Happiness and the Defined Benefits Plan with David Blumenstein

The World of Multiemployer Benefit Funds Podcast

The type of pension plan you have may play a role in happiness and retirement. According to a 2000 poll conducted by the Center for Retirement Research, retirees with a defined benefit plan were 5.6% happier than retirees with no pension while those with a defined contribution plan were only 4.6% happier. However, retirees with both a defined benefit and a defined contribution were 9% happier than those without a pension. David Blumenstein, President and CEO of Segal, returns to the podcast. David shares his thoughts on why union workers are more satisfied with their retirement plans and how following curiosity instead of passion can lead to personal happiness.
RESOURCES:
In Part 1, David, shares his family's amazing story of hope and perseverance during the Holocaust. Here is the link to that episode:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/412150/11529319-an-inspiring-holocaust-story-and-segal-s-mission.mp3?download=true
For more about David's Family Holocaust story, here are the links:

Regional Emmy Award and National Emmy Nominated Film - Finding Family

https://vimeo.com/544128302

David's father donated his trove of Holocaust material to the Cincinnati Holocaust and Humanities Center and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Here is a link to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum information.

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn520490

For the PDF book co-authored by David's father, which includes the 150 translated letters, David's grandmother wrote his grandfather during the war. Please email [e-mail].

This book gives an actual perspective of daily life as a refugee and the desperate struggle of a mother to find a way out of Europe. It includes the broader story of what happened to Jews during WWII and what the world was aware of as the exterminations were being carried out.

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Contact:
[e-mail]
www.sisupartnersllc.com

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1. Happiness and the Defined Benefits Plan with David Blumenstein (00:00:00)

2. David works to make sure that benefits are available to the working people. (00:03:35)

3. David explains how these multi-employer structures are extended to health care. (00:05:13)

4. Traci says, the health benefit is present and is a very important benefit that these multi-employer plans have and the way in which they run is very similar to the multi-employer pension plan. (00:07:10)

5. David talks about the Sentinel effect that union benefit plans and multi-employer plans have on the rest of the benefits environment. (00:09:10)

6. Traci enquires about the status of how ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) is going. (00:11:22)

7. David believes that there are about 300 plans that could apply for special financial assistance. So far 25 plans have applied and have been approved, and they have been given 6.5 billion dollars. (00:13:18)

8. Unlike the bank bailout, multi-employer plans are something where people have sacrificed or taken in the negotiating process less pay per hour to have this benefit at retirement, says Traci. (00:15:00)

9. David explains the three reasons why these plans are in trouble and have almost nothing to do with it their own making. (00:16:32)

10. Most multiemployer pension plans do not have COLAS so, they do not have the cost of living increase built into them, states David. (00:18:08)

11. David explains the benefit of defined pension plans. (00:19:25)

12. When David was deciding what to study in college, he decided that he did not want his choice to be vocational. (00:22:44)

13. A lot of people talk about finding out passion, and that works for some people, but it does not work for everybody, states David. (00:24:53)

14. David just loves learning about new stuff, and it is what keeps him fresh so that he is not approaching even the same problem the same way. (00:26:00)

15. David has a passion for mental health and mental health crisis. (00:29:00)

16. Traci tells that David is such a light in the multi-employer benefit funds world. (00:31:22)