定义的福利计划缓慢他们的幻灯片

公司的defined benefit pensions may be coming off the endangered species list.

不是传统的终身养老金将再次成为国家的主要类型的企业退休计划;没有人预测。

但是一项新的调查纽约consulting firm Towers Watson shows clear signs that traditional pensions have lost as much ground as they’re going to lose and are now at a stable plateau. Of the employers that still enroll new hires in some sort of defined benefit plan – admittedly, a minority of the respondents — 68 percent said they had “made a formal decision” to keep offering the plan for the next two to three years.

Athough two or three years may not seem much of a commitment, Mike Archer, a senior retirement consultant in Towers Watson’s Parsippany, N.J. office, points out that the plans have already survived two recessions in the past decade, as well as the general trend away from pensions. “If these companies haven’t closed or frozen them after all that, and if the companies don’t change them in the next three years, I don’t know what it would take to change them,” he says.

Arthur Noonan, a senior partner at another consulting firm, Mercer, is more pessimistic in the short run but more optimistic over the long. For the short term, he cites a survey of some 200 companies that Mercer co-sponsored last fall, in which around one-fifth of the respondents said “they were still looking at whether or not to freeze or amend their plan.” Over the next three to five years, however, he continues, not only will companies stop freezing, but some will even restore lost pension plans.

“It takes a while for the change to occur,” he says. But eventually, “employers are going to have to say, ‘If defined contributions doesn’t work, I need enough defined benefit features that I can achieve what defined benefit plans were providing me in the past – a reason for employees to stay, and a message about when the time to leave should be.”

立即少于31％的公共和私营部门工人今天依靠传统的养老金作为其主要退休收入来源，从1988年的近57％下降，据雇员受益研究所。在塔沃森调查中，只有在去年秋天投票的424家大型和中型企业中只有大约三分之一的三分之一就在这些计划中注册了新的员工。

The hardy survivors tend to be in industries with at least one of the following qualities, experts say: strong financial health, noncyclical business patterns, effective unions, workers who do physically demanding jobs, a dearth of qualified potential hires, competitors that also offer these plans, and a reliance on tenure, relationships, or unique knowledge among their work force. In particular, that often means utilities, large pharmaceutical makers, and energy businesses. The reasons are pretty much self-evident: The sponsors can afford to pay the benefits, they have negotiated commitments, and they must fight to attract qualified staff.

另外，纽约Sibson咨询高级副总裁Robert Mcaree表示，“已经确定了福利计划的公司对风险缓解的概念变得更加舒适。为了限制他们的财务曝光，他解释说，他们可能通过了一个责任驱动的投资策略，试图将其固定收入持有的内部定期与养老金支出的预期日期相匹配。

尽管公众假设定义的福利是繁重或昂贵的，但保持它们没有改变的人力资源原因。塔尔森调查塔的一半公司表示，他们的计划对于招募和留下雇员来说很重要，而另外8％引用其在“帮助雇员及时退休”中的价值。弓箭手指向他公司之前的调查在其中有义福利计划的更多雇员表示，与唯一裁员捐款的人相比，他们的退休计划是他们公司工作的重要原因。

Mcaree添加了传统的养老金福利“是一个非常有吸引力的工作场所规划的车辆。例如，公司可以使用早期退休奖励来缓解老年工人并为新员工提供方式。相比之下，Mercer的Noonan表示，调查和最后经济衰退的经历表明，有401（k）计划的人不太可能在艰难时期退休。

然而，未来的养老金可能不会与传统类型完全相同。Noonan认为混合动力版本，如现金余额计划，或作为最可能选择的年份。塔楼驻塔尔森调查中有约54％的公司福利计划已转换为混合动力车，减少其资金波动和成本。

华盛顿州道德·弗里德曼，华盛顿州的养老金权利委员会，促进工人和退休人员的宣传权限，表示，这项新的研究可能只是雇主需要鼓励他们保留养老金方案的雇主。“公司有群体的心态，”她说。在过去的几年里，牛群一直致力于定期捐款。潮流可能没有切换方向，中午说：“但作为一种更务实的方法，仍然存在欧洲群落不一定为企业产生最佳结果。”