Defined benefit pension plans may be terminated by either the employer or the PBGC.
American sponsors four defined benefit pension plans covering nearly 130, 000 workers and retirees.
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That number includes both defined benefit pension plans and contribution plans like 401(k)s.
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Most of the expense decline was due to payroll savings through attrition and a freeze of defined benefit pension plans.
Still, the arcane computations in defined benefit pension plans make it hard for most employees to predict how much they will suffer in a freeze.
It's no accident that a lot of defined benefit pension plans are structured so that the additional pension payoff to workers who stay into their dotage is small.
If approved by bankruptcy court, the airline would turn over its defined benefit pension plans to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), a federally chartered agency that insures private sector pensions.
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But due to the disappearing number of traditional defined benefit pension plans and the impending funding shortfalls in Social Security, current employees anticipate less than 30% of their income to come from these sources.
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In traditional defined benefit pension plans, if employers made poor investment decisions that resulted in reduced pension assets, it was the employer who had to make up the difference between the assets and liabilities of the fund.
The bottler, which operates in North America, Turkey, Russia, Greece and Spain, said it would refine its selling and service organization, lower its general and administrative expenses, make its supply chain more efficient and modify its defined benefit pension plans in the U.S. and Canada.
It seems clear, though, that Americans have won more responsibility for their retirement portfolios as firms switch from defined-benefit pension plans to defined-contribution plans.
Earlier this month, President George W. Bush signed a rewrite of the nation's pension laws that will likely hasten the disappearance of traditional defined-benefit pension plans--the kind that are funded entirely by the company and promise retirees a fixed stipend each month for life.
How long can we keep government employees on defined-benefit pension plans while the rest of us scramble to fund our 401(k)s?
With defined-benefit pension plans falling by the wayside, a growing number of buyers are turning to longevity policies to serve as pension substitutes.
But the regulation also offers us an opportunity to discuss a broader issue: why do charter schools even want to participate in defined-benefit pension plans?
"These plans are concerned about their ability to invest with your firm going forward, " Ms. Weingarten wrote, given Mr. Loeb's support for StudentsFirst and its "outspoken attacks" on defined-benefit pension plans.
If prior contributions to defined-benefit pension plans earn a lower investment return than the state and federal regulators governing these plans had assumed they would, taxpayers must make up the difference.
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With markets volatile and corporations scaling back defined-benefit pension plans, those in or near retirement are paying high fees to transform plain old variable annuities into a source of guaranteed income for life.
Another beneficial effect is that American employers with defined-benefit pension plans for employees have been able to reduce their contributions into pension funds as the rise in share prices has swollen the value of funds' assets.
That was the same argument the financial industry used to kill off the defined-benefit pension plans our grandparents relied on in order to sell a new generation of savers on the idea that 401-Ks had the potential for higher returns.
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Obama administration officials have been wrestling with the challenge of funding retirement across lengthening lifetimes and amid dwindling traditional "defined-benefit" pension plans.
As you know, combined contribution means a company puts in so much whereas historically pension plans were defined benefit.
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Companies have also, sensibly, been switching from defined-benefit schemes, under which the company bears the risk of maintaining pension payments, to defined-contribution plans, in which the risk lies with individual pensioners.
But ever since disgruntled IBM employees brought the issue to public attention, the movement by major corporations to convert traditional defined-benefit plans to so-called cash-balance pension plans has been a lightning rod for workers'--and particularly baby boomers'--growing anxiety over their retirement incomes.
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. statistics show that the number of private sector defined benefit plans in the U.S. has plunged to 30, 000 from 112, 000 since 1985.
That's too bad because sooner or later the defined-benefit plans are going to run out of money and benefits will be cut especially if pension trustees let Randi Weingarten serve as chief investment officer.
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