New York Assemblyman Peter Abbate has sponsored 2019 legislation to protect retirees in pension de-risking transfers. Assembly Bill A5818 – “AN ACT to amend the insurance law, in relation to providing protection to certain retirees from pension de-risking transactions; and to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to statutorily exempt payments” has been […]
Check out Edward Stone’s letter to the editor, appearing in the January 25, 2019 online edition of Crain’s New York Business, commenting upon the article “Trump deregulation binge puts state agencies on the spot”. Following up on Crain’s assertion that the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance is over matched when it comes to […]
On January 28, 2019, Superintendent of Financial Services for the State of New York, Maria Vullo, announced that the Department of Financial Services (DFS) had settled its dispute with MetLife over the insurers failure to make payments to thousands of retirees owed benefits under pension risk transfer annuity contracts that dated back to 1992. Under […]
On January 23, 2019, Weyerhaeuser announced that it had entered into an agreement with Athene Annuity and Life Company to purchase a group annuity contract that will transfer Weyerhaeuser’s pension benefit obligations for approximately 28,500 Weyerhaeuser retirees to Athene. This pension de-risking transfer will reduce Weyerhaeuser’s pension plan benefit obligations by approximately $1.5 billion. In anticipation […]
Bethesda, Maryland based Lockheed Martin Co., the Pentagon’s top weapons supplier, disclosed its recent pension de-risking transfers in its 8-K SEC filing on January 29, 2019. In a $1.8 Billion transaction with Prudential Insurance Company, Lockheed transferred pension obligations for approximately 32,000 U.S. retirees and beneficiaries. In a separate transfer, known as an annuity “buy-in” the Lockheed […]
In a news release on January 18, 2019, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced that it would take responsibility for Sears’ pension plans, which cover more than 90,000 people. A hedge fund run by Eddie Lampert, the former CEO of Sears won a bankruptcy auction with a $5.2 billion proposal to keep the company in business […]
Late last year Seattle based Weyerhaeuser Co. contributed an additional $300 Million to its pension plan and announced its pension de-risking plans for 2019, which include the purchase of a group annuity contract. The Weyerhaeuser pension plan has assets of $5.514 billion in the U.S. and Canada, and over 70,000 participants. According to the company’s […]
In late 2017, MetLife announced that it had lost track of some retirees. MetLife had assumed the responsibility of paying these retirees in a pension risk transfers done years ago, and disclosed that it followed a policy of trying to reach beneficiaries just twice. Once when they approached age 65, and again 5 1/2 years […]
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) will increase it’s fixed rate premium to $80 per plan participant for 2019. The fixed rate premium was just $35 in 2012. The PBGC is a federal agency created by ERISA to protect private sector pension plans. If your pension plan goes belly up, the PBGC wills step in […]
2018 saw many pension de-risking transfers, and industry experts expect this trend to continue unabated into 2019. In fact, Bristol-Myers Squibb has already announced a $3.8 Billion transfer to Athene Annuity and Life Company for August, 2019. We will have to wait and see if that pension risk transfers tops the 2019 charts. Some of […]
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