No longer Ford but follow this blog with interest. Where is Bill Ford? Has he addressed the Company in the last few months-- town hall, video, email? The press is all about Hackett and his thinking. His execution seems terrible.
thr
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IMO, BF did not luck into AM. He did due diligence and pursued AM, who proved to be the right leader for FMC. BF had his hand – seemingly -- forced, when the latest transition suddenly escalated: with MF a CEO on FRI, and JH a CEO on MON. The rushed press conference on MON morning was a far cry from the one with AM. BF had seemed much more convincing when ushering in the AM era, but almost forcing the enthusiasm when passing the reigns to JH. This much was evident. JH has not lived up to the expectation, but he may have the utility of providing FF with cover for this RIF. JH may have a vested interest in prolonging it, before retiring. BF did vouch for JH, and face saving – sadly -- may be at play.
FMC needs a leader.
Not true @hjy. In 2015 Obama directed the Treasury department to warn companies not to do lump sum because so many senior citizens lost money or didn’t handle their lump sum well. The treasury department then started working on rules to ban the practice of lump sum pension buyouts. Then along cane Trump and in March 2019 the Treasury Department indicates it would no longer be working on banning the conversion of annuity pensions to lump sum pensions. Companies now have the green light to begin the practice again. Next election cycle who knows.
Source of info is us government web pages. Paraphrased and condensed.
I too did a lot of number crunching and I am way ahead with the pension. I called in and requested to retire June 1st.
If I would have taken early retirement in 2016 I would have gone with the lump sum. The interest rate in 2016 was much lower and the lump sum was a lot higher.
I have over $1m in my 401k and have to convert $720k to Roth IRA over the next 12 years
The post about the pension options is incorrect. You have to pick either the annuity or the lump sum and the choice is irrevocable. Only executives get the option to switch from the annuity to lump sum at age 65.
Also, lump sums weren't even offered until 2012. Then they did contact retirees several times asking them to switch. That concluded in 2013 and hasn't happened since. Again the government contract these policies not Ford.
Unless you are 65+ or your annuity>4500/mo or you have health issues and know you have a short lifespan go with annuity for now. The lump sum payouts are not favorable this year. You will have another opportunity to convert to lump sum at 65. Also Ford periodically extends offers to buyout pensions with a lump Doedad got almost annual pension buyout offers, he eventually accepted. They really do not want to be in the pension annuity business.
Another consideration is that if you are not 59.5 there are some tax and penalty considerations if you want to use any of the funds in the lump sum.
My knee jerk reaction was lump sum. Careful research changed my mind. Take your time, do the research.
I wouldn't be too quick to take the lump sum this year as the interest rate is up causing the payout to be less than in prior years.
I would look at the PBGC pension insurance and do some PV (present value) calculations against your longevity guess to see what average inflation would have to be for the numbers to match.
Historically inflation has averaged 3%
I wouldn't pin too many hopes on Henry 3. He's a nice guy, but did not impress in the area he managed when I interacted with him.
Lump sum pension!!! I did not want to get nervous every time I read about Ford struggles online - major changes are on the horizon for this old school model of mobility. I now control my own destiny and can at least keep pace with inflation.
Thanks! I didn't know about Henry 3 and his involvement in the company, great to hear that a new generation is going to step up.
Company is a complete disaster under Jim. Bottom line is Jim may be a visionary with a plan, however he failed to get the company to buy in to his plan - he lost the troops. In sports, when a coach losses the locker room, team moves on with a new one. People make mistakes. A great manager is able to admit to his mistakes and make immediate and swift adjustments, something that has not occurred in ford for over two years.
The Ford Family had a chance to cash out their stock to an investment group leading up to the meltdown and declined. I won't rehash the details completely here as it was outlined in the excellent book American Icon. But basically Bill and Edsel convinced the family not to do it. For better or for worse, it's not going to happen as long as there are family members invested in the business, and Bill, Elena and Henry the 3rd (Edsel's son) all have active roles in the company. They know the first thing a new owner would do is end their involvement with the company. Do you really think Elena would have a C-level role if her last name were Smith instead of Ford?
We have a CFO that spent his career at Amazon. Jeff Bezos is now giving talks saying how "exciting" the auto industry is. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we end up selling parts off to Amazon at some point. Just my own thoughts, no basis to them
Just because the family members don't have official titles doesn't mean they're not running the company from behind the scenes. Sure, they're not making day to day decisions, but remember that they still have a controlling stake in the company due to their preferred stock and will always have the final say in any major decision. Both Edsel and Bill are still on the board, and they quietly run the show. If anyone is being groomed its Henry III....he has been rotating through the company in management roles.
I have never had the pleasure of meeting Bill Ford but several people I have talked to say he is nice and a pretty bright guy.
I know over a dozen people in marketing and have never heard a single good about Elena.
Seems like Bill may be the last member of the family to even want to try to help run it. Is Elena stepping up to learn the ropes? I don't see that happening at all. So maybe hiring Hackett was the first step to having the family permanently dropping out of the management role.
Bill is 62 years old and may be just ready to step back. If nobody else from the family wants to run this VERY challenging company, especially on the brink of the huge changes in personal mobility, then I'm not surprised that we're not hearing from them.
Bottom line, this may be very quickly becoming just another corporation with no real historic connection to its past other than its name and a few special class stock holders.
Finally, and this is WAY out in speculation land, maybe there's a plan to dress the company up and sell it to VW. Crazier things have happened but the dominoes seem to lining up just right to have that happen.
Maybe he is immersed with his Central Station project...
Phoebe Wall Howard just posted this on Twitter:
THREAD: Bill @Ford met with a scrum of reporters after the automaker’s City of Tomorrow symposium in Los Angeles. When asked about recent #layoffs he said, "It’s the worst thing any executive ever has to do. I hate it, personally. I always have." (1/4) via @ChrisWoodyard @freep
(2/4) "I know the employees. I know their families, in many cases." He continued, "We’ve been on a roll economically for quite a while. If you’ve covered this industry a long time, you know recession may be looming out there. We just had to get ourselves in fighting shape.”
(3/4) “If we are serious about being a lean nimble company, we have to really become that. I hate it, it’s very painful, but we had to do it. There will always be frustration anytime you are affecting people’s careers. But we took great care with it."
(4/4) “So the push-back is ‘Why did you drag it out so long?’ But the reason we did that is to take the proper care.”
IMO Bill revealed himself to be the lightweight he always was with the Hackett hire. He lucked into Alan but, honestly, what achievements does Bill have under his belt besides admitting he's not capable of running the company and turning it over to AM in 2006? He let a snake oil salesman get in his ear a couple years ago and handed him the reins. Now he's in so deep he can't admit that hiring a Jim was an enormous mistake from day 1.
The Ford family is completely behind Jim. At the leadership meeting Bill told the executives to get behind Jim, and if they could not to leave. I was told he was pretty emotional and that Elena Ford left the audience to console him.
Please Bill, do something about this! The company is on the brink of complete disaster. You really want Hackett as the spokesperson???
Totally disappointed - it seems everybody washed there hands of the situation. Every man and women to themselves.