WSJ Profiles W.Va. Teacher Pension Switch

West Virginia's reversal of a national trend, by allowing public educators to migrate from a 401(k)-style retirement plan to one offering a defined benefit, has caught the attention of The Wall Street Journal.

Chronicling what led to legislators allowing the pension switch, the newspaper reports that "what happened in West Virginia is a window into exactly how things can fall apart for workers, and it serves as a wake-up call for figuring out how to avoid having plans go as badly off track as this one did."

"Many workers with retirement accounts have built nest eggs far bigger than they ever imagined possible," the article continues. "But unknowledgeable ones often are far short of comfortable retirements -- and they don't have the option the West Virginia teachers did of appealing to state legislators to get them out of their investing mistakes."

The Associated Press earlier scrutinized the investment habits and choices that preceded the mass exodus, which has prompted a lawsuit on behalf of disgruntled enrollees.