"Financial services executives reap big retirement benefits; Some banks aided by federal bailout" by Ross Kerber, Globe Staff | March 21, 2009
While top executives at some financial services companies gave up raises and bonuses in the face of public anger over taxpayer bailouts, one of their perks is holding up: huge retirement benefits.
Several Massachusetts banks and financial companies last year added hundreds of thousands of dollars, in one case millions, to support the retirement benefits of their top officers, according to annual securities filings the institutions have made in recent days. The huge sums mostly are for special supplemental retirement plans that are available only to top executives at these companies, and not rank-and-file employees.
Yup, but we got an economic crisis that requires we all pull together, blah, blah, blah, blah!
These are not a backdoor raise or reward for executives who did not get bonuses and other compensation because of a bad year. Rather they are long-existing commitments by companies to pay their executives a set benefit at retirement. To build up toward that amount, the companies usually have to make sizable commitments, regardless of how well or poorly those executives performed in a given year.
As YOUR 401k bites the dirt, worker!!!!!
The EXECUTIVES get DEFINED BENEFIT PLANS!!!! You know, the ones they are TAKING AWAY from YOU!!!
In some cases, companies have to increase the amounts toward executive retirement funds to compensate for lower returns in those accounts if, for example, interest rates decline as they did last year.
(Blog author shaking his head in complete exasperation at the unabashed, unashamed looting)
The furor over bonuses for some employees at AIG International Group has focused public attention on the sizable checks employees received at firms that were bailed out by the federal government or received some taxpayer support. Less noticed, though, are the rich retirement benefits. That's partly because firms only recently began to disclose the value of executive retirement benefits in their annual proxy statements, which are filed this time of year ahead of yearly shareholder meetings.
Equilar, a California compensation consulting company, said the average additional value in 2008 to a chief executive's retirement plan was $1.23 million, based on its review of those firms that have filed proxy statements. In 2007, the average was $1.38 million.
These executives continue to accumulate enormous benefits while fewer rank-and-file workers have guaranteed retirement benefits. Just one-third of workers in mid- to large-size companies were in so-called defined benefit plans in 2007, down from 52 percent in 1995, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Some compensation specialists say the executives' sums are far more than what any individual needs for retirement.
"Retirement packages are supposed to help you if you're unable to save for retirement. I don't believe any of these guys could have spent all the cash they've earned in their careers as CEOs," said Paul Hodgson, senior researcher at the Corporate Library in Portland, Maine, which researches executive compensation and corporate governance issues for shareholders and insurers....
That's what GREED DOES!!!
At
A State Street spokeswoman, Carolyn Cichon, said the executive retirement benefits are intended to help the company retain its top talent....
Are you TIRED of that BULLSHIT EXCUSE for LOOTING, folks? WHERE they gonna go? Whose hiring?
Btw, if they are SO TALENTED, why is the system in such a mess, huh?
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This month, the British parent of Citizens Bank, the
Related: Fish Pension Stinks
Like regular pension plans, the supplemental plans are typically based on the executives' years of service and compensation over time. The longer the tenure, and the higher the pay as the executive serves, the bigger the retirement benefit. The plans typically aim to match 65 percent to 70 percent of an executive's total preretirement yearly income, similar to what rank-and-file employees are advised to plan on saving for, said John Gagnon, an executive compensation consultant in Reading.
Right, it's what the employees are getting. Pfft!
The traditional versions of these plans promise to pay the executives a set amount at retirement, regardless of how the company performs. That promise goes against the prevailing trend of executive compensation, so-called pay for performance, in which much of the executives' overall pay, including bonuses and stock awards, are based on company performance....
It's called LOOTING, Globe!
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Btw, WHAT ABOUT YOUR PENSIONS, workers and readers.
Turns out YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM (if there is anything left)!
I NEVER BELIEVED in their FALSE PROMISES anyway!!!
The stock market's decline has already ravaged your 401(k) plan. Now it could hurt your pension, too.
Under a law that took effect last year, underfunded pension plans may be forced to limit lump-sum payments and suspend cost-of-living increases for retirees. In addition, some plans could be frozen, preventing current employees from earning credit for additional years on the job.
But our LYING, LOOTING LEGISLATORS can take credit for a DAY and the RICH CEO ABOVE HERE can get GUARANTEED BENEFITS while YOUS IS TAPPED OUT!!!!!!!
Holy shit, AmeriKa!!!!!!!
HOW MANY FARTS can you SUCK ON without LOPPING OFF SOME HEADS, huh?
"Companies are going to have to make drastic decisions about their pension plans," said Peter Austin, executive director of BNY Mellon Pension Services, which advises businesses on retirement plans. Pension funds are typically invested in a mix of stocks, bonds, and other securities, most of which have fallen sharply. By some estimates, thousands of pension plans could be affected by the law because their funds have become so depleted....
