Historically speaking, retirees have typically relied on three primary tools to help them prepare for retirement: pension plans, Social Security, and defined contribution plans, like 401(k) plans.

That’s no longer the case. Pension plans are virtually non-existent, falling from nearly half of private sector participation in the mid-1980s to less than 15% today.   

As for Social Security, while it still provides the vast majority (90%) of income for nearly a quarter of retirees, the trust fund is facing a historic deficit, and without intervention, it will be depleted by the mid-2030s. 

LAWMAKERS ARE STEPPING IN

Faced with these obstacles, lawmakers are turning their attention to 401(k) plans, which are available to 68% of private industry workers, yet only 50% utilize them.

This is welcome news. By the end of this decade, the percentage of the U.S. population 65 or older will increase 40%, from 15% to 21%, according to the Census Bureau. Most concerning - nearly two-thirds of adults think they aren’t saving enough for retirement. 

A new bill, expected to reach President Joe Biden's desk by the end of the year, could usher in wide-sweeping changes to 401(k) plans. It could include auto-enrolling workers, escalating contributions over time, increasing contribution limits, integrating student loan repayments, delaying mandatory withdrawals, allowing part-time employee participation, and lowing costs for small businesses. 

The IRS has finally announced adjustments to 2022 contribution limits on various tax-advantaged health and dependent care spending accounts, retirement plans, and other employee benefits such as adoption assistance and transportation benefits. Many of these contribution limits, though not all, are indexed to cost-of-living adjustments.

Together, these combined announcements by the IRS detail 2022 adjusted limits to the amounts employees can tuck away pretax into Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), transportation benefits, and retirement plans such as 401(k)s.

While IRS limits for HSAs and HDHPs are required, by law, to be announced by June 1st, limits for these other pretax savings vehicles always seem to come so late in the year that many employers have already completed their employee benefits open enrollments.

Employers who have already completed open enrollment for 2022 have two choices when it comes to communicating these updates; 1) they can do nothing, since there isn't an obligation to make the maximum election amounts available to employees, or 2) they can reopen the enrollment process and let employees who want to increase their elections do so before December 31st, for calendar year plans.

What follows is a summary of the new IRS limits;

The IRS recently finalized adjustments to 2021 contribution limits on various tax-advantaged health and dependent care spending accounts, retirement plans, and other employee benefits such as adoption assistance and qualified transportation benefits. Many of these contribution limits, though not all, are indexed to cost-of-living adjustments.

Together, these annual announcements by the IRS detail any adjusted limits to the amounts employees can tuck away pretax into Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), Commuter Benefits, and Retirement Plans such as 401(k)s for the upcoming year.

While IRS limits for HSAs are required, by law, to be announced by June 1st, limits for these other pretax savings vehicles always seem to come so late in the year that many employers have already completed their employee benefits open enrollments.

As frustrating as this is, employers would be well-served to get this information out to their employees so they can take full advantage of these pretax savings vehicles. That said, there are not all that many changes for 2021.

What follows is a summary of limits employers and employees need to know.

Retirement savings are on everyone’s mind these days, regardless of age or number of years in the workforce. Millennials are concerned they’ll never be able to retire, while baby boomers are choosing to delay retirement — in part because of employer demand for their expertise in the face of a low unemployment rate, but also because many of them haven’t sufficiently saved for retirement. In fact, according to Time’s Money division, 28 percent of boomers and seniors aged 55 and older don’t have any retirement savings whatsoever and just over half have less than $50,000 saved.

Even more surprising, the median amount Americans have saved for retirement is just $5,000, which means we have a long way to go in helping people prepare for their golden years. This number may seem staggeringly low — and it is. The average retirement savings among Americans age 32 to 61 is just under $96,000. However, averages are pulled up by super-savers, so this number seems artificially high.

With the prevalence of high deductible health plans (HDHPs), a lot of people are now enrolled in health savings accounts (HSAs). While people are mostly familiar with the short-term savings opportunities these accounts provide for healthcare expense reimbursement, many are also realizing that HSAs are a viable retirement savings option as well.

This begs the question — if people had to choose between investing in their 401(k) or maxing out their HSA for the year, which one is a better retirement savings option?

This afternoon the IRS officially announced the final 2020 election/contribution limits for Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), qualified Commuter Benefits, and several retirement savings vehicles. (See comparison tables, below.)

Considering that many employers have already held their employee benefits Open Enrollments for 2020, today’s announcements by the IRS can best be filed under the “better late than never” category.

These IRS statements finally set official contribution limits for Health Care FSAs, Dependent Care FSAs, Limited Purpose FSAs, Qualified Parking and Qualified Transportation Saving Plans, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, most 457 plans, IRAs, SIMPLE Plans, and the Federal Government’s Thrift Savings Plan.

All of these saving plans provide participants with the opportunity to save money, either by paying for qualified expenses with pre-tax savings contributions, or by saving for retirement with pretax elections. 

Human resources personnel are used to helping older employees transition into retirement. But now that baby boomers are retiring en masse, it seems to be happening all the time. In fact, as many as 10,000 baby boomers are putting in their retirement papers every single day, and while not all 10,000 will be in your company, you’ll probably be dealing with quite a few.

As all these boomers retire, your employee benefits package may need to undergo some changes and you may experience a shift in the cost of providing medical benefits as well. Here are some of the things you need to keep in mind as the baby boomers on your staff begin to retire.

Employee Benefits and Medicare

As your baby boomer employees near retirement age, some of their spouses might be a step ahead of them. The way employee benefits work with Medicare is sometimes complicated — especially when it comes to HSAs, which may be a major theme of the bulk of questions posed by those looking to retire. If your employees need to learn more about how to navigate Medicare, and if they should drop their spouse from your employer-sponsored coverage, make sure you’re as informed as possible regarding the regulations at hand before advising them.  

A frequently asked question by those turning 65 concerns penalties. People who are still working and enrolled in an employer-sponsored health plan aren’t likely to incur penalties for enrolling in Medicare late. However, it’s common for people turning 65 to enroll in Medicare Part A even if they’re still enrolled in their employer-sponsored program because it’s free (provided that the person has worked and paid into Medicare for at least ten years).

Around 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every single day, which means 10,000 more people become eligible for Medicare. If your human resources department hasn’t yet been inundated with questions from your older employees about Medicare eligibility, they will at some point — and soon.

After all, many boomers are choosing to work a bit longer than the standard retirement age of 65 for a variety of reasons — some are still physically able to work, so they’re taking advantage of it, others are trying to save more for retirement (because so many people haven’t saved nearly enough, if anything), and others just aren’t ready to give up their day jobs yet.

It’s possible that some of your employees have deferred Medicare eligibility because they haven’t actually retired yet, but some people who are still employed find it’s cheaper to take the leap into Medicare (and all its parts) than to stay on their employer-sponsored health plan (though many choose to enroll in both). That said, it’s not quite that cut and dry when it comes to those enrolled in health savings accounts (HSAs) through high deductible health plans (HDHPs).

Here are the things that need to be considered when an employee or covered spouse turns 65:

Medicare Part A

With the exception of those employees actively contributing to an HSA, there’s really no reason for them not to enroll in Part A, which covers hospitalization, home health care, care at nursing homes, and hospice care. As long as employees have worked and paid Medicare taxes during a minimum 10-year period of time (the period of time deemed long enough by the government), Medicare Part A comes premium-free (however, it does come with coinsurance). The situation gets a bit more complicated when employees who are ready to enroll in Medicare are also contributing to an HSA.