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2021-12-27
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AT&T Slashed Promised Life Insurance for Former Workers—and Time Runs Out at Year-End<blockquote>AT&T 削减了前员工承诺的人寿保险——年底时间不多了</blockquote>
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AT&T will pay heirs of Randall Stephenson, who left as chief executive in 2020, $3.6 million under a life-insurance plan reviewed by the board last year, securities filings show.</p><p><blockquote>裁员不适用于高管，他们根据公司支付的单独计划购买了人寿保险，未经他们的许可，公司不得削减人寿保险。证券文件显示，根据董事会去年审查的人寿保险计划，美国电话电报公司将向 2020 年卸任首席执行官的兰德尔·斯蒂芬森 (Randall Stephenson) 的继承人支付 360 万美元。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T said that the cuts for other retirees will bring their benefits more in line with benefits at other large employers, and that the change will increase payouts at death for more than 1,000 retirees. It said only a handful of Fortune 100 companies still offer most employees life insurance that continues after retirement.</p><p><blockquote>美国电话电报公司表示，对其他退休人员的削减将使他们的福利与其他大型雇主的福利更加一致，这一变化将增加 1,000 多名退休人员的死亡抚恤金。报告称，只有少数财富 100 强公司仍在为大多数员工提供退休后继续的人寿保险。</blockquote></p><p> “We are working hard to responsibly balance the needs of the business and our taking care of our current 200,000 employees and 500,000 retirees and their dependents,” said an AT&T spokesman, Fletcher Cook. “It is admittedly a balancing act—one that many companies have not successfully navigated.”</p><p><blockquote>“美国电话电报公司发言人弗莱彻-库克（Fletcher Cook）说：”我们正在努力工作，负责任地平衡业务需求和我们对现有 20 万名员工和 50 万名退休人员及其家属的照顾。“诚然，这是一种平衡行为--许多公司都没有成功驾驭这种行为”。</blockquote></p><p> That’s little comfort to Mr. Allison, 75 years old, of Stuart, Fla. “If they had told me this 10 years ago, that they were going to cut this, I could have done some planning,” he said.</p><p><blockquote>这对佛罗里达州斯图尔特市 75 岁的艾利森先生来说并不是什么安慰。“他说：”如果他们在 10 年前就告诉我，他们要削减开支，我本可以做些计划。</blockquote></p><p> Today’s AT&T Inc. is the product of decades of splits and mergers, a remnant of the telephone monopoly nicknamed “Ma Bell” that shed its regional operations in 1984. Other offshoots of that breakup have treated retirees’ benefits differently.</p><p><blockquote>今天的 AT&T 公司是数十年分拆和合并的产物，是绰号 “马贝尔 ”的电话垄断企业的残余，该企业于 1984 年剥离了其地区业务。这种分离的其他分支对退休人员的福利也有不同的处理方式。</blockquote></p><p> <p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/16a73a1e02fbce04a6f21af3769fa8fd\" tg-width=\"1370\" tg-height=\"729\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"><span>AT&T retiree Monte Baggs said he expected his wife, Phillis, seated, to receive company-paid life insurance of at least $75,000 when he died, but AT&T has cut it to $15,000 if he dies after Dec. 31. ‘They’re trying to recover as much as they can, but they’re doing it on the backs of their retirees,’ he said.PHOTO:TALIA HERMAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL</span></p><p><blockquote><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><span>美国电话电报公司退休人员蒙特·巴格斯 (Monte Baggs) 表示，他预计妻子菲利斯 (Phillis) 去世时将获得公司支付的至少 75,000 美元的人寿保险，但如果他在 12 月 31 日之后去世，美国电话电报公司已将其削减至 15,000 美元。他说：'他们正试图尽可能地恢复，但他们是以退休人员为代价的。