Pension freeze

Traditional pensions are struggling for many reasons: low investment returns, too-generous benefits, and the happy fact that people are living longer than expected.

Pensions used to be a reliable stream of retirement income, but these twists and turns could put a pension benefit in jeopardy.

Bucking the 401(k) trend, one union moves to a new type of defined-benefit plan in which employers and employees share the risk.

Most American Airlines employees can breathe a sigh of relief (sort of), now that the company has announced that it would not seek to terminate three out of four of its pension plans as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. Rather, the company will freeze those plans, meaning that employees will stop earning benefits after a certain date.