In December 2009, Visteon Corp. announced that it was going to terminate its pension plans, which cover some 21,000 workers and retirees, as part of the company’s overall bankruptcy and reorganization effort. (more…)
The recent bankruptcies of Chrysler and General Motors have caused a lot of workers to be concerned about their pensions. While Chrysler has now emerged from bankruptcy GM is still going through the bankruptcy process and the question. “What will happen to my pension?” is very much on the minds of workers and retirees in the automotive sector - and elsewhere. (more…)
Are you a retiree from the auto industry? The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal agency that guarantees pensions, has provided helpful information for retirees of Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, and other car companies. Â
The PBGC guarantees pension benefits up to a certain limit for retirees of companies that have gone bankrupt and are unable to fulfill their pension obligations. Unfortunately for some retirees, the PBGC maximum guarantees may be less than what their pension is worth. For more information on how the PBGC protects defined benefit pensions, read our fact sheet.
In the uproar over the million-dollar bonuses given to AIG executives, AIG’s defenders claimed that the company was forced to give out these bonuses because of contracts it signed with the executives. In Sunday’s St. Petersburg Times, columnist Robyn Blumner uses AIG and United Airlines to make a terrific point about the disgraceful inequities in bankruptcy laws that give rank-and-file workers’ pensions the shaft, while executives can still walk away with millions. Give it a read. (more…)
I recently came across a helpful Department of Labor fact sheet - Your Employer’s Bankruptcy - How Will It Affect Your Employee Benefits? Given the current state of the economy, it’s never too early for workers to know what might happen to their benefits if their employer goes bankrupt. The fact sheet highlights the important fact that, even if an employer declares bankruptcy, its pension assets cannot be touched by the company’s creditors to pay off debt. (more…)
In the past few days, large companies on Wall Street have been closing left and right, making the people who work at these companies jittery about many issues, including their retirement security.
The good news for these employees is that the money in their pension and 401(k) plans is protected from creditors, so that even when a company goes into bankruptcy, they don’t have to worry about their retirement money being used to pay back debts instead. (more…)
An Associated Press story appearing in the Washington Post this week carries disturbing news about the deteriorating financial health of older Americans.
According to an analysis by the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which studied bankruptcies filed between 1991 and 2007, the bankruptcy filing rate has risen dramatically for Americans over the age of 55, with the oldest age group having the greatest increase. (more…)
Print - 
E-mail