Lots of haircuts on the GM pensions.
Aren't most baby boomers already retired? Oh those poor millennials who will have to be taxed to death to pay for the democratic radical agendo.
13 replies (most recent on top)
GM’s pensions were frozen and offloaded to Prudential to be run by them.
Does anyone know what happened to the GM pensions when GM declared bankruptcy?
FWIW - the point about GM was - the unthinkable can happen. It was not a comparison of industry or government or whatever.
In those days, if you ever said GM would go bankrupt it was a crazy thought - comparable today to a TV reality star being elected as your president! Ouch that happened too!
Silly people, NOTHING is guaranteed!
The comparison of an independent agency of the federal government to GM is not a very good one. Your social security is at much greater risk than any changes at PBGC.
10 years to go.......... huh?
You think they will make it that long?
Baby boomers should already have retired. I’m one of the last hiring years with a pension, and I’m counting down...10 years to go! I’m not counting on the pension and I am fully funding my 401k. I’ll take the lump sum as soon as I retire if they still offer it. I want control over my finances.
Regarding full faith in PBGC, these are different times now. I hope it is there for everyone that needs it.
I remember my Dad using a phrase in the seventies about how GM will never go bankrupt. No one would ever imagine that this could/would/did happen. Times change, and this virus will be changing the structure of life as we used to know it.
I have full faith in the PBGC and their independence, have spent days looking into it. It was created with a lot of thought to give retirees with pensions peace of mind.
Took the lump sum for 2018 prp. I know everyone says they are guaranteed as noted below but as also noted below this is an unusual circumstance and there will be more in the future. I didn’t want my future resting on any government funded program.
The Baby boomers have already retired. You should be asking, "Will Ford be around long enough for Gen-Xers to safely retire?". Learn your generations.
The pension was created as a retention method back when the country cared about the elderly. Executive compensation was sensible in relation to the workers. The later part of the 80s and 90s ruined this with how Wall Street values companies. They expect manufacturing companies to operate like investment firms, where the cutthroat win and people pulling the load lose. This is why the pension plan was eliminated for new hires post 2004. As for the pre 2004 crowd that are relying on your pension, the government has protection through the Pension Board Guarantee Corporation (PBGC). However from their website:
"PBGC is not funded by general tax revenues. Our funding comes from (1) insurance premiums paid by companies whose plans we protect; (2) investments; (3) assets of pension plans that we take over as trustee; and (4) recoveries in bankruptcy from the companies formerly responsible for the plans. Your insured plan remains protected even if your employer fails to pay the required premiums. "
There is also a maximum pay schedule you recieve. It's all on their website. However in my opinion, this plan is only able to support a few distressed companies at a time. If you end up with an economic meltdown, I think their funds would drain and never recover (because all companies have halted any new participants in the pension plans so the corporate contribution is dwindling as people die).
As long as people keep buying into the Wall Street shill these doomsday scenarios will continue. Don't get me started on 401k, that's another shill just to blindly pass money to these Wall Street a–holes.