Abstract
Most of us focus on one or a few retirement income programs and a single retiree health benefit plan at a time, as benefit professionals, policy makers, current or future recipients of these benefits or scholars. We seldom step back and view the larger picture. We often see the trees and miss the forest. And in doing so, we also miss the extraordinary complexity and interrelatedness of the numerous laws and programs that comprise the U.S. retirement benefit structure. This article is an overview of retirement benefit laws and programs. It examines their origins, evolution and, to some extent, their current requirements. It portrays the collage of retirement benefits that now exists in an effort to provide perspective.
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