What, NO BAILOUT?? ALL THAT $$$$ GONE to WAR LOOTERS and BANKS while YOUR PENSIONS were UNDERFUNDED and LOOTED by FINANCIERS???!!!!
Are YOU FEELING a MIGHT INSULTED, Amurka?!!!!!
The law has already started affecting some local employers. For instance, Boston book publisher Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., notified its 5,000 employees last week that effective April 1 they no longer have the option of receiving a lump-sum payout at retirement. Now, they can only receive half the money, with the rest paid in traditional monthly payments.
How many shits in the face can you take, America? You gobbling it up?
Also see: The Textbook Industry
"We had no choice," said Houghton-Mifflin spokesman Josef Blumenfeld. "The law doesn't leave us with any latitude."
We had no choice, we had to retain talent, blah, blah, blah, blah!!! Pfffffttt!!!
Nortel Networks Corp., a telecommunications equipment maker that recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, said it was also required to stop making lump-sum payouts because its pension was underfunded. Nortel, based in Canada, has 30,000 employees, including about 680 in Massachusetts.
So WHERE does all this MONEY GO, anyway? Where the f*** does it go?
While the way retirees receive their pensions may be affected by funding problems, the plans themselves are not at risk. Even if a company files for bankruptcy, most traditional pensions are guaranteed by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. - up to $54,000 annually for someone who retires at 65. The agency said it guarantees more than 29,000 private pension plans.
Yeah, YOU GOT IT, taxpayers!!! YOU ALREADY WAITING with a BAILOUT for these guys!!! Heck, you will be PICKING THEM UP from EVERYONE!!!!!
See: Corporate Pension Funds Next in Line for Bailout Loot
But the law does require companies to cut back on some benefits that employees may have counted on, said Robert D. Webb, a partner at the Boston law firm of Nutter McClennen & Fish. Webb said the restrictions are intended to act as a "safety valve" to ease pressure on underfunded plans.
Do you FEEL LIKE a DUPE YET, worker?
Specifically, when pensions are less than 80 percent funded, the law bars companies from disbursing more than 50 percent of a benefit in a single payment.
While retirees traditionally receive a pension as a lifetime monthly payment, roughly half of companies offer lump-sum payments, said Carrie Duarte, a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers' human resources practice in Boston. Most workers who have the option take it, she said, so they can have more control over their money by investing in a tax-deferred retirement account.
You are REALLY GETTING the SHAFT in EVERY ORAFICE, aren't you, Amurkan worker? Where are you? Why are you not revolting?
The law also makes it more difficult for companies to sweeten pensions, such as by adding early-retirement benefits, cost of living increases, or faster vesting. The restrictions don't apply to public pension plans covering government workers.
Yeah, UNLESS you are a CEO of SOME FINANCIAL FIRM!!!!
And those government pukes? They cut themselves a good enough deal as is!!!!!
The law becomes even tougher when plans fall below 60 percent funding levels. Companies are then barred from making any lump-sum payments or providing "shutdown benefits" - accelerated pension payments - that some employees are promised if their offices close.
Is it OKAY that THEIR PROMISES are SHIT, readers? You went and worked hard every day (unless you are in government, save cops, firefighters and teachers) on a CONTRACTUAL PROMISE, and yet HERE the CONTRACT has CHANGED (but not for AIG guys, no, gotta adhere to those or the whole system will collapse, oh)!
WTF has HAPPENED to America?
That is why I SAY it is AmeriKa now, because THIS is OUTRAGEOUS!!!! This NATION has been LOOTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For pensions that cover union workers at more than one firm, the law requires restrictions on lump-sum benefits when they fall below the 65 percent funding threshold or suffer other liquidity problems. More than 100 such plans nationwide were critically underfunded last year, according to the US Department of Labor. That included the New Bedford Fish Lumpers Pension Plan, which notified the Labor Department in April 2008 that it faced a deficit and was considering trimming benefits, including early-retirement and disability payments....
Yeah, fuck the fishermen and their hardships, huh? I'm so god-damned disgusted by this, that is why you are getting the spew!!!!
Jerry Mingione, a principal at Towers Perrin, a Connecticut company that advises businesses on retirement benefits, estimated that nearly half of pension plans may have to limit disbursements unless they step up contributions or find other ways to avoid the restrictions....
Yeah, right; bankrupt businesses are going to plow money into pensions when they can fob it off on the government. Quit lying to us, will you, Globe?
Duarte of PricewaterhouseCoopers said she has spoken to executives at Massachusetts companies who are scrambling to ease the impact on workers. For example, she said, some are contributing more money to pension plans, while others are looking to trim benefits.
I'd like to see these "some" they keep talking about, as opposed to "others." Damn, that's a common theme that runs through the propaganda we call "newspapers" here in AmeriKa!!!!
"We are having many more discussions," Duarte said. "Companies are trying to do the right thing."
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How much more shit we gotta eat, huh?
