USA Today had a story about corporate plans heading for extinction noting:
Most U.S. companies no longer offer defined-benefit pensions, which typically provided guaranteed monthly payments to workers when they retired….[A]ccording to Mercer’s 2020 Defined Benefit Outlook…63% of companies with defined-benefit pensions “are considering termination” of the plan within half a decade…. Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, said in a recent interview: “It’s really over in the private sector. The question is, just when does the last plan close down?” The number of pension plans offering defined benefits – which means the payouts are guaranteed – plummeted by about 73% from 1986 to 2016, according to the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration.
Which got me to thinking where my profession of Enrolled Actuary (EA), which exists solely to certify to the funding of Defined Benefit plans, is headed.