The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security
Administration (EBSA) announced it will hold a public hearing August 10, 11,
and 12, and continuing through August 13 (if necessary) to consider issues
attendant to adopting a regulation concerning its proposed conflict of interest
rule and related proposed prohibited transaction exemptions.
Almost immediately after the proposal was issued, industry
groups called for an extension of the comment period. Last month, the DOL informally announced a
15-day extension.
The current notice formally extends the comment period
deadline from July 6 to July 21.
Almost half of Hispanic respondents
scored poorly on a true-or-false quiz about Social Security facts,
according to a MassMutual survey that aimed to determine how much people in
the U.S. know about Social Security. In another section of MassMutual’s research,
findings revealed that most people flunked a 10-question quiz on Social
Security.
Forty-seven percent of Hispanic
respondents answered more than half of the basic questions about Social
Security retirement benefits incorrectly. Also troubling: Only 11% consider
themselves to be “very knowledgeable” about Social Security retirement
benefits.
While many Hispanic respondents
understand basic facts about Social Security retirement benefits, the findings
show large gaps in knowledge of eligibility requirements concerning
citizenship, retirement age and survivor benefits, MassMutual says.
Over three-quarters of Hispanic
respondents (77%) incorrectly believe that being an American citizen is
necessary to receive Social Security retirement benefits. Nearly four in five
Hispanic respondents (79%) believe full Social Security retirement age is 65,
when in fact it actually varies, depending on birth year. More than half (53%)
of Hispanic respondents mistakenly believe that if their spouse passes away,
they will continue to receive both their own benefit as well as their deceased
spouse’s benefit. In reality, assuming qualification criteria is met they would
receive the greater of their own benefit or their spouse’s benefit, not both.
Still, Hispanic workers remain optimistic
about the entitlement program’s future. Seven out of 10 Hispanic respondents
(71%) believe the federal retirement benefit will be available to them when they stop working, compared with 63%
of the general population. But Hispanics express concern about funding: only
half (52%) think Social Security will have sufficient funding when they retire.
This may explain why only one-fourth expect to rely more heavily on the retirement
benefits program than their personal savings or other sources of retirement
income, with 6% expecting to rely on Social Security alone.
“As the Hispanic population in the
U.S. continues to grow, so does the need for a solid understanding of the role
that Social Security will play in their personal retirement plans,” Michael R.
Fanning, executive vice president of the U.S. Insurance Group at MassMutual, said in a statement.
The research was conducted online
by KRC Research on behalf of MassMutual from February 26 to March 2, among
1,513 Americans (including 513 Hispanic respondents over the age of 18).