Think twice before ending defined benefits plans.(Editorial)

Business Insurance, January, 2006

If additional evidence is needed to show how rapidly the nation's defined benefit plan system is eroding, last week's announcement by IBM Corp. that it is freezing its plans should provide it. IBM, after all, isn't just some employer. It is not only one of the country's best-known-as well as biggest-corporations; it also is a company whose employee benefit plans have been regarded as a symbol of corporate generosity.

If IBM, whose financial resources are immense, says its needs to move away from defined benefit plans and toward defined contribution plans to keep benefit costs more in line with its competitors, surely many other employers have to be considering such a move. Indeed, IBM already has plenty of corporate company. Verizon Communications Inc.,...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.