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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2017 - 2018
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 26, 2017 08:58 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Warren Kampf |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Pension De-Risking |
| In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation that would provide protections for retirement plan benefits due to pension de-risking. Pension de-risking occurs in the private sector when an employer transfers its pension obligations to an insurance company. Employers can enter into group annuity contracts to fund the employee retirement benefit to decrease the risk and cost associated with managing a retirement plan. Through pension de-risking, an employer may reduce their risk, but the retirees are no longer protected by a federal law known as ERISA (Employment Retirement Income Security Act). While state regulators, of course, monitor all manner of insurance carriers and their ability to make good on their policy promises, creditors to an insolvent insurance carrier may have the ability to garnish the retirees’ annuity payments or the capital set aside by the insurance company to make those payments. This would harm pensioners who expected those payments for life. Under ERISA, that would not be permitted. My legislation will seek to protect pensioners whose pensions are sold to insurance companies, when ERISA no longer applies. I hope you will join me in cosponsoring this important piece of legislation. |
Introduced as HB324