Yes, it will be true in the future.
It has been released that ATT, Pactel, SWBell, Americrap, Bellsouth, Connecticut, etc... will now actually "purchase annuity's" for each employee in lieu of paying monthly pension payments.
Remember, it has been stated that the companies will "purchase annuities" for their employees, this will be important at the end of this post.
It looks like this will stop ATT etc. from now needing to reluctantly increase the monthly pension payments due to cost-of-living yearly (or every few years), you see, once an annuity is purchased and begins, the payment does NOT EVER CHANGE unless you pay an extra fee for a cost of living increase clause.
I have not read anything saying a cost-of-living rider(fee) will also be paid. It is possible this information was just left out, also possible that YOU will be offered (for a monthly fee) the option to purchase a cost-of-living rider yourself, also possible that this will not be an option.
You see, you will no longer be dealing with your company. And the insurance company will have no incentive to raise your monthly payment just because you would like one.
So, for all those who have been thinking your company will buy you an annuity, well, if you wait till after August you will be getting what you dreamed of.
Advantages of the lump-sum still appear far better than annuity to me.
I doubt any insurance company will be happy about not getting all that lump-sum money for themselves, so look toward the future to see if there might be some shenanigans being pulled by the insurance company because once you "annuitize" your insurance, to get the money back out as a lump sum usually requires a hefty percentage of forfeiture.
And it appears that is what is going on, ATT, etc. has probably been offered a really good discount to "annuitize" each persons pension. (good discount meaning they keep a lot of money for themselves)
Any opinions ??