Word: pension
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...investment culture for the first time - just when the outlook is bleak. For others, it will mean holding their noses and forging ahead despite lousy market conditions. Not even large corporations are safe - in the U.K., the government is drawing up plans for compulsory insurance for some corporate pension schemes, many of which currently face huge deficits. A few simple rules can help you navigate Europe's new reality. Develop steady habits Even as he watched the FTSE index plummet from its all-time high at the end of 1999, Barry Lake, 48, kept investing. The surveyor from Rayleigh, England...
...turnaround." DT isn't the only telecom dialing up good numbers: a string of other phone companies have reported positive results, including British Telecom, which last week posted a 40% gain in quarterly profits. But phone companies aren't off the hook. BT's €8.1 billion pension hole dwarfs its income. And better profits owe more to cost cutting and asset sales than to underlying performance - €1.7 billion of BT's €4.2 billion income was from the sale of its stake in France's Cegetel. Long-term debt also remains staggering. DT, which has a stock valuation...
...petrolheads everywhere, but they have one group of fans: insurance companies, which charge women lower premiums based on the safer driving record of their gender. But perhaps not for much longer - if the European Commission has its way. The Commission wants to eradicate sex discrimination in insurance and pension products, and could have draft legislation to do so in place by the end of July. For women, that could mean higher car premiums. But it could also mean higher payouts for women on annuity products. Traditionally women, because they tend to live longer than men, have received lower amounts...
This is all understandable from the company viewpoint. Overall health-care costs are rising about 20% a year, according to industry estimates. Something has to give, and increasingly it is a whole package of benefits. Companies have long been shifting from traditional pension plans, in which workers get a guaranteed income in retirement, to 401(k) plans, in which the pension depends on how much employees saved and how well they invested. And companies like Goodyear, Charles Schwab and Textron are reducing the amount they kick in to workers' 401(k) plans--or suspending company matches altogether. Other firms, such...
...many union workers can now demand) or in compensatory time. The effect of this change would be to reduce income, since most companies would opt for comp time. Democrats oppose the bill, which nonetheless sailed through a House committee. The other bill would let unionized companies reduce their pension obligations by billions of dollars, further imperiling a benefit that is already eroded and underfunded. New data show that blue-collar workers have shorter life spans than white-collar workers. So, both management and organized labor argue, less pension funding is required--and that would free cash for new jobs...