Charities look to buy their way out of pension squeeze | Crain's Detroit Business

Charities look to buy their way out of pension squeeze | Crain's Detroit Business

• Southeast Michigan human service and mentoring agencies strapped with pension liabilities moving to terminate plans.
• Rising and unpredictable liability leads to service cuts
• Some looking at taking on debt, others eyeing endowment funds to terminate plans

Southeast Michigan human service and mentoring agencies strapped with pension liabilities are moving to terminate their plans in the face of uncertain and rising liability and fees.
Some are considering taking on millions of dollars of new debt or eyeing their endowments to buy their way out of the liability.
As things stand, agency officials say they cannot project costs from year to year because of:

• Market swings affecting the value of plan assets
• Rising liabilities due to pensioners living longer
• Increases in premiums to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a federal agency charged with providing pension benefits in private-sector-defined benefit plans that end without sufficient money to pay all benefits..."

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