If you are receiving a pension from IBm (or any employer) and are
not 65, or you think that that you will be receiving a pension before age 65 you
had better read up on this and contact the senators on the Finance Committee
THIS WEEK. There is not much time left to stop hr1102. Big business wants this
bill passed as is! Trust me..... you DON'T.... It must be changed! Read on!
Please forward on!
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 5:35
PM
Subject: [iebac] WRITE to the
Senate...
**** PLEASE forward after acting ****
A sample letter relative to
the senate version of HR1102 is now included under
pension protection on www.politicalvoice.com. To send
a version, just go to:
http://www.politicalvoice.com/position.cfm?CFID=437&CFTOKEN=25399962&positionID=78
You
have to register with the site in order to send from there, but you can
add
a personalized prolog to the letter, and with one click, send it to
your
senators, the whole finance committee, the president and
vice-president, and
your representative.
This is one of the MOST
important things we've done this year. PLEASE do it.
TODAY!!!
If we lose this battle, all of our lawsuits against cash
balance
conversions could go down in smoke, and already earned early
retirement
subsidies could be revoked. The senate vote is scheduled
for Sept 7; we don't
have much time...
After you do your part,
forward this to your friends and family and convince
them to write as
well. It is easy and fast.
If you would prefer to send a
personalized letter or call your senators on the
phone, that would be great
as well. We WILL make a difference if every senator
hears from
his/her own constituents about how important this is...
Janet
Krueger
507 529 8777 ext 110
----Sample
letter--------------------
Letter Body
I vigorously oppose changes to
the pension laws indirectly recognizing the
legality of cash balance
plans.
Across the country, employees are pursuing claims under ERISA
and the ADEA
against employers who have amended their traditional pension
plans by adopting a
cash balance or other &hybrid8 plan formula.
Until these employee challenges are
resolved by the courts, it would be
inappropriate for Congress to take any
position ) or even imply -- that
cash balance or hybrid plans are illegal only
if they cause participants,
benefits to &wear-away8 following the
amendment.Despite the loud
protests from the benefits consulting community to
the contrary, employers
use cash balance conversions plan primarily to reduce
their pension expense
for financial accounting purposes. While employers have
the right to change
their plans, I trust members of Congress agree that
employees have a right
to know what has happened to the pension promise they
have relied on for
their entire working career.
I urge Congress to decline invitations
to enact legislation providing cash
balance plans with special treatment,
or indirectly recognizing the legality of
such plans by defining them.
While I support strong new disclosure laws and
rules prohibiting amendments
to defined benefit plans which impose a wear-away
of accrued benefits, any
such legislation should apply across the board to all
defined benefit
plans. No reason exists to single out or define a cash balance
plan except
to give the appearance of Congressional approval to the existence of
these
plans prior to the courts having an opportunity to rule on employee
claims
under existing law.
I also oppose the following egregious
sections from HR1102, the recently passed
house version of this bill, which
could harm defined benefit pension plan
participants:
-- Section
405(b)(1) - engrossed version:The intent of this section is stated in
the
last paragraph of Section 304(a)(3) in the House version. &( To
permit
elimination or reduction of early retirement benefits,
retirement-type
subsidies, and optional forms of benefit that do not have
material value for a
plan,s participants(.8 This section can further
reduce or eliminate significant
pension rights, ultimately reducing some
pensions by as much as 50%.
-- Section 701(a)(2) and (b)(1)(A):This
section gives preferential treatment to
individual plan documents in lieu
of protections provided by ERISA law (IRC
411(d)(6)). The protection of
accrued benefits in IRC 411(d)(6) should remain.
-- Section 620
(Amendment - Congressman Ballenger):This amendment would prohibit
the
Secretary of Labor from litigating claims against a plan sponsor for
breach
of fiduciary responsibility if a settlement of a private suit is
reached between
a plan participant and the fiduciary. No regulatory agency
should be inhibited
from carrying out its appointed mission, particularly
with respect to protecting
constituents who may otherwise be unable to
protect themselves.
-- New Introduction Amendment (S.2853 - Senator
Grassley):This possible new
introduction permits the distribution of
pensions to plan participants before
severance from employment. This
amendment must be fortified with a number of
protections: 1) The transition
is with the approval of the plan participant.2)
Personalized, detailed,
timely disclosure is provided so that a plan participant
can make an
informed choice.3) The lump sum, if selected, includes the value of
any
early retirement subsidies.
Congress needs to be extremely cautious
about making arbitrary changes to the
ERISA laws. Numerous federal lawsuits
are pending relative to cash balance
conversions. National media focus and
pending lawsuits have effectively halted
harmful corporate conversions for
the time being. Congress should not rush in
with new regulations to
constrain future conversions, which have the potential
to adversely impact
current court cases. The courts should determine which ERISA
and ADEA laws
have been violated and what the redress should be. Employees
already
victimized by cash balance conversions deserve their full day in
court!
The final version of the Comprehensive Retirement Security
and Pension Reform
Act of 2000 should stick to addressing IRA and 401(k)
limits; save the 50+
supposedly minor ERISA reforms for separate
legislation at a later date.
Please schedule a series of hearings
and public commentary, with an end goal of
creating comprehensive pension
reform legislation that would both simplify the
system for pension plan
administrators and better protect and clarify the rights
and earnings of
pension plan participants.
That is all employees really want: The
ability to understand what their employer
has promised them, and a way to
enforce that promise.
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