照片：TALIA HERMAN FOR the WALL STREET JOURNAL</span></p></blockquote></p><p> Verizon Communications Inc.hasn’t reduced already-retired workers’ life insurance or death benefits, though it has sold off business units to companies that later reduced them.Qwest Communications InternationalInc.,now owned by Lumen TechnologiesInc.,eliminated retiree death benefits entirely, more than a decade ago. Both companies, like AT&T, have capped or reduced retirees’ health benefits as well.</p><p><blockquote>威瑞森通信公司（Verizon Communications Inc.）并没有减少已经退休工人的人寿保险或死亡抚恤金，尽管它已经将业务部门出售给了后来减少这些福利的公司。Qwest Communications InternationalInc.，现在归Lumen TechnologiesInc.所有，十多年前就完全取消了退休人员的死亡抚恤金。与 AT&T 一样，这两家公司也限制或减少了退休人员的医疗福利。</blockquote></p><p> In cutting existing retirees’ life-insurance benefits, AT&T joins a few other large companies that have done so in recent years. In 2019,3MCo.roughly halved such benefits, andHowmet AerospaceInc.,a business carved out of Alcoa,eliminated life insurance for some retirees.</p><p><blockquote>在削减现有退休人员的人寿保险福利方面，AT&T 加入了近年来其他几家大公司的行列。2019 年，3MCo. 将此类福利大致减半，而从美国铝业分拆出来的 Howmet AerospaceInc. 则取消了一些退休人员的人寿保险。</blockquote></p><p> Unlike AT&T, both said their changes applied to executives, too. So didCortevaInc.,a seeds and chemicals company formed from DowDuPont that will end life insurance for about 50,000 retirees on Jan. 1. Vanguard Group recently backed off plans to eliminate retiree life insurance and other benefits after retirees protested.</p><p><blockquote>与美国电话电报公司不同，两家公司都表示他们的改变也适用于高管。陶氏杜邦公司成立的种子和化学品公司 CorteVainc 也是如此，该公司将于 1 月 1 日终止约 5 万名退休人员的人寿保险。在退休人员抗议后，先锋集团最近放弃了取消退休人员人寿保险和其他福利的计划。</blockquote></p><p> When AT&T employees retired, the company told many of those who were managers that they had company-paid life insurance, which often equaled their final year’s pay, although the sum would decline by half once they hit age 70.</p><p><blockquote>当 AT&T 员工退休时，公司会告诉许多经理，他们有公司支付的人寿保险，这通常相当于他们最后一年的工资，不过一旦他们到了 70 岁，这笔钱就会减少一半。</blockquote></p><p> Some also were told that a “death benefit,” also based on final compensation, would be payable to a surviving spouse or dependent child. Nearly a third of management retirees affected by the latest cuts were eligible for both benefits.</p><p><blockquote>一些人还被告知，同样基于最终赔偿金的 “死亡抚恤金 ”将支付给未亡配偶或受抚养子女。受最新裁员影响的近三分之一管理层退休人员有资格享受这两项福利。</blockquote></p><p> Now, the life insurance benefit, no matter at what value it started, will be $15,000 if the management retiree dies after Dec. 31. The death benefit will be capped at $25,000.</p><p><blockquote>现在，如果管理层退休人员在 12 月 31 日之后去世，人寿保险福利无论起始价值如何，都将为 15,000 美元。死亡抚恤金上限为 25,000 美元。</blockquote></p><p> Retired AT&T union members also often were told they had life insurance based on their pay. This benefit, too, was designed to decline by half after they reached 70. Now, if they die after Dec. 31, it will be just $25,000. Many union retirees are due a death benefit as well; it will be capped at $25,000 after Dec. 31.</p><p><blockquote>退休的美国电话电报公司工会成员也经常被告知，他们有基于工资的人寿保险。这项福利也被设计为在他们年满 70 岁后减少一半。现在，如果他们在 12 月 31 日之后去世，则只有 25,000 美元。许多工会退休人员也有权获得死亡抚恤金；12 月 31 日之后，上限将为 25,000 美元。