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DB plans continue to slide

The funded status of US defined-benefit corporate-pension plans continued to worsen last year, despite plan sponsors increasing contributions by $70 billion, a new Mercer study reveals. Mercer found funding levels have slipped to 2009 levels, with the outlook for 2012 likely to extend the bleak news for plan sponsors. The funded status of pension plans […]
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Laws add to
de-risking push

Recent legal changes governing how US corporate pension plans calculate their funding liabilities could increase moves to de-risk pension plans, particularly through lump sum payments to participants, says Matt Herrmann a retirement risk expert at asset consultant Towers Watson. Herrmann, leader of Towers Watson’s retirement-risk-management group, says the legislative changes that passed through both houses […]
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The spectre of defined-benefit plans

The recent sharp growth in US corporate defined-benefit-plan liabilities, coupled with concerns that interest rates will start to rise from current historical lows, is slowing the push to de-risk plans, Wilshire Consulting’s head of investment research, Steven Foresti says. The latest Wilshire Consulting research into defined-benefit (DB) plans at S&P 500 companies reveals that aggregate […]