AT&T and Warner Media are offering 59,000 former employees who participate in the firms' U.S. defined benefit plans a lump-sum offer.
AT&T Inc., Dallas, and Warner Media LLC, New York, opened lump-sum offer windows for 59,000 former employees who are participants in the companies' U.S. defined benefit plans, AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said.
The window, which opened Wednesday and closes Oct. 2, provides vested former employees who have yet to retire the opportunity to receive an early pension distribution in the form of a lump sum, Mr. Richter said.
The offer was sent to about 47,000 participants in the AT&T Pension Benefit Plan and about 12,000 participants in the Warner Media LLC Pension Plan. AT&T purchased the former Time Warner Inc. in 2018.
As of Dec. 31, 2017 the AT&T Pension Benefit Plan had $54.85 billion in assets, according to the company's most recent Form 5500 filing. As of the same date, the plan reported 109,273 retired or separated participants entitled to future benefits.
Also as of Dec. 31, 2017, the then-Time Warner Pension Plan had $2.2 billion in assets and had 16,543 retired or separated participants receiving benefits, according to Time Warner's most recent Form 5500 filing.
AT&T in its most recent 10-K filing reported a total of $51.681 billion in global defined benefit plan assets (which included Time Warner's assets for the first time) as of Dec. 31, 2018, and $55.439 billion in projected benefit obligations, for a funding ratio of 93.2%. AT&T contributed a total of $9.3 billion to its plans in 2018.