</blockquote></p><p></p><p> John Tucciarone, who spent 42 years managing AT&T infrastructure in New York and New Jersey until his 2009 retirement, said he recalls executives defending wages that were slightly below competitors’ pay by citing the retirement benefits. “At the time, it was a from-cradle-to-grave type mentality,” said Mr. Tucciarone, a 74-year-old in Leland, N.C. “That stopped a lot of people looking at other places” for higher pay, he said.</p><p><blockquote>约翰-图恰罗内（John Tucciarone）在纽约和新泽西州管理 AT&T 基础设施长达 42 年，直到 2009 年退休。“北卡罗来纳州利兰市 74 岁的图恰罗内先生说：”当时，这是一种从摇篮到坟墓的心态。“他说：”这阻止了很多人到其他地方寻找更高的薪水。</blockquote></p><p> In the mid-1990s, AT&T ceased telling most new employees that their spouse would get a death benefit. After 2007, it stopped providing managers a pledge of life insurance that continued in retirement. Over the years, it also stopped basing the life insurance given to new and current union workers on their pay, instead providing a flat $15,000.</p><p><blockquote>20世纪90年代中期，美国电话电报公司不再告诉大多数新员工，他们的配偶将获得死亡抚恤金。2007 年后，它不再向经理提供退休后继续提供人寿保险。多年来，它还不再以新老工会工人的工资为基础提供人寿保险，而是提供固定的 15,000 美元。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T informed retirees last winter of its plan to cut their benefits. Retirees protested to the board, and a group met with company benefits officials to urge them to reconsider.</p><p><blockquote>美国电话电报公司去年冬天向退休人员通报了削减福利的计划。退休人员向董事会提出抗议，一群人会见了公司福利官员，敦促他们重新考虑。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T said directors have received the complaints, together with executives’ response, and the company has no plans to change course.</p><p><blockquote>AT&T 表示，董事们已经收到了投诉以及高管的回应，公司没有改变路线的计划。</blockquote></p><p> “The marketplace that we operate in has changed. And it’s really forced us to try and still be competitive and make changes that are challenging,” said Julianne Galloway, AT&T’s vice president for global benefits, who met with the retirees.</p><p><blockquote>“我们经营的市场已经发生了变化。美国电话电报公司负责全球福利的副总裁朱丽安-加洛韦（Julianne Galloway）在会见退休人员时说：”这确实迫使我们努力保持竞争力，并做出具有挑战性的改变。</blockquote></p><p> <p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/bf011d62dfcfd7e43af7ebc858256763\" tg-width=\"1252\" tg-height=\"697\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"><span>Mr. Allison said that when he retired, AT&T promised a benefit of at least $63,000 upon his death, an amount the company has cut to $15,000 if he dies after Dec. 31.PHOTO:MELODY TIMOTHEE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL</span></p><p><blockquote><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><span>艾利森先生表示，当他退休时，AT&T 承诺在他去世时至少提供 63,000 美元的赔偿金，如果他在 12 月 31 日之后去世，该公司已将赔偿金削减至 15,000 美元。照片：MELODY TIMOTHEE FOR the WALL STREET JOURNAL</span></p></blockquote></p><p> Warren Miner, 84, retired in 1996 as one of AT&T’s benefits directors, after several years of helping shape health and life-insurance programs like those he hoped to enjoy in retirement.</p><p><blockquote>现年 84 岁的沃伦-迈纳（Warren Miner）于 1996 年从 AT&T 福利总监的职位上退休，此前他曾帮助制定他希望在退休后享受的健康和人寿保险计划。</blockquote></p><p> Mr. Miner, of Estero, Fla., counted on being eligible for about $364,000 from the combination of life insurance and a separate death benefit.</p><p><blockquote>佛罗里达州埃斯特罗的迈纳先生指望有资格从人寿保险和单独的死亡抚恤金中获得约364,000美元。