Defined Benefits

Gov. Sean Parnell is proposing putting $3 billion from savings toward addressing Alaska's $12-billion unfunded pension liability.

The overhaul, approved by the General Assembly this week after years of delay and inaction, cuts benefits for most employees and retirees. It has a June 1 effective date, but could be delayed by the legal challenges.

Rising equities and decreasing bonds prices, along with a higher discount rate, are giving corporate pension funds their best positions in five years.

A judge has given Detroit the green light to cut pensions as a way out of the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, a decision that puts the case in the laps of thousands of retirees who had hoped that the Michigan Constitution would protect them from getting smaller checks...

For pre-retirees with limited assets, delaying retirement, being strategic about when they claim their Social Security benefits and reducing spending may be the only options for improving retirement readiness, the Society of Actuaries says.

The costs for a company to keep its pension liabilities or shift them to annuities purchased from an insurance company were nearly identical in October.

The judge turned down objections from unions, pension funds and retirees, which, like other creditors, could lose under any plan to solve $18 billion in long-term liabilities.

Fixed income strategies, says the Principal Financial Group, will work in all interest rates environments.