The Hartford Offers Pension Buyouts

In September, the Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. made voluntary lump sum pension buyout offers to about 13,500 former employees who are vested participants in the pension plan but had not yet started receiving pension benefits, the company said in its quarterly regulatory filing on Oct. 27.

A company spokesman told Insurance Journal that these former employees had until Nov. 7 to make a decision, adding that the take-up rate would not be released until possibly the next quarterly filing.

The Hartford said the former employees who decide to take the buyout offer would receive the lump sum payments in December 2014.

The funded status of the pension plan is not expected to be adversely impacted by the buyout offers, according to the quarterly filing.

The Hartford said it may include a settlement charge to net income in the fourth quarter 2014, depending on the acceptance rate of participants.

If the acceptance rate is high enough to trigger a settlement charge, the likely high end of the range for a charge is approximately $140 million after tax.

The Hartford said the charge would be offset by a corresponding increase in accumulated other comprehensive income.

At the end of 2012, The Hartford restricted participants’ ability to receive additional credits towards pension plan accounts while enhancing the 401(k) plans.