</blockquote></p><p> Instead, after Dec. 31, his wife can expect at most $40,000 in total from the two programs.</p><p><blockquote>相反，12月31日之后，他的妻子可以从这两个项目中获得最多4万美元的总收入。</blockquote></p><p> “If there isn’t a legal obligation, there certainly is a moral obligation not to treat people this way,” Mr. Miner said.</p><p><blockquote>“迈纳先生说：”如果没有法律义务，那么肯定有道德义务不以这种方式对待他人。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T’s Mr. Cook said the company’s “decision is very much about us fulfilling a moral obligation for more than 700,000 people, not just a select few.”</p><p><blockquote>美国电话电报公司的库克先生说，公司的 “决定在很大程度上是为了我们履行对 70 多万人的道德义务，而不仅仅是少数人”。</blockquote></p><p> Federal law bars companies from cutting pension benefits for employees after they retire, but courts have said other kinds of retiree benefits—including healthcare, life insurance and a death benefit—can be changed if employers reserved a right to do so in official documentation.</p><p><blockquote>联邦法律禁止公司在员工退休后削减养老金福利，但法院表示，如果雇主在官方文件中保留这样做的权利，其他类型的退休福利——包括医疗保健、人寿保险和死亡抚恤金——可以更改。</blockquote></p><p> Since the early 1990s, AT&T has included, in plan documents, language reserving a right to change retiree benefits at any time. For certain retirees whose plan documents predate this language, life insurance isn’t changing.</p><p><blockquote>自20世纪90年代初以来，美国电话电报公司在计划文件中加入了保留随时更改退休人员福利权利的措辞。对于某些计划文件早于这种语言的退休人员来说，人寿保险并没有改变。</blockquote></p><p> Many retirees said they knew it was possible for AT&T to change their benefits, but they never expected it to do so after maintaining them for decades.</p><p><blockquote>许多退休人员表示，他们知道 AT&T 有可能改变他们的福利，但他们从未想到在维持了几十年后，AT&T 会这样做。</blockquote></p><p> Karla Billings joined AT&T in Topeka, Kan., in 1996 after being widowed at 32. She retired in 2017. She said she decided not to buy additional life insurance, figuring that AT&T’s $65,000 for retired union workers at her level was enough. Now, assuming she lives past Dec. 31, the payout will be $40,000 less.</p><p><blockquote>卡拉·比林斯在堪萨斯州托皮卡加入美国电话电报公司。1996年，32岁丧偶后。她于2017年退休。她说，她决定不再购买额外的人寿保险，因为她认为 AT&T 为她这个级别的退休工会工人提供的 6.5 万美元已经足够了。现在，假设她活到12月31日之后，支出将减少4万美元。</blockquote></p><p> “You’re at their mercy, and you don’t really have any recourse,” Ms. Billings said.</p><p><blockquote>“比林斯女士说：”你任由他们摆布，你真的没有任何追索权。</blockquote></p><p> In letters announcing the reductions, AT&T said it often reviews its benefits to ensure it remains competitive and relevant to past and present employees.</p><p><blockquote>在宣布裁员的信中，美国电话电报公司表示，它经常审查其福利，以确保其保持竞争力并与过去和现在的员工相关。</blockquote></p><p> “We continue to provide generous retirement benefits that many in corporate America don’t offer any more,” said Mr. Cook, the spokesman. He said four out of five employees, and nearly all retirees, are covered by the company’s pension plan, and the company provides subsidized healthcare for retirees. The wireless network operator also employs a large union-represented workforce under collective bargaining agreements that many competitors don’t have.</p><p><blockquote>“发言人库克先生说：”我们将继续提供丰厚的退休福利，这是美国许多企业界所没有的。他说，五分之四的员工和几乎所有退休人员都参加了公司的养老金计划，公司还为退休人员提供医疗保健补贴。这家无线网络运营商还根据集体谈判协议雇佣了大量由工会代表的员工，这是许多竞争对手所没有的。