If there's one thing everyone seems to know about retirement planning, it's that the pension plan our parents or grandparents had doesn't exist anymore. That's not exactly true. The pensions wherein your company continues to pay you regularly in retirement, known as defined benefit plans, do still exist. There are, however, far fewer of them around than there were just 15 years ago. In 1998, 90% of Fortune 500 companies offered a defined benefit pension to new employees. By 2012, that number dropped to 30%. Pension plans may be on the endangered financial species list, but they are not yet extinct. If you have one (or still hope to), you should know how pension plans work.
In Search of the Elusive Pension Plan originally appeared on About.com Retirement Planning on Friday, May 30th, 2014 at 16:54:15.