PPG Industries Enters the Pension De-risking Arena

PPG Industries, a Fortune 200 global manufacturer of paints, coatings and optical products has entered into agreements with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company to provide annuity benefits to 13,400 retirees removed from PPG’s defined benefit pension plans.  In what appear to be  annuity “lift-out’s” PPG has purchased group annuity contracts from MetLife and MassMutual to cover pension obligations of approximately $1.6 billion.  These pension de-risking transfers involve both salaried and non-union hourly employees. Annuity “lift-out’s” occur when a defined benefit plan sponsor amends its defined benefit plan (a “settlor” or administrative decision, not a fiduciary decision), does not terminate the defined benefit plan, but rather moves selected employees or retirees out of the defined benefit plan. De-risked plan participants become “certificate holders” under a group annuity contract they do not own.  These retirees lose all of the uniform benefits intended by Congress under ERISA and become subject to non-uniform state laws.  We expect to see many similar pension de-risking transactions in 2016. One of our clients, ProtectSeniors.org is actively working to protect retirees’ rights in pension de-risking transactions.  For more information, please contact us at (203) 504-8425 or eddie@edwardstonelaw.com.