Defined benefits rebounding: study. (defined benefit pension plans; KPMG Peat Marwick survey)

National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, June, 1995 by Fisher, Mary Jane

WASHINGTON - The decline in tax qualified defined benefit pension plans of the 1980s appears to have halted. In fact, 1995 data suggest these plans are increasing in popularity, according to a national survey by KPMG Peat Marwick's compensation and benefits practice. "We may be seeing a trend with more employers picking up defined benefit plans," said Martha Priddy Patterson, director of employee benefits policy and analysis in the firm's Washington office.

She noted they remain popular with about 40 percent of employers and cover about 71 percent of the employees in the survey. "Small defined benefit plans are the ones shutting down," she added. Good news for employers is that 1995 costs for retirement benefits as a percentage of payroll are down to 6.5 percent...

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