Originally Posted by
Denny Crane
I don't think you are either. After the pension debacle I understand completely where you are coming from as far as having the benefit in your own name but I'm not ready to completely give up on JL's proposal just yet.
Is the D&S plan protected by ERSIA? If it is, I would think the company would have a hard time getting rid of it outside of bankruptcy and even inside of bankruptcy if the plan is close to being self funding. I know this would be a hard if not impossible question to answer but how close is the plan to being self funding? I know it all depends on the investment return but I would be curious how it has performed in the last few years and what it's expenses each year have been. Before I make a decision about what I'd like, I'd want to see the actual numbers of potential future survivors receiving benefits that you alluded to in a previous post.
Thanks for the civil discussion.
Denny
Denny, I googled "Delta Air Lines Form 5500". Up popped a link to download that off the "Disabled Delta Pilots & Survivor's Association" website. If you reference that, it pretty much validates what slowplay said earlier. As of 6/30/10, the D&S has about $1B in assets, but $1.8B in liabilities, with the majority of those liabilities to pay current survivors and future survivors of current retirees. Considering, its substantially underfunded at present, it seems a bit unfair to drain the fund further to pay me a future survivor benefit, unless, of course, we want to negotiate to greatly increase the funding. But that would be significant cash, and I'd rather have that in my paycheck, rather than the D&S Trust.