FCA transfers some pensions to Athene Annuity and Life Company
The NCRO was officially notified in a meeting with Fiat Chrysler (FCA) on February 6th that FCA has transferred a significant number of salaried retirees’ and surviving spouses’ pensions to Athene Annuity and Life Company. This was done through the purchase of a group annuity contract by FCA to pay on-going pension benefits from Athene. The affected retirees will no longer receive their pension payments from FCA.
Retirees affected include those with…
- A pension benefit commencement date prior to January 1, 2017
- A monthly pension payment less than $1000 from the FCA US LLC Pension Plan (FCAPP), or less than $500 from the FCA US LLC Consolidated Pension Plan(FCON)
This annuity action will affect approximately 16,395 out of around 35,000 salaried retirees (or their beneficiaries).
This type of pension transfer and other similar transfers have been done for many years by companies such as GM, Verizon, Motorola, TRW, and Sears and have been deemed legal.
On February 8th, FCA mailed a letter to those affected retirees announcing the transfer of the pension via annuity to Athene, providing a detailed explanation of the transfer including an extensive list of Questions and Answers.
If you have received the notification as an affected retiree, the NCRO encourages you to read it thoroughly. If you have questions or concerns, the letter directs you to contact Benefit Connect at 1-888-409-3300.
If you did not receive a letter, you SHOULD NOT be affected. However, if you fall within the category described above, you should consider contacting Benefit Connect to verify whether the change applies to your pension.
For your information, we have attached a copy of one of the letters==> FCA Moves Some Pensions To Athene Annuity Several different versions of the letter were sent depending on the retiree’s pension plan group.
The NCRO has initiated a thorough and complete review of the situation with several of our outside consultants to determine how this annuity action affects those individuals who are involved and to prepare for possible additional actions, if any should occur. As the situation and facts become clearer we will provide more communications via email, letter and on our website.
If you have questions or need additional information after you have contacted Benefit Connect, you can contact the NCRO by email at nchryslerro@ncro.org or call at (248) 633-2827.