Anyone have any news on the lawsuit filed on behalf of 96k retirees, after AT&T sold the pension plan to a private insurance company, Athene?
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The title says retirees. Does that mean retirees are taking an annuity? If so, who takes an annuity? If you don't know how to invest your own money go with a company that does. The lump sum is yours and should stay in your own hands.
The average retired tech will only get between $2-$3k a month. That comes out to $36k a year. What if you need more? That roof needs a new shingles etc?
Even conservatively you can make more money that. CD's are 5.4% now. 1 million in your pension will get you $54k a year.
Thanks to these Trailblazers whom we should all be giving a big thanks to as it may prevent outsource of other retiree account scenarios or at least make them think twice before doing so
You can reference this WEB site to see activity on one of the pending suits.
The site requires a subscription to see more details (view documents, etc).
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/52663943/Piercy_et_al_v_ATT_Inc_et_al
No, because no lawyer will accept them. Frivolous.
If the retirees win the lawsuit, each retiree will receive a check in the amount of $3.83. The attorneys will get the big money. When will they learn, when will they learn?
We are on track to win big.
So many employees have ambulance chasers on speed dial.
The only one(s) that get anything are the lawyers.
I, and I am sure some of you, were part of L-T Pension Lawsuit from the 1996 Cash Balance pension changes. Over 10 years to get a verdict in favor of Toxic-T.
So much for American Justice.
Good luck!
The lawsuit will not go far. This has now become a corporate standard practice.
COURT: D. Mass.
TRACK DOCKET: No. 1:24-cv-10656
AT&T Inc. was sued for the second time in a week by retirees who say it wrongly shifted responsibility for funding the pensions of 96,000 workers to a “highly risky” insurance company owned by private equity.
The latest proposed class action, filed March 15 in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, says AT&T offloaded more than $8 billion worth of pension benefits to subsidiaries of Athene Holding Ltd., which the retirees describe as “a private-equity controlled insurance company with a highly risky offshore structure.” This transaction caused workers to lose the federal protections of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and jeopardized their retirement savings, according to the lawsuit.
Pension de-risking transactions, in which workers are removed from a company’s pension plan in exchange for group annuity contracts purchased from an outside provider, have exploded in recent years, according to the complaint. The AT&T retirees’ lawsuit, filed by Schlichter Bogard LLP, comes four days after a different group of retirees brought a similar lawsuit against AT&T and two days after Schlichter filed suit over Lockheed Martin Corp.'s move to transfer risk in its pension plan.
Schlichter is a St. Louis-based law firm known for its lawsuits challenging 401(k) plan fees and its multimillion-dollar settlements with Boeing Co., Reliance Trust Co., ABB Inc., and others.
In the latest lawsuit, three AT&T retirees say the company breached its fiduciary duties under ERISA by failing to obtain the “safest annuity available” in the transaction. They say Athene, an Apollo Global Management subsidiary that’s not named as a defendant, invested in “lower-quality, higher-risk assets” and likely allowed AT&T to save a significant amount of money by putting workers’ retirement benefits in jeopardy.
“Putting the company’s financial interest in saving money ahead of participants’ interests in retirement security by selecting a riskier annuity provider is an egregious act of disloyalty,” the retirees said in the complaint. “By transferring Plaintiffs’ pension benefits to Athene, Defendants put AT&T retirees’ and their beneficiaries’ future retirement benefits at substantial risk of default—a risk for which they were not compensated, and which devalued their pensions.”
AT&T denied the allegations in both cases via email and said it would defend them in court.
The retirees are also represented by Naumes Law Group.
The case is Schloss v. AT&T Inc., D. Mass., No. 1:24-cv-10656, 3/15/24.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jacklyn Wille in Washington at jwille@bloomberglaw.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Drew Singer at dsinger@bloombergindustry.com
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/employee-benefits/at-t-faces-second-lawsuit-over-pension-risk-transfer-transaction