Can Insurers Be a Pension Safety Net?
Pensions are complicated enough without employers passing the buck onto someone else, but increasingly, that is what's happening. In exchange for buying a group annuity, employers are transferring their pension-paying obligations to life insurance companies, who pay the pension. The practice, known as pension risk transfer or de-risking, has implications for how pensions are protected and whether the payments are off limits to creditors. About 33 million Americans still participate in private pension plans, according to the federal Pension...
