AT&T Fights Pension Risk Transfer Suits Over Athene Annuities

AT&T Inc.'s decision to drop thousands of workers from its pension plan in favor of annuities from a controversial insurer is legally permissible and hasn’t caused harm that can be challenged in court, the company said.

AT&T can’t be liable under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act for transferring workers to annuities because it wasn’t acting as a fiduciary under the statute in connection with the transaction, the company said in a pair of Wednesday court filings. The lawsuits challenging this transaction also fail for lack of standing, AT&T said, because the workers who filed suit haven’t suffered any ...