Church Retirement Plans Sidestep Federal Oversight—and Employees Pay the Price

Anne Hotaling joined St. Clare’s hospital in Schenectady, N.Y., fresh out of nursing school in 1979. She came to see the Roman Catholic hospital and her fellow workers as a second family, an extension of the tightknit Catholic community in which she had grown up. 

The job came with long-term financial security: a pension plan that eventually promised Hotaling, following her retirement, $1,449 a month for life. It was one reason she turned down other jobs over the years. “I didn’t want to go someplace else and start that process all over,” she said.