 16, 2008), Leona Helmsley's furry friend will have to make do with a paltry $2 million trust fund. Allegations that Helmsley may not have had full faculties when she wrote her will, and a single stroke of the pen by Manhattan Surrogate Judge Renee Roth, takes $10 million away from Trouble's nest egg. The remainder goes to the former hotelier's charitable foundation. For pet lovers, don't despair. Apparently, this still leaves ample money to cover her annual expenses of $190,000 for the expected remainder of his life (10 human years or 70 dog years). By the way, the lion's share of per annum costs go for security ($100,000) and guardian fees ($60,000).
If you are a member of the baby boom generation (and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis counts "79 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964" in this category - plus countless others outside the U.S.), $190,000 per year looks mighty good. With fewer and fewer workers to support national safety net programs, private savings and employer-provided benefits take center stage. Ask yourself this. How "retirement ready" are you? Will you be living in style or struggling to make ends meet? Check out this online retirement calculator, courtesy of the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons).
For pension fiduciaries, a critical question is whether (and to what extent) you have responsibility for empowering your workers to sufficiently fill the piggybank. Even in the absence of legal mandates, how does an organization attract and keep good workers when talent is in short supply around the world? According to a March 2008 survey, conducted by Deloitte Consulting and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists, "A shortage of skilled and talented workers has become the most pressing concern among employers." Other worries include "the cost of providing retirement benefits to employees" and the appeal of company reward programs to "attract, motivate, and retain the talented employees" needed to "effectively run" an organization. Click to read the "2008 Top Five Total Rewards Priorities Survey."
If you are a taxpayer, you may be putting money aside for your personal rainy days at the same time that you pay taxes to help finance public pension programs (state, county, city). And if Social Security, Medicare and/or the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation needs a bail-out, who ya gonna call? Tax Busters (taxpayers)!
According to then U.S. Comptroller General, David Walker, "A tsunami is building and ready to hit future generations, but this one won't be set off by earthquakes or other natural disasters. Instead, it will be a fiscal calamity created by the failure of government and business leaders to deal with the financial drain of millions of retiring baby boomers." (Walker now serves as President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.)
So Trouble may be literally living a dog's life but her retirement plan, albeit reduced, will keep the furball cozy. We could all be so fortunate!
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