Overview -

Over the course of this series, I have been pontificating on a number of points. First, ERISA and tax regulation have in my view had the unintended effect of reducing benefits for workers and business owners instead of protecting benefits. In the realm of retirement planning, defined benefit plans have virtually disappeared from the landscape. As a result, each of us will have a new retirement date - the earlier of age 95 or our passage from Planet Earth.

My premise is that every business owner would like to have a defined benefit plan as the foundation of the business owner's retirement plan if the business owner did not have to contribute for employees. Of course, this type of discrimination is exactly what ERISA was designed to prevent.