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Insurer Warns Some Pooled Pensions Are Beyond Recovery
New York Times ^ | 30 June 2014 | MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

Posted on 07/01/2014 7:02:04 PM PDT by Lorianne

More than a million people risk losing their federally insured pensions in just a few years despite recent stock market gains and a strengthening economy, a new government study said on Monday.

The people at risk have earned pensions in multiemployer plans, in which many companies band together with a union to provide benefits under collective bargaining. Such pensions were long considered exceptionally safe, but the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation reported in its study that some plans are now in their death throes and cannot recover.

Bailing out those plans seems highly unlikely. But if they are simply left to die, the collapse of the federal insurance program is all but inevitable, the report said, leaving retirees in failed plans with nothing. It added that the program “is more likely than not to run out of money within the next eight years” as plan after plan collapses.

The multiemployer pension sector, which covers 10 million Americans, represents a mixed bag of financial strength and weakness. The aging of the work force, the decline of unions, deregulation and two big stock crashes have all taken a grievous toll. Ten percent of the people covered are in severely underfunded plans, the study said.

The agency does such a projection every year, but this year’s version was unusually late and unusually dire.

Congress has already held several hearings on multiemployer plans, and for months the unions and companies that jointly sponsor them have been meeting with Congressional staff members to come up with responses. One working proposal calls for retirees in multiemployer plans to give up part of their core benefits to save money. That idea is extremely controversial because federal law has sheltered retirees from such cuts for decades. Proponents say it is the only way to keep some plans going.

(Excerpt) Read more at dealbook.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 07/01/2014 7:02:04 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

The EXEMPT Congress makes a profit by STEALING
from would have been future generations
(if they did not arm al Qaeda).


2 posted on 07/01/2014 7:04:29 PM PDT by Diogenesis
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To: Lorianne

What’s that?

It’s all a Ponzi scheme??

You don’t say!!!


3 posted on 07/01/2014 7:05:58 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("Harvey Dent, can we trust him?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBsdV--kLoQ)
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To: Lorianne

It’s going to be fun watching all those retired government employees with their big fat pensions have to take jobs at Mickey D’s and Walmart.


4 posted on 07/01/2014 7:09:47 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government." --Tacitus)
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To: Lorianne

Not to mention the outrageous government spending including lavish salaries, benefits and pensions that will definitely crash and burn as the burgeoning socialist government runs out of opm. Gonna be a rough ride ahead.


5 posted on 07/01/2014 7:10:05 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

won’t be able to get them, all those new democrat votes pouring over the boarder will have taken them.


6 posted on 07/01/2014 7:30:23 PM PDT by cableguymn (It's time for a second political party.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

?


7 posted on 07/01/2014 7:32:27 PM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: Lorianne

There will be haircuts for bond investors then pensioners.


8 posted on 07/01/2014 7:35:10 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: Lorianne

Could someone explain this in very simple English.

I get a pension from one of the telephone companies.

.


9 posted on 07/01/2014 7:39:31 PM PDT by Mears
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To: Diogenesis

Well the least Congress can do is make sure the bridge overpasses aren’t leaking when it rains, provide some cots to sleep on, and MREs for the next wave of retirees after taking their tax dollars for 40 + years...


10 posted on 07/01/2014 7:44:42 PM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: Lorianne

Life can be hard for those who sell their souls to Satan.

Pull back the collar of his red fireproof suit and “look for the Union label”.


11 posted on 07/01/2014 7:44:45 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Without GOD, men get what they deserve.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
It’s going to be fun watching all those retired government employees with their big fat pensions have to take jobs at Mickey D’s and Walmart.

You're going to be waiting a while. The retired government employees are going to be the *very last* to take the hit.

And when it finally comes to them, there won't be any jobs at Mickey D's or Walmart. By that time we may be reduced to urban foragers to survive...competing with disease ridden Mexicans for the canned goods in the abandoned grocery stores.

12 posted on 07/01/2014 7:46:53 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ((If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there)
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To: Lorianne

Bump


13 posted on 07/01/2014 7:53:16 PM PDT by 4Liberty (Optimal institutions - optimal economy.)
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To: Lorianne

First I have heard of this.


14 posted on 07/01/2014 8:26:03 PM PDT by CPT Clay (Follow me on Twitter @Clay N TX)
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To: Lorianne
I don't know whether they are the largest, but the Teamsters' retirement plan is big in this. There were some accusations that the reason why they wanted FedEx's employees to join the union was to get FedEx's money to boost the retirement plan for other companies' teamster employees.
15 posted on 07/01/2014 8:27:04 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (The IRS: either criminally irresponsible in backup procedures or criminally responsible of coverup.)
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To: Mears

Multi-employer pension plans are most often used in industries where workers may move from company to company.

From an article found on the web: “For example, employees of all companies that were once part of Bell Telephone have an agreement whereby service in all companies is counted toward a single pension benefit.”

One of the largest multi-employer pension plans is TIAA-CREF.

This article implies, to me, that not all multi-employer pension plans are in bad shape. But, if it were me, I’d pull out my pension documents and read them. And if I still couldn’t figure it out, I’d call the pension and speak with someone there and have them direct me to documents that confirm whatever they’re telling me. Don’t depend on what someone says over the phone. Ask for documentation.

Your pension is probably fine, for now. But the bubble is gonna burst sometime so it would behoove everyone to be as prepared as possible.


16 posted on 07/01/2014 8:55:44 PM PDT by Auntie Mame (Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Little Dick Durbin and other Dems see a pot ‘o gold in private 401k’s, IRA’s, SEP’s, Roth IRA’s, etc.

They want to ensure you will make a GUARANTEED return with Government backing....$9-10 trillion that they say is untaxed.

Social Security and Medicare-Medicaid are broke...so are government pensions, all oversubscribed and underfunded.

Mark my words, FedGov will try to steal private savings in my lifetime, I’m 45. It’s the fat cookie the politicians salivate over to keep their power. Sadly, I think that is the day bullets fly in CW2.


17 posted on 07/01/2014 10:48:00 PM PDT by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....)
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To: Lorianne

Bump


18 posted on 07/02/2014 4:14:26 AM PDT by Incorrigible (If I lead, follow me; If I pause, push me; If I retreat, kill me.)
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To: wac3rd
What do you think the NSA has been doing with all that data they are collecting? I'll give you a hint. In the normal course of a day, each American citizen commits three federal felonies (http://www.threefeloniesaday.com/Youtoo/tabid/86/Default.aspx).

Ever downloaded a movie online? $250,000 fine and five years in prison.

The NSA is cataloging these federal crimes and when the time comes they will use the asset forfeiture laws to confiscate all your property. With the asset forfeiture laws, they never actually have to charge you with a crime. All they have to do is ACCUSE you of a crime and they can take your stuff. Once they take your stuff under asset forfeiture, you seldom get it back.

That's how it will go down.

19 posted on 07/02/2014 5:40:00 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government." --Tacitus)
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To: Auntie Mame

Thanks so much for the info-—I’ll give them a call.

What times we live in.

.


20 posted on 07/02/2014 7:11:25 AM PDT by Mears
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