« Quake is deadliest in Japan since 1995 | Main | Joke of the week »
October 25, 2004
Alert on 'black hole' in pension schemes
In its annual report to parliament, the Government Actuary revealed many old-style "defined benefit" (DB) schemes are technically insolvent and companies are having to dig deep to bail them out.
The Government Actuary reported that of 51 DB pension schemes analysed last year, 29 did not have sufficient assets to meet their liabilities, and 20 had more than 10% less in assets than liabilities.
There is $4.4 billion in the 150 or so DB funds in New Zealand, so there could easily be over 60 schemes with more than a 10% mis-match between liabilities and assets.
Posted by Tom Troceen