Gretchen Morgenson Examines Pension De-Risking

Senior financial reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit, Gretchen Morgenson delved into the issue of pension de-risking in an exposé published on June 14, 2020. Morgenson interviewed Karen Friedman of the Pension Rights Center, and Thomas Gober, a certified fraud examiner who has worked as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice, and Joseph Belth, professor emeritus of insurance at Indiana University, and author of The Insurance Forum.  Focusing on Athene Annuity & Life, Morgenson points out that “Athene has acquired $12 billion in corporate pension obligations recently, including those of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dana Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp.” Some 178,000 people now rely on Athene for their pension benefits.  In April 2020, Athene was fined by the State of New York for failing to register before engaging in its pension de-risking business in New York.