Originally Posted by
Falcon20
Timbo
Honest question. What percentage of DC would be equitable to be equivalent to the 60% FAE?
Being that the DB isn't likely. I think (and we all know what opinions are like) that a 25% DC would be better as the money would be in our names and it already exists. More people could hit the max contribution limit earlier and excesses would still come to the individual after the limit was reached.
I have a DB and losing it would be total and complete BS from the SOBs.
Nobody knows what that number is, because the DC plan puts all the market risk on YOU, the individual, and removes it from the company. It also depends on how many years you have remaining to work, and how many years you live in retirement, and how the market does for the next how ever many years.
The whole reason ALPA transitioned to a Defined Benefit plan many years ago, was to remove the risk of the stock market, and so you would KNOW exactly what you will be paid in retirement. The benefit was Defined. It was 60% of your final average earnings, and it was paid out for LIFE, starting at age 60, not 65. When you died, your spouse got 50% of that number, until she died.
When my DB plan was terminated, I had 20 years at Delta and I was flying 757 domestic Captain. At that time, my DB plan was calculated to be worth $1.4 Million.
By today, it would be worth roughly $3 Million. My DC plan today is only worth $430,000, plus a monthly payout from the PBGC of about $6,700.
So, what would it take in a DC plan to equal the DB amount, for life? A heck of a lot more than the 15% we've been getting, that's for sure!
I'd be happy to have a hybrid plan, half DC, half DB. Keep the DC plan we have now, and add a 40% DB plan to that.
What I would really like to see would be if ALPA National went to the PBGC, and showed them the amount of money Delta and United and US Air is making today, and how many billions those companies are blowing on stock buybacks, while the PBGC is going to be stuck with paying our retirements. I would hope the PBGC would force those plans back to the companies that flushed them in the first place, and we could all be restored to our pre-bankruptcy retirement plans.