By Mark P. Cussen, Forbes – Jan 31, 2014

In previous decades, a large percentage of workers in America could count on receiving a guaranteed monthly check from their employer’s pension plan when they retired. These traditional plans are called defined pensions plans, meaning that the monetary amount of the pension was fixed, regardless of market fluctuations. If the market tanked, that was the employer’s problem; the pension was sacred. (To find out more about these plans, see The Demise Of The Defined-Benefit Plan.)

But several factors have substantially eroded the presence of defined pension plans in America and elsewhere. Rising costs and increased life spans have made traditional defined benefit plans more expensive for the employer to fund and more difficult to administer. The tendency of people to change jobs more often has contributed to the disappearance of traditional pension plans in favor of portable, defined contribution retirement plans, in which the fund’s value can fluctuate according to the vagaries of the market. Many employees watched in horror during the recent financial crisis as their nest eggs dropped in value.

By Mark P. Cussen, Forbes – Jan 31, 2014

In previous decades, a large percentage of workers in America could count on receiving a guaranteed monthly check from their employer’s pension plan when they retired. These traditional plans are called defined pensions plans, meaning that the monetary amount of the pension was fixed, regardless of market fluctuations. If the market tanked, that was the employer’s problem; the pension was sacred. (To find out more about these plans, see The Demise Of The Defined-Benefit Plan.)

But several factors have substantially eroded the presence of defined pension plans in America and elsewhere. Rising costs and increased life spans have made traditional defined benefit plans more expensive for the employer to fund and more difficult to administer. The tendency of people to change jobs more often has contributed to the disappearance of traditional pension plans in favor of portable, defined contribution retirement plans, in which the fund’s value can fluctuate according to the vagaries of the market. Many employees watched in horror during the recent financial crisis as their nest eggs dropped in value.

Published January 30, 2014 • FoxNews.com

Have a question on your tax returns? Don’t ask the IRS.

As tax day looms, an annual watchdog report to Congress finds that the agency is falling short when it comes to answering Americans’ questions about the convoluted tax code.

The National Taxpayer Advocate found only 61 percent of people seeking to speak with a customer service representative last year got through to anybody — leaving nearly 20 million calls unanswered.

Published on Thursday, January 30, 2014

A new report from Alcatel-Lucent suggests that more than 11.6 million mobile devices are infected with malware. It’s based on figures from Alcatel-Lucent’s Kindsight subsidiary, which is able to measure the impact of network traffic.

Mobile malware infections were said to be up by 20% in 2013, with higher data consumption by 4G LTE devices making these the most likely to be infected. The mobile infection rate was 0.55% of all devices in Q4 2013, which would mean that over 11.6 million mobile devices worldwide are infected with malware. Over 20 times more mobile malware samples were identified in 2013 compared with the previous year.

By Sarah Kliff, January 30, at 9:00 am

Most Americans don’t know that the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion has started. They aren’t quite sure what policies are even part of the act, widely known as Obamacare, to begin with. But they do know, in growing numbers, that, whatever Obamacare is, they certainly don’t like it.

Such is the take-away from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s monthly tracking poll, which has tracked how Americans feel about the new health-care law since 2010. While their polling has generally shown the country to be divided on the health-care overhaul, over the past three months their data show a significant uptick in the number of Americans who oppose it.

By Kate Rogers / Published January 30, 2014 / FOXBusiness

Many Americans are still trying to sort out the requirements the Affordable Care Act, but they aren’t the only ones scratching their heads.

Doctors are also a confused about the mandates included in the president’s signature legislation.

According to a new poll from QuantiaMD, 84% of practicing physicians say they don’t have enough information about the reform to be a reliable resource for their patients.

By David Morgan, WASHINGTON, Thu., Jan. 30, 2014 3:40pm EST

The Obama administration on Thursday reported what it called encouraging results from efforts to reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of care for more than 5 million Medicare beneficiaries under Obamacare.

As part of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law, the efforts center around more than 360 accountable care organizations (ACOs), which are networks of doctors, hospitals and other providers specially organized to help move Medicare away from traditional fee-for-service medicine.

By Julie Appleby, January 29th, 2014, 1:37 PM

Nine million. That’s the number President Barack Obama touted last night as having signed up for health insurance.

President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 28, 2014. (White House Photo by Pete Souza).

That total is important to supporters as a sign that the law is working — and as an indication of the difficulties Republicans would face to rescind the law or roll back certain provisions. Critics have pointed out that 9 million isn’t a huge number — and that some of those people, perhaps even many of them, were previously insured.

By Carole Feldman, Associated Press, Posted: 01/28/14, 5:30 PM EST

A new top tax rate, higher Medicare taxes and the phaseout of deductions and exemptions could mean higher tax bills for wealthier Americans this year. Legally wed same-sex couples, meanwhile, may find the true meaning of the marriage penalty.

All taxpayers will have a harder time taking medical deductions.

In other changes for the 2013 tax year, the alternative minimum tax has been patched — permanently — to prevent more middle-income people from being drawn in, and there’s a simpler way to compute the home office deduction.

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer, Jan 28, 5:58 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T posted stronger-than-expected earnings for the final quarter of 2013, helped by higher revenue from mobile and Internet service subscribers.

The nation’s biggest telecommunications company said Tuesday that it earned $6.9 billion, or $1.31 per share, in the October-December period. That’s up from a loss of $3.8 billion, or 68 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

The latest quarter’s results included a pension-related gain of $7.6 billion, tax expenses and other items. Excluding these items, adjusted earnings were 53 cents per share in the latest quarter, beating analysts’ expectations by 2 cents.