</blockquote></p><p> Life insurance that continues in retirement was once a hallmark of work at blue-chip companies. It was still available to about a third of U.S. workers at medium-size and large companies in 1997, when the Labor Department stopped tracking it. Benefits consulting firm WillisTowers Watsonsays about 13% of the 732 U.S. and foreign companies of various sizes that it tracks offer retiree life insurance. Few of today’s new corporate giants do.</p><p><blockquote>退休后继续购买人寿保险曾经是蓝筹公司工作的标志。1997年，当劳工部停止跟踪它时，大约三分之一的美国大中型公司工人仍然可以使用它。福利咨询公司 WillisTowers Watson 表示，在其追踪的 732 家各种规模的美国和外国公司中，约有 13% 提供退休人员人寿保险。如今的新企业巨头很少有这样做。</blockquote></p><p> <p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9c34d749277776814bf9a6be8d4bbdd7\" tg-width=\"719\" tg-height=\"591\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"><span>Mr. Baggs, center, at an awards event when he was an AT&T manager.PHOTO:TALIA HERMAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL</span></p><p><blockquote><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><span>巴格斯先生（中）在担任 AT&T 经理时出席颁奖典礼。照片：TALIA HERMAN 为《华尔街日报》拍摄</span></p></blockquote></p><p></p><p> Companies aren’t required to set aside cash to pay future retiree benefits, as they have to do for pensions. But they must carry an obligation on their balance sheets reflecting the current value of every dollar they expect to pay in either pensions or retiree benefits in the future.</p><p><blockquote>公司无需像支付养老金那样预留现金来支付未来的退休人员福利。但他们必须在资产负债表上承担一项义务，反映他们预计未来支付的养老金或退休福利的每一美元的当前价值。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T’s obligation for retiree healthcare and life insurance plans, which it combines in its disclosures, fell to about $14 billion at the end of 2020 from roughly double that amount five years earlier.</p><p><blockquote>到 2020 年底，AT&T 对退休人员医疗保健和人寿保险计划的负债从五年前的大约两倍降至约 140 亿美元。</blockquote></p><p> About a decade ago, AT&T had $12.75 billion dedicated to paying those benefits. This fund was down to $3.8 billion in December 2020, as payouts exceeded investment returns and company contributions, securities filings show.</p><p><blockquote>大约十年前，美国电话电报公司有127.5亿美元专门用于支付这些福利。证券文件显示，由于支出超过了投资回报和公司捐款，该基金在 2020 年 12 月降至 38 亿美元。</blockquote></p><p> Last year, AT&T booked a $2.7 billion accounting benefit from its retiree life and health plans. “A large portion” of this came from reducing its obligations for retiree life-insurance and death benefits, the company said, declining to be specific.</p><p><blockquote>去年，AT&T 从其退休人员生活和健康计划中获得了 27 亿美元的会计收益。该公司表示，其中 “很大一部分 ”来自减少退休人员人寿保险和死亡抚恤金的义务，但拒绝透露具体细节。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T has told retirees they can buy new life-insurance policies at a discount through the company if they wish.</p><p><blockquote>美国电话电报公司告诉退休人员，如果他们愿意，可以通过该公司以折扣价购买新的人寿保险。</blockquote></p><p> Scott Witt, an actuary and fee-only insurance adviser, said few 70- to 80-year-olds should seriously consider buying life insurance, even at a discount, because premiums rise rapidly at that age. Once it becomes prohibitively expensive, “they’ll drop the policy and then they’ll be worse off for having bought” it, he said.