Ford Motor Co.

Ford Motor Co. on Thursday planned to sell $2 billion in 30-year bonds to finance accelerated contributions to its worldwide defined benefit pension plans this year and continue derisking its pension obligations

Pensions & Investments recently partnered with sister publication Crain's Detroit Business on a research project. The project analyzes past, present and future asset allocations and exposures to alternative investments by institutional investors in Michigan and the U.S. Click here for the full

GM and Ford were the first to venture down the road of lump-sum payments, but the federal highway bill has turned that road into an expressway with at least 10 other companies following suit.

A “one-size-fits-all” risk mitigation strategy for corporate defined benefit plans does not exist, particularly in the current environment.

Ford, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Exelis are among major companies that could be candidates for pension terminations modeled after GM's planned annuitization of its $33 billion U.S. salaried employees pension plan, according to a Moody's Investors Service report.

Faced with the volatility of equity markets, declining interest rates and rising pension deficits, U.S. corporations are exiting the business of providing and investing defined benefit pension plans. By now, fully one-third of S&P 500 companies have no defined benefit plan liabilities at all.

A new day is seen dawning in pension derisking as a result of General Motors Co.'s purchase of a multibillion-dollar group annuity contract to cover future benefit obligations of retirees in its U.S. salaried defined benefit plan.

Ford Motor Co., which has a $15.4 billion unfunded pension liability, rejected offloading its retiree obligations as General Motors Co. is doing in favor of investing in global expansion, new models and paying dividends.

In Ford Motor Co.'s latest move to derisk its pension plan, the automaker announced it would offer lump-sum payouts to a total of about 90,000 U.S. salaried retirees and former employees.

Ford Motor Co. on Friday announced it would offer a voluntary lump-sum payout to a total of about 90,000 U.S. salaried retirees and former employees as the latest move in its long-term strategy to derisk its $39.4 billion U.S. pension plans.

Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich., will sharply turn its $39.4 billion U.S. pension plans' allocation to lower risk, shifting to 80% fixed income and 20% growth-seeking equity and alternatives assets over the next few years, Neil Schloss, vice president and treasurer, said Friday in a conference call