BOOK REVIEW
Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers, Author: Ellen Schultz
By Steve Denning – Two decades ago, pensions were well funded, due to laws and regulations passed in the 1970s and 1980s. By 2000, pension plans at many large companies had large surpluses that would have covered all current and future retirees’ pensions without them having to contribute anything.
Yet US firms found ways to siphon off billions of dollars in assets from the pension plans. Verizon used assets to finance downsizings. GE sold pension surpluses in restructuring deals, indirectly converting pension assets into cash. Many firms clandestinely cut benefits, using “actuarial sleight of hand to disguise the cuts.” more> http://tinyurl.com/65nhjtc
Related articles
- ‘Retirement Heist’ compiles evidence of plundered pensions (usatoday.com)
- Traditional Pensions are Casualties of a Retirement Heist (money.usnews.com)
- What does retirement really cost? (theglobeandmail.com)
- ‘Retirement Heist’: How Firms Trimmed Pensions (npr.org)
