Pension Plan safety

[corn18]

I am humbled by the number of people that thank me for my service when they discover I am a veteran. My usual response is to thank them for caring and to also thank them for taking care of me and my family with a COLA pension and very low cost health care for life. I figure the 2 of them together have a total value of $2M over my hopefully above average lifetime and they are guaranteed by the USG which can never be underfunded (but can create hella inflation).

I feel blessed.

 

[brett]

Ours is fully funded. Over the past years it has varied. Small plan, only about $50M in assets. Company has made, on a percentage basis, substantial additional contributions to ensure that it meets requirements on both an on going basis and on a termination basis. Most DB participants moved to the DC plan in 2000 (and regretted taking that option). My pension is funded by an annuity purchased by the pension plan when I retired.

 

[SumDay]

This popped up in my w*rk email today. My megacorp employer is in the business of guiding other corporations with their pension risk issues. In 28 days I'll be drawing my pension, and it's one of the companies that's over 95%, for now. I'm pretty comfortable with the security. We did take DH's buyout about 7 years ago, and are glad we did. Not sure what I'll do if I get a similar offer for mine:


https://www.plansponsor.com/nearly-one-third-pensions-funding-status-95/

 

[gayl]

Our pension fund is 85% funded as of 12/31/16 ... should be better after last year. A few things have happened since the 2008 scare.
(1) retirees after 6/1/04 can have their payout reduced if it falls below a certain %. I left 2/19/04 but had to write a check retirement day to bring my share up to 90%. Thought of it like buying an annuity
(2) formula reduced so retirees will get less (no more spiking)
(3) heathcare no longer a lifetime benefit
(4) maximum payout initiated? (No idea how that works)
(5) invests in more conservative bonds after 11/1/16 (last modification)

In that my pension is only 3k a month, I'm not worried

As of 12/31/17 = 91.2% so it got better