Employers Cite High Premiums as Driving Pension Risk Transfers

More than half of large employers say they’re likely to offload pension risks over the next two years, either to an insurer or via lump-sum distributions to workers. And there’s one key remedy for the situation, many benefits consultants say.

The numbers come from the latest annual report from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate, conducted in partnership with Mercer. The report says the primary way to prevent employers from dumping their pension plans is to reduce the premiums they owe to the PBGC, the federal agency that backstops pensions.

In fact, about 69 percent of ...