UMass Law UMass Law: Tabor publishes article on pension buy-out transactions

UMass Law Professor Anna-Marie Tabor advocates for accountability in pension buyout transactions in her recently published article, A Proposal to Enhance Participant Disclosures in Pension Annuity Buy-Outs.

In her recently published article, A Proposal to Enhance Participant Disclosures in Pension Annuity Buy-Outs, UMass Law Professor Anna-Marie Tabor argues for worker protections when employers offload pensions to insurance companies. Tabor’s article criticizes existing participant safeguards for not going far enough to make sure that all plan participants know who will be responsible for paying their benefits. Receiving timely and complete information and disclosures is key for participants to manage their retirement assets and eventually claim their benefits.

Last year, Professor Tabor submitted written testimony on this topic to the U.S. Department of Labor’s ERISA Advisory Council (PDF), and also spoke on a panel about the topic with participants including officials from the U.S. Department of Labor. Having served five years as the Director of the Pension Action Center (PAC), a regional pension counseling and information center that is located at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Professor Tabor was very pleased to see that the Department of Labor raised the issue in a recent report to Congress and indicated that it may take regulatory action to enhance disclosures. The article was published in the NYU Review of Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation.