For pilots, it sponsors a defined-benefit pension plan, a defined-contribution plan and gives access to a 401(k) that doesn't include any company match.

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For those in Mr. Davis's shoes, other possible solutions include establishing a profit-sharing or defined-benefit pension plan, or staying on the job as a salaried employee, consultant or paid chairman.

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Union leaders said that they liked the look of the raise, but that what they really needed was a defined-benefit pension plan, not the defined-contribution plan that management had offered them.

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One product was a qualified, single-employer defined-benefit pension plan.

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Swooning stockmarkets are a particular headache for British fund managers, who have had too much invested in equities for too long, which is where many of their recent problems arise, and why almost every defined-benefit pension plan is now in trouble.

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