You're about to get too expensive for your pension plan

More lump sum deals aren’t good news for employees, about 40 to 60 percent of whom take the deals. Most who take lump sums under $50,000 cash those retirement funds out rather than roll them into an IRA, paying income tax and a 10 percent penalty if they aren’t at least 59 1/2. While it depends on individual circumstances, it usually makes more financial sense to leave the money in the plan and have it trickle out during retirement.

Perversely, the premium hikes could wind up hurting, not helping, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., because they may not fully offset shrinking headcount in pension plans. Benefits consultants are frustrated. “This has nothing to do with pension policy, but is simply a device to raise revenue,” said Towers Watson’s Glickstein. Higher premiums “would be a factor that causes a move away from these plans, and the whole point of the PBGC is to strengthen the employer pension system, so it’s kind of ironic.”

A statement by the ERISA Industry Committee, an association that advocates for the employeebenefit and compensation interests of large employers, said it was “outraged.” Its Oct. 27 statement quoted the committee’s president as saying that “even the PBGC’s own analysis does not call for an increase in premiums on single-employer defined benefit plans. PBGC premium increases like the one announced today do nothing to encourage single-employers to continue defined benefit plans or improve benefits for retirees; in fact, the increases only work to further weaken the private retirement system.” 

In response to the criticism, an Obama administration official spoke with Bloomberg BNA’s Pension &Benefits Daily, telling David Brandolph that with the underfunding in the PBGC’s single-employer program, “the proposed premium increases are necessary to ensure that PBGC will be able to pay retiree benefits when pension plans fail. Even with these changes, premiums would likely remain a relatively small percentage of a company’s annual pension contribution and a tiny fraction of total compensation costs.” The official noted that the increases take effect over three years to allow companies to plan for the new costs. 

One recent change: Defined benefit pension plan sponsors can no longer make lump sum offers to retirees who are already getting payments from the  plan.  While longer life expectancies and the pension liabilities they bring are the big problem, ever-increasing premiums are bitter icing on the cake. The variable-rate premiums that underfunded single-employer pension plans pay will go up as well. In 2016, they’ll pay $30 per thousand dollars in unfunded vested benefits, according to Bloomberg BNA. That premium will rise $2 in 2017, $3 in 2018 and $3 in 2019, and will then be adjusted for inflation each year.  Companies also “de-risk” by shifting liabilities off of their balance sheet and onto that of an insurance company. They do that by buying an annuity from the insurer.