GM seeks to slash $26 bn in pensions

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co will offer some U.S. white-collar retirees a lump-sum pension buyout as part of two actions announced on Friday that will slash 24 percent of its U.S. pension obligations. The largest U.S. automaker said it will offer lump-sum payments to 42,000 salaried retirees and surviving beneficiaries. GM will also buy a group annuity contract from Prudential, which will now pay and manage future benefit payments to GM's remaining salaried retirees. The two moves affect 118,000 U.S. salaried retirees. ...

Ford's offer of lump-sum payments comes as the automaker reports lower first-quarter profit on losses in Europe and Asia.Ford Motor Co. will offer about 90,000 U.S.

Life Insurers Profit as Retirees Fear Outliving Cash by Alexis Leondis

DETROIT (Reuters) - Around 12,600 white-collar retirees of General Motors Co have agreed to accept lump-sum payments in lieu of monthly pension checks from the largest U.S. automaker. The buyouts will help cut $29 billion, or about one-fifth, from GM's $134 billion global pension obligation, GM said on Wednesday in a statement accompanying its third-quarter results. That is $3 billion better than GM projected when it first announced its plans to shrink its large pension obligation, one of the few issues left untouched during its 2009 U.S.-financed bankruptcy restructuring. ...

Just when I thought I'd seen everything, Company announced it is giving former employees and salaried retirees currently receiving pension benefits a chance to opt out of their monthly pension payments and take a lump-sum payout instead. That is most likely a first for a plan of this size. Over the past two decades, employees ...

MOST adults have come to accept that life is not fair. Even when we’ve upheld our end of the bargain, things don’t always work out as one might have expected. The resulting disappointment tends to be especially bitter when it comes to retirement. Yesterday, British public-sector workers went on strike in response to demands that they work longer and contribute more to their pensions. I am struck by how much the word "fair" is being used.