Changing or eliminating retiree welfare benefits
Article Abstract:
Retirees whose postretirement health care benefits have been terminated have often sued asserting permanent rights to such benefits. In the case of nonunion retirees, the courts have found in favor of employers when summary plan descriptions (SPDs) clearly gave them the right to unilaterally change or terminate benefits. In the case of union retirees, court enforcement of an employer's right to terminate benefits after expiration of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) has depended on the agreement's language. Extrinsic evidence has been considered when SPDs or CBAs were ambiguous.
Publication Name: The Journal of Pension Planning & Compliance
Subject: Human resources and labor relations
ISSN: 0148-2181
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Funding retiree welfare benefits
Article Abstract:
Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) rule 106 requires that obligations for non-pension postretirement benefits be reported by accrual accounting. Companies have traditionally not funded non-pension postretirement liabilities and so will not be able to minimize FAS 106 liability by the offset method. Employers can minimize liabilities reportable under FAS 106 by restructuring or perhaps changing postretirement benefits available or establishing a fund to pay them. Tax planning issues related to funding postretirement welfare benefits are also discussed.
Publication Name: The Journal of Pension Planning & Compliance
Subject: Human resources and labor relations
ISSN: 0148-2181
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
A reader's guide to the Retirement Protection Act of 1994
Article Abstract:
The Retirement Protection Act of 1994 (RPA '94), which became law on Dec 8, 1994, amended both the IRC and ERISA. RPA '94 speeds up the funding obligation for the most underfunded defined benefit plans and sets up a narrower range of actuarial assumptions for determining liability. The new law also affected the cashout provisions of defined benefit plans, alters the method of indexing the dollar limits used under the IRC and extends modifications of retiree health funding rules to the year 2000.
Publication Name: The Journal of Pension Planning & Compliance
Subject: Human resources and labor relations
ISSN: 0148-2181
Year: 1995
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: US retiree medical benefits - the cost benefit dilemma for employers
- Abstracts: Outsourcing 401(k) administration yields benefits. Ongoing orientation at Metropolitan Life
- Abstracts: Changing corporate retirement plans in Japan: the increasing popularity of career sum point plans. Severance pay practices vary widely: USA
- Abstracts: Preparing for NAFTA: Social Security and Employee Benefits in Mexico, Canada and the USA. U.S. taxation of foreign deferred compensation in cross border transfers
- Abstracts: Getting through the global payroll maze. Are you throwing money away by outsourcing? Managing international compensation: current challenges