On February 1, 2021 American International Group, Inc. agreed to pay a $12 Million fine to the State of New York to settle charges by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) that it conducted life insurance business in New York without a license. Between 2014 and 2019, AIG entered into four pension […]
Midland, Michigan based Dow Inc. transferred $700 million in pension liabilities to Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of MetLife Inc. in the 4th quarter of 2020. The transfer affected retirees in the Dow Pension Plan who receive $950 or less in monthly benefits, and retirees in the Union Carbide Pension Plan receiving less […]
Weyerhaeuser transferred $765 million of its pension liabilities in December, 2020. Weyerhaeuser purchased a group annuity contract from Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of MetLife. This pension de-risking transaction affects 5,200 Weyerhaeuser retirees.
The Kemper Corporation, an insurance holding company based in Chicago, Illinois completed a transfer of $205 million in pension liabilities to Banner Life Insurance Company. Kemper’s pension plan was closed to new hires on January 1, 2006, and benefit accruals have been frozen since June 30, 2016. Kemper also offered to make lump-sum payments to […]
These issues keep coming up again, and again. Are annuities safe? Should you lock up all your money in one single annuity? As Dennis Beaver, columnist for the Hanford Sentinel, and a Bakersfield, California attorney told his readers in a recent column “determining if an annuity is right for you requires a careful financial analysis conducted […]
Defined benefit plan sponsors have been quietly working to reduce corporate liabilities by moving retirees out of defined benefit plans and into group annuity contracts. This practice, known to retirees as “pension stripping” takes away the uniform protections intended by Congress under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and dumps the retirees into the […]
ProtectSeniors.Org is leading a grass roots campaign advocating for the enactment of state legislation to protect retirees who have been moved out of their ERISA protected defined benefit pension plans and into group annuity contracts. As Special Counsel to ProtectSeniors.Org, Edward Stone Law has assisted the organization in their efforts to educate their membership on […]
Edward Stone spoke at the Society of Settlement Planners, 2014 Annual Conference in New Orleans on April 28th. Mr. Stone’s presentation, “ELNY – Lessons Learned and the Impact Going Forward” was well received by those attending the conference. For those settlement planners present who were not active in the industry over 20 years ago when […]
On behalf of ProtectSeniors.org, a retiree advocacy group, Edward Stone debated the issue of pension de-risking at the Spring 2014 National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) meeting in Savannah, Georgia on March 9th with Prudential Insurance’s pension expert, Dylan Tyson. Moderated by Rep. George Keiser (ND), former NCOIL President, the debate addressed questions such as […]
While the ELNY liquidation was finalized in August 2013 and cuts to annuitants began immediately, the ELNY Hardship Fund that was voluntarily established by a group of life insurance companies was not prepared to make funds available at that time. The ELNY Hardship Fund, administered by JAMS, now reports that its “regulatory review process” is […]
