Talking Points

Tired of giving the same old presentations? Use these nuggets of information to spruce them up.
Reported by PLANADVISER Staff
  • Employees have upped their work hours outside the office to as many as 30 hours a month. A survey from Good Technology in Sunnyvale, California, found more than 80% of people continue working when they have left the office, about seven extra hours each week—almost another full day of work.
  • Only 56% of employees eligible to participate in the annual benefits enrollment period are confident about their decisionmaking, and many keep the same choices. MetLife’s Benefits Election Poll found that around one in five workers who had the opportunity to participate in a benefits enrollment last year failed to act and defaulted­ to either the prior year’s choices or their employer’s default­ choices.
  • Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits will increase 1.7% in 2013, and the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $113,700 from $110,100.
  • A nationwide survey of 2,254 adults conducted by the Pew Internet Project revealed that,  among cell phone owners who download applications, more than half decided to not install one when they discovered how much personal information they would need to share in order to use it.
  • The U.S. retirement income system advanced from 10th place last year to 9th in the 2012 Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index.