Despite a flurry of hard- and soft-freezes, a new study finds a surprisingly strong commitment to defined benefit programmes among corporate plan sponsors in the US. In a study based on the perspectives of some 174 senior finance executives titled “Pension Plan Risk: Using the calm before the next storm”, CFO Research Services and Towers Perrin note that many said they have no plans to curtail or eliminate their defined benefit offerings, reserving such measures for more “extreme conditions”. More than half (57%) of survey respondents “agree” or “strongly agree” that the pension plan is necessary to retain the workforce, and 39% were equally convinced that the pension plan is necessary to motivate employees.
On the other hand, just 19% of survey respondents said employees understand and appreciate the risk and cost the company bears to carry the pension plan.