</p><p><blockquote>精算师兼收费保险顾问斯科特·威特 (Scott Witt) 表示，很少有 70 至 80 岁的人应该认真考虑购买人寿保险，即使是打折的，因为那个年龄段的保费会迅速上涨。他说，一旦保险变得昂贵得令人望而却步，“他们就会放弃这份保险，然后他们就会因为购买保险而遭受更大的损失”。</blockquote></p><p> An 80-year-old would need to pay $328 a month, or close to $4,000 a year, to maintain a life-insurance benefit of $50,000, according to a pricing schedule AT&T sent to employees in September.</p><p><blockquote>根据美国电话电报公司 9 月份发给员工的定价表，一名 80 岁的老人每月需要支付 328 美元，或每年接近 4,000 美元，才能维持 50,000 美元的人寿保险福利。</blockquote></p><p> “If I lived to be 90 years old, which I do expect, and paying an increasing premium, I would be far better off investing the money in equities,” said Monte Baggs, 80, who retired in late 1991 after 31 years with AT&T in California and Colorado.</p><p><blockquote>80 岁的蒙特-巴格斯（Monte Baggs）在加利福尼亚州和科罗拉多州的 AT&T 工作了 31 年后，于 1991 年底退休。</blockquote></p><p> At the time, Mr. Baggs said, he turned down a benefit that would have paid his widow a monthly pension after his death, figuring she would get life insurance of at least $75,000 when he died. Now, if he dies after Dec. 31, she will get $15,000.</p><p><blockquote>巴格斯先生说，当时他拒绝了一项在他去世后向他的遗孀支付每月养老金的福利，认为他去世后她将获得至少 75,000 美元的人寿保险。现在，如果他在12月31日之后去世，她将得到15,000美元。</blockquote></p><p> “It’s obvious what they’re trying to do—they’re trying to recover as much as they can, but they’re doing it on the backs of their retirees,” Mr. Baggs said.</p><p><blockquote>“巴格斯先生说：”他们想做什么是显而易见的--他们想尽可能地恢复，但他们是以退休人员为代价这样做的。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T remains a profitable company, paying nearly $15 billion in annual shareholder dividends as of last year, although its stock has fallen by about 40% over five years. Investors soured on bets that AT&T made on entertainment companies DirecTV and Time Warner Inc. Under investor pressure, AT&T has been unwinding those bets. It sold a stake in DirecTV and set plans to hive off its WarnerMedia division through a merger with Discovery Inc.</p><p><blockquote>AT&T 仍然是一家盈利公司，截至去年，每年支付近 150 亿美元的股东股息，尽管其股价在五年内下跌了约 40%。投资者对美国电话电报公司对娱乐公司 DirecTV 和时代华纳公司的押注感到不满。在投资者的压力下，美国电话电报公司一直在解除这些赌注。它出售了 DirecTV 的股份，并计划通过与 Discovery Inc. 合并来剥离其华纳媒体部门。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T Chief Executive John Stankey, 59, is eligible for life insurance in retirement equal to his final salary; that is about $2.4 million today. The insurance amount will decline to half his final year’s salary at age 70 or once he has been retired for five years, whichever is later.</p><p><blockquote>59 岁的 AT&T 首席执行官约翰·斯坦基 (John Stankey) 有资格获得相当于其最终工资的退休人寿保险；今天大约是240万美元。在 70 岁或退休五年后（以较晚者为准），保险金额将降至他最后一年工资的一半。</blockquote></p><p> Mr. Stankey and his predecessor, Mr. Stephenson, have bought additional life-insurance coverage through AT&T, with the cost subsidized by the company, its filings show. AT&T has disclosed paying about $1.5 million for such coverage for Mr. Stankey and nearly $889,000 for Mr. Stephenson since 2015. The executives declined to comment through an AT&T spokesman.</p><p><blockquote>文件显示，斯坦基和他的前任斯蒂芬森通过美国电话电报公司购买了额外的人寿保险，费用由该公司补贴。美国电话电报公司透露，自2015年以来，为斯坦基先生支付了约150万美元，为斯蒂芬森先生支付了近88.9万美元。高管们拒绝通过美国电话电报公司发言人置评。