By Brooks Hays; United Press International ~ Jan 30, 2015

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) –WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) — A new initiative announced by President Barack Obama on Friday will see renewed efforts to collect more than a million genetic samples for research on individualized medical treatments.

Personalized or targeted medicine is the future of healthcare, doctors say. But from a research and execution standpoint, it’s currently only in its infancy. The basic idea is that the specifics of a person’s genetic makeup, or genome, can dictate the types of treatments and medications ideal for each individual.

But in order to execute such an idea, researchers need to better understand the idiosyncrasies of the human genome and how those specifics affect medical care.

By Robert Schmidt & Dave Michaels; Bloomberg ~ Jan 30, 2015

(Bloomberg) — Top financial lobbyists converged on the White House last week in a failed bid to forestall an administration plan that would impose new rules on brokers who manage trillions of dollars in U.S. retirement accounts.

At issue is a Labor Department proposal to require brokers to act in their retirement clients’ best interest, a standard known as fiduciary duty.

On Jan. 23, five association heads — among them two former governors and an ex-congressman — gathered to tell presidential advisers Valerie Jarrett and Jeffrey Zients that the rules would throw the retirement system into chaos and harm savers with small balances, according to attendees and people briefed on the meeting.

From Deloitte; The Wall Street Journal ~ Jan 28, 2015

With aggregate U.S. private-sector defined benefit pension plan assets exceeding $3 trillion, according to Investment Company Institute’s quarterly survey of U.S. retirement plan assets, more plan sponsors are choosing to shift the liability off their balance sheets by offering voluntary lump-sum payments to pension participants or transferring defined benefit risk to an insurer through an annuity buyout—actions some call “derisking pension plans.” Gary Shaw, partner and national leader of Deloitte LLP’s Insurance Industry practice, Jason Flynn, principal and national leader of Deloitte Consulting LLP’s U.S. Rewards practice, and Brad Howard, senior manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP and leader of Deloitte’s Pension Risk Transfer practice, discuss issues to consider when contemplating derisking a pension plan, including how to plan for a future pension termination.

By Dylan Scott; Talking Points Memo ~ Jan 28, 2015

Republicans have signaled they want to force a fight over Social Security in the coming Congress and, almost immediately, Democrats have pulled out their big gun in the public debate over the program: privatization.

The House passed a rule earlier this month that blocked a transfer of tax revenues from the retirement to disability funds, the latter of which will start being unable to pay full benefits to its 11 million beneficiaries in late 2016. They were clear that they wanted to force a debate, with conservative wonks hoping they would use it to change Social Security as a whole, as Democrats have also warned they might.

By Amit Chopra; MarketWatch ~ Jan 28, 2015

2015 is going to bring along many changes to the investing landscape, and early signs are that there are two very troubling trends developing.

Allow me to start by painting you a picture. Let’s say we sat down together and I told you I would construct a portfolio for you that is expected to last throughout your retirement years, but will ignore any changing economic conditions or the market environment. It’s probably safe to say that you would think this is ridiculous and immediately leave my office, which brings me to the first troubling trend:

By Kelli Kennedy; The Associated Press ~ Jan 28, 2015

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Insurance companies, perhaps more than previously thought, may be charging the sickest patients extra for drugs under the federal health law, in an effort to discourage them from choosing certain plans, according to a study released Wednesday.

One of the cornerstones of President Obama’s signature health law forbids insurance companies from turning away people with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or cancer. Yet hundreds of patient advocacy groups say insurance companies have found a way to discriminate against these people, who are more expensive to cover because they require life-long treatments.

By Dylan Scott; Talking Points Memo ~ Jan 28, 2015

Republicans have signaled they want to force a fight over Social Security in the coming Congress and, almost immediately, Democrats have pulled out their big gun in the public debate over the program: privatization.

The House passed a rule earlier this month that blocked a transfer of tax revenues from the retirement to disability funds, the latter of which will start being unable to pay full benefits to its 11 million beneficiaries in late 2016. They were clear that they wanted to force a debate, with conservative wonks hoping they would use it to change Social Security as a whole, as Democrats have also warned they might.

By Alicia H. Munnell; MarketWatch ~ Jan 27, 2015

Two recent developments that I have found both annoying and dangerous are the deletion of replacement-rate information from the annual Social Security Trustees Report and the coordinated campaign in the press arguing that the elderly have plenty of money. Hence, I was delighted to see a chart in the most recent edition of the OECD’s Pensions at a Glance that addresses both issues.