Annual Funding Notice 2009

[philly8]

This notice which I received on 5-4-2010 opened up my eyes to the possibility that Lucent is going to dump our retirement benefits on Uncle Sam (PBGC). This senario has always been at the back of my mind since I pulled the plug in July 2001.

Am I reading too much into this notice or should I prepare for the worst possible thing that may ruin my happy retirement.

Phil Hahn
Houston

[mendomann]

The maximum insured pension dollar amounts shown below apply to
a 65-year old. The dollar amount is a starting point. The PBGC may
make a few adjustments based on your personal situation. For example,
if your pension has a survivor option for your spouse, the insured amount
will be adjusted accordingly. The age differential of you and your spouse
is another factor. There are others.

In summary, for a 65-year today, the pension is insured UP TO $54,000.

See Link:
http://www.pbgc.gov/workers-retirees/be ... ge789.html

If you are receiving less, than it's possible that ALL of your pension will
be covered by the PBGC should ALU no longer be able to support it.
There are 3-ways to legally end OUR pension plan.

See link:
http://www.pbgc.gov/about/termination.html

ALU has not contributed a dime of its own money. From time to
time, some new funds have come in, but the money is not ALUs.
Remember that the money in the ALU pension fund is YOUR money,
not ALWAYs. What was in the fund to begin with came from AT&T,
and that money was the result of deferred pay (i.e., you were paid
less than the market rate). So all the money in the pension fund
is OURS, not ALUs.

Lucent, and now ALU have taken HUGE risks with OUR pension
assets all in the name avoiding making contributions. Not
too long ago, ALU adopted a LDI strategy, see link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liability- ... t_strategy

and still ended up losing $BILLIONS of OUR money.

Let's pray that we do not end up like NORTEL retirees on pension, or pray that the U.S. PBGC does not end up like Canada's version of the PBGC,
which is bankrupt.