Agere Notices
Oct 13, 2009
eschantz1@verizon.net
I.B.E.W./Lucent & Agere Pensioners Association
Meeting Notice (LUCENT RETIREES)
Open Enrollment for Lucent Healthcare
Friday October 30th
Time 9:30 A.M.
Place
Fullerton Fire Co
851 Second St.
Whitehall, PA 18052
Light refreshments
Bryan Flickinger will be present to discuss open enrollment.
May 12, 2009
Article Headline LRO Sheds Light on Alcatel-Lucent Pension Funding Notice
Recently, you received an Annual Funding Notice (The Notice) from Alcatel-Lucent (ALU). This is the first issuance of this disclosure under The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (The Law) which was passed by Congress to provide better information to defined benefit pension plan participants about the funding status of their pension plan. The law also requires other disclosures.
The information in The Notice is somewhat similar to what you previously received in the October time frame called a Summary Annual Report (SAR). The Law now requires that you receive The Notice no more than 120 days after the end of each plan year which is some six months earlier than the SAR. You may also notice another difference in that The Notice only provides information regarding the Management Retirement Income Plan whereas the SAR provided combined data for both the Management and non-Management plans. We have not commented on the non-management plan because we do not have all of the same information for that plan.
The Notice devotes substantial narrative to information about Summary of Rules Governing Termination of Single-Employer Plans and Benefit Payments Guaranteed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) as required by The Law. We have been advised by Alcatel-Lucent that there are no plans to terminate our plan. Accordingly, that makes the information about the PBGC of little relevance to our retirees.
The Notice reports that on 12/31/08 the market value of Plan Assets were $ 15.485 billion and Plan Obligations are $ 14.933 billion - thus indicating a funding level of about 104%.The funding level indicated in The Notice appears better than the 95% shown in the ALU 20F that had been filed earlier with the SEC. The reason for the difference results from different prescribed methods of calculating the discount rate used forpension obligations. Neither amount will require cash contributions to the plan this year.
The LRO is disappointed that ALU did not provide information about the relative percentages under the heading of Funding and Investment Policies, reporting only that the assets are 100% invested in a Master Trust. The information should be available because ALU financial officers disclosed it in a presentation to analysts in mid-2008.The information provided at that time was that the assets are invested 50% in debt instruments, 20% in equities, 7% in real estate, 5% in TIPS, 2.5% in venture capital, and the remainder in several other categories.
The Notice also states that there are 14,963 active on-roll plan participants; 57,216 retired and receiving benefits, and 27,030 who are vested and will be entitled to benefits at a later date.
If you have specific questions, Frank Minter, LRO Pension Director, would welcome hearing from you at fcminter@aol.com. Additionally, the LRO is holding a meeting with Chicago area members on May 20 where attendees will also be able to ask questions. Additional meetings elsewhere in the country are planned for later.
Suspension of RMDs for 2009
I'm sending this email to all of those in my email book who I feel may have an IRA, a rollover IRA, a 401K, or a 403b and have reached the age where they are ... by law (70 1/2 years old) ... required to take RMD's each year ... RMD means "Required Minimum Distributions."
For this year (2009) ... you'll be able to skip a withdrawal if you qualify. Some of you might have locked in triggers to give you early in the year withdrawals ... so you should pay attention to the following information ... because you may want to skip the withdrawal this year because of the failing stock market of last November which has severely hurt many peoples plans.
You can find out about HR 7327 Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 at this site:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-7327
And at this site:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/12/20081223-2.html
And you can also Google for it by searching for "HR 7327 Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008"
The bill was introduced by Congressman Charlie Rangel on December 10, 2008. The bill was passed by the House on December 10, 2008. The bill was passed by the Senate on December 11, 2008. The bill was signed by the President on December 23, 2008.
Attached is a .pdf file of HR 7327 Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008. You can find the part in the bill designating the Temporary suspension of RMD's (Required Minimum Distributions) at the bottom of Page 25 ...it runs on into Page 26. It starts out with these words ...
"TITLE II—PENSION PROVISIONS RELATING TO ECONOMIC CRISIS
SEC. 201. TEMPORARY WAIVER OF REQUIRED MINIMUM DISTRIBUTION
RULES FOR CERTAIN RETIREMENT PLANS AND ACCOUNTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 401(a)(9) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 (relating to required distributions) is amended by
adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
‘‘(H) TEMPORARY WAIVER OF MINIMUM REQUIRED DISTRIBUTION.—"
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I have also attached another .pdf file which tries to explain in simpler language what HR 7327 is all about. It is a longer document and you can find an explanation of the Temporary Suspension of RMD's for 2009 starting on Page 24.
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Have fun.
Curt