Comprehensive pension legislation expected to be introduced March 10...

Comprehensive pension legislation expected to be introduced March 10 by Reps. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Ben Cardin, D-Md., includes a provision intended to ensure employers put their workers on notice about cuts in unearned retirement benefits. The provision would require employers to tell workers exactly how their future benefits might be reduced. Employers would be free to decide how to give that information — through written notices with examples of how the reduction might affect employees; software that employees could use to run their own calculations; or individual counseling. The provision would expand on current pension law that requires employers to give workers copies or summaries of plan amendments. The provision is aimed at quelling the recent stir about pension plan sponsors cutting benefits for some midcareer employees in conversions of traditional pension plans to cash balance plans that include many features of defined contribution retirement plans. It would also affect other plan amendments that might result in lower retirement benefits for employees in the future.