Pension De-Risking Continues

Companies continue to de-risk their pension plans at a rapid pace.  J.C. Penney Co., based in Plano, Texas offered 31,000 retirees a lump sum buyout offer which expires today.  This offer follows an earlier lump sum buyout offer in 2012 that 25,000 retirees elected to take. While the I.R.S. restricted lump sum buyouts with new regulations issued in July of this year, J.C. Penney was permitted to move forward as they apparently met one of the exceptions provided for in I.R.S. Notice 2015-49.  This may not be the last pension de-risking move for J.C. Penney Co., and the move may include the purchase of a group annuity contract.  Joey Thomas, a spokesman for J.C. Penney is quoted in Pensions & Investments as saying “We monitor the annuitization market on an ongoing basis to evaluate if there are opportunities to further derisk the pension plan in a cost-efficient manner.” In August, E.W. Scripps Co. based in Cincinnati offered the option of a lump sum or immediate annuity to 4,300 retirees.  Company funds were not used to make the lump sum distributions, and the Scripps defined benefit plan (DBP) funding ratio remains at 80%. We’ve said this before, but we will say it again – now that the I.R.S. has limited lump sum distributions to retirees we expect to see more pension risk transfers via the purchase of group annuity contracts. This makes pension de-risking legislation protecting retirees all the more important. Connecticut’s new law, Public Law  15-167, An Act Extending Creditor Protection to Amounts Payable to a Participant of or Beneficiary Under an Annuity Purchased to Fund Employee or Retiree Retirement Benefits, goes into effect on October 1, 2015.