AT&T Retirees Stumble in Challenge to Annuity Pension Transfer

AT&T Inc. moved one step closer to defeating litigation by retirees challenging a transaction that shifted responsibility for funding nearly 100,000 pensions to an insurance company, a move they criticize as excessively risky.

The retirees didn’t show that AT&T breached its fiduciary duties under ERISA by choosing an annuity provider they disliked, Magistrate Judge Paul G. Levenson said in a nonbinding, 93-page recommendation issued Aug. 29 in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The retirees pointed to a “smorgasbord of background information” intended to show that the chosen provider was risky and unsafe, but they didn’t identify ...