HsiaoChu
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2010
- Messages
- 389
You sure had me fooled. Is it still yesterday?
You see what you wanna see. I'm only interested in people's stories.
You sure had me fooled. Is it still yesterday?
I have to admit, I missed something and am not exactly sure what this thread was about or what you suspected.Thanks everyone for the answers. It was as I suspected, but I wasn't totally sure.
I have to admit, I missed something and am not exactly sure what this thread was about or what you suspected.
... who dutifully educated their youngins and in the early years made very little money to do it ...
It's not the motives. Your clarification didn't clarify.I guess I should stay out of this forum. People here just won't believe my motives.
Z, your post is much clearer."I have a question about retirement benefits in the private sector. I have been in the public sector for 40 years, and most of the people I associate with are in the public sector, so I am pretty unaware of what the typical benefits package in the private sector looks like. I understand that in general, the public sector benefits are considered to be very good. Can you share your stories for comparison? Both current retirees, and new hires?" Z
Traditional pensions that pay out guaranteed benefits for life aren't easy to come by these days, as most employers have long since abandoned their traditional pension plans in favor of 401(k)'s.
Public service. Local, state, and federal government positions are the most likely to come with top-notch retirement benefits. Approximately 80 percent of state and local government workers had access to a traditional pension as of September 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Large, private companies. Pensions are much more difficult—but not impossible—to find in the private sector. Although only 21 percent of all private-sector workers were offered traditional pensions in 2007, employees at large, financially sound companies may still get guaranteed retirement payouts for the rest of their lives. Some 34 percent of companies with 100 workers or more offered a traditional pension in 2007, while only 9 percent of firms with fewer than 100 workers did, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The number of employers providing pensions continues to decline every year.
In the past, retirees could often count on their employers to provide health insurance until Medicare kicked in, or sometimes even after they were eligible for Medicare. But in 2007, only a third of large employers offered retiree health insurance, down from 66% in 1988, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Education Trust. Only 5% of employers with fewer than 200 employees offered retiree health insurance last year.
Those companies that continue to provide retiree health insurance are reducing benefits or requiring retirees to pay more for their coverage.
The millions who will retire early without company-provided health insurance may need to buy a health care policy to last them until Medicare kicks in at age 65. Unfortunately, individual policies for people in their 60s can be hugely expensive, with premiums topping $900 a month for family coverage. And those in poor health might be unable to find a policy at any price.
Which makes sense if you think about it, because private corporations have to worry about competition. And if the competition can cut costs and pass that on to their customers, they will get a huge advantage over you. So you have no choice but to also eliminate pensions and retiree health insurance otherwise your products and services will be priced out of the market.I don't think that it is an exaggeration to say the the corporate defined benefit retirement plan is going the the way of the buggy whip.
As globalization and competition continues, a lot of retires in the coming decades will probably be happy they've got DC rather than DB plans. If I've got a pile of 401K money, I can choose a solid insurance company and convert it into an annuity. Or I can trust in my own ability to invest the money for my benefit. If instead I only have a promise from a shaky company to pay monthly benefits for decades to come, I'm in a worse position and have little control over my fate.I don't think that it is an exaggeration to say the the corporate defined benefit retirement plan is going the the way of the buggy whip.
OK..... let me try again.
1. I prefer to listen to people's stories rather than look for dry facts on the internet(which I am really good at doing).
2. I've spent my career listening to people describe their lives and I prefer stories to dry facts.
Z
I don't believe the part that Kraft didn't know - they are far too experienced in buyouts to not see unfunded pension cost, especially in the UK.More than 3,000 Cadbury employees face a three-year pay freeze unless they opt out of the confectioner's final salary pension scheme.
New owners Kraft Foods, the US food group, has told 3,600 staff that they must accept a pay cap after it discovered an obscure clause in Cadbury's pension trust deed that makes it almost impossible to close the scheme.
Kraft did not know about the clause, which is at least 30 years old, until after it acquired Cadbury for £11.6bn ($17.6bn) .
A person with knowledge of the Cadbury pension fund said he did not know why such an unusual clause existed, but it could be linked to Cadbury's Quaker heritage and its doctrine of giving a fair deal to staff and suppliers.
Kraft is forcing Cadbury employees to accept a pay freeze because it believes that this is the only way it will be able to get its future retirement costs under control.
"The scheme is unaffordable going forward," said one person involved.
The trust deed clause prevents Kraft from changing benefits to members in any way that is "unfair or materially detrimental" in the opinion of the scheme actuary.
If they didn't know this, then their executives that led the acquisition and the legal team that worked on it should all be fired.I don't believe the part that Kraft didn't know - they are far too experienced in buyouts to not see unfunded pension cost, especially in the UK.
I don't believe it either, but also don't forget that Volkswagon purchased Rolls Royce only to discover that the brand name was not part of the deal. Those crafty Brits then sold the Rolls brand name to BMW.From this morning's FT
I don't believe the part that Kraft didn't know - they are far too experienced in buyouts to not see unfunded pension cost, especially in the UK.