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T said other companies also have paid for special life insurance for at least some executives.</p><p><blockquote>美国电话电报公司表示，其他公司也为至少部分高管支付了特殊人寿保险费用。</blockquote></p><p> Retiree benefits remain on AT&T’s financial radar. In a consulting agreement with a former AT&T finance chief, John Stephens, the company has offered to pay him an extra $500,000 if AT&T meets any of three financial targets. One is cutting $1 billion more from AT&T’s obligation for retiree pensions and benefits. Through an AT&T spokesman, Mr. Stephens declined to comment.</p><p><blockquote>退休人员福利仍然是 AT&T 财务关注的焦点。在与 AT&T 前财务主管约翰·斯蒂芬斯 (John Stephens) 达成的咨询协议中，该公司提出，如果 AT&T 达到三个财务目标中的任何一个，该公司将额外支付 50 万美元。其中之一是从 AT&T 的退休人员养老金和福利义务中再削减 10 亿美元。斯蒂芬斯通过美国电话电报公司发言人拒绝置评。</blockquote></p><p></p>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>AT&T Slashed Promised Life Insurance for Former Workers—and Time Runs Out at Year-End<blockquote>AT&T 削减了前员工承诺的人寿保险——年底时间不多了</blockquote></title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 12.5px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nAT&T Slashed Promised Life Insurance for Former Workers—and Time Runs Out at Year-End<blockquote>AT&T 削减了前员工承诺的人寿保险——年底时间不多了</blockquote>\n</h2>\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n<p class=\"head\">\n<strong class=\"h-name small\">WSJ</strong><span class=\"h-time small\">2021-12-27 07:30</span>\n</p>\n</h4>\n</header>\n<article>\n<p>When Dean Allison left his job as a property manager atAT&TT0.36%in 1998, the company offered an incentive to retire: a payment of at least $63,000 upon his death.</p><p><blockquote>当迪恩·艾利森 (Dean Allison) 于 1998 年辞去 atAT&TT0.36% 物业经理的工作时，公司提供了退休激励：在他去世时至少支付 63,000 美元。</blockquote></p><p> He took the deal, figuring the money would someday help his wife cover funeral expenses, pay outstanding bills and have more to live on.</p><p><blockquote>他接受了这笔交易，认为这笔钱有一天会帮助他的妻子支付丧葬费用，支付未付账单，并有更多的生活。</blockquote></p><p> Early in 2021, AT&T told Mr. Allison it would pay no more than $15,000 if he dies after Dec. 31.</p><p><blockquote>2021年初，美国电话电报公司告诉艾利森，如果他在12月31日之后去世，它将支付不超过15,000美元。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T’s decision to cut life insurance and death benefits as of Jan. 1 for many of the 220,000 retirees eligible for the benefits has roiled a generation of workers who say their former employer is reneging on a promise.</p><p><blockquote>AT&T 决定从 1 月 1 日起削减 22 万名有资格领取人寿保险和死亡抚恤金的退休人员中的许多人的人寿保险和死亡抚恤金，这让一代工人感到不安，他们说他们的前雇主正在违背承诺。</blockquote></p><p> The cuts don’t apply to top executives, who have life insurance under a separate company-paid program, which the company can’t reduce without their permission. AT&T will pay heirs of Randall Stephenson, who left as chief executive in 2020, $3.6 million under a life-insurance plan reviewed by the board last year, securities filings show.</p><p><blockquote>裁员不适用于高管，他们根据公司支付的单独计划购买了人寿保险，未经他们的许可，公司不得削减人寿保险。证券文件显示，根据董事会去年审查的人寿保险计划，美国电话电报公司将向 2020 年卸任首席执行官的兰德尔·斯蒂芬森 (Randall Stephenson) 的继承人支付 360 万美元。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T said that the cuts for other retirees will bring their benefits more in line with benefits at other large employers, and that the change will increase payouts at death for more than 1,000 retirees. It said only a handful of Fortune 100 companies still offer most employees life insurance that continues after retirement.</p><p><blockquote>美国电话电报公司表示，对其他退休人员的削减将使他们的福利与其他大型雇主的福利更加一致，这一变化将增加 1,000 多名退休人员的死亡抚恤金。报告称，只有少数财富 100 强公司仍在为大多数员工提供退休后继续的人寿保险。</blockquote></p><p> “We are working hard to responsibly balance the needs of the business and our taking care of our current 200,000 employees and 500,000 retirees and their dependents,” said an AT&T spokesman, Fletcher Cook. “It is admittedly a balancing act—one that many companies have not successfully navigated.”</p><p><blockquote>“美国电话电报公司发言人弗莱彻-库克（Fletcher Cook）说：”我们正在努力工作，负责任地平衡业务需求和我们对现有 20 万名员工和 50 万名退休人员及其家属的照顾。“诚然，这是一种平衡行为--许多公司都没有成功驾驭这种行为”。</blockquote></p><p> That’s little comfort to Mr. Allison, 75 years old, of Stuart, Fla. “If they had told me this 10 years ago, that they were going to cut this, I could have done some planning,” he said.</p><p><blockquote>这对佛罗里达州斯图尔特市 75 岁的艾利森先生来说并不是什么安慰。“他说：”如果他们在 10 年前就告诉我，他们要削减开支，我本可以做些计划。</blockquote></p><p> Today’s AT&T Inc. is the product of decades of splits and mergers, a remnant of the telephone monopoly nicknamed “Ma Bell” that shed its regional operations in 1984. Other offshoots of that breakup have treated retirees’ benefits differently.</p><p><blockquote>今天的 AT&T 公司是数十年分拆和合并的产物，是绰号 “马贝尔 ”的电话垄断企业的残余，该企业于 1984 年剥离了其地区业务。这种分离的其他分支对退休人员的福利也有不同的处理方式。</blockquote></p><p> <p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/16a73a1e02fbce04a6f21af3769fa8fd\" tg-width=\"1370\" tg-height=\"729\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"><span>AT&T retiree Monte Baggs said he expected his wife, Phillis, seated, to receive company-paid life insurance of at least $75,000 when he died, but AT&T has cut it to $15,000 if he dies after Dec. 31. ‘They’re trying to recover as much as they can, but they’re doing it on the backs of their retirees,’ he said.PHOTO:TALIA HERMAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL</span></p><p><blockquote><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><span>美国电话电报公司退休人员蒙特·巴格斯 (Monte Baggs) 表示，他预计妻子菲利斯 (Phillis) 去世时将获得公司支付的至少 75,000 美元的人寿保险，但如果他在 12 月 31 日之后去世，美国电话电报公司已将其削减至 15,000 美元。他说：'他们正试图尽可能地恢复，但他们是以退休人员为代价的。照片：TALIA HERMAN FOR the WALL STREET JOURNAL</span></p></blockquote></p><p> Verizon Communications Inc.hasn’t reduced already-retired workers’ life insurance or death benefits, though it has sold off business units to companies that later reduced them.Qwest Communications InternationalInc.,now owned by Lumen TechnologiesInc.,eliminated retiree death benefits entirely, more than a decade ago. Both companies, like AT&T, have capped or reduced retirees’ health benefits as well.</p><p><blockquote>威瑞森通信公司（Verizon Communications Inc.）并没有减少已经退休工人的人寿保险或死亡抚恤金，尽管它已经将业务部门出售给了后来减少这些福利的公司。Qwest Communications InternationalInc.，现在归Lumen TechnologiesInc.所有，十多年前就完全取消了退休人员的死亡抚恤金。与 AT&T 一样，这两家公司也限制或减少了退休人员的医疗福利。</blockquote></p><p> In cutting existing retirees’ life-insurance benefits, AT&T joins a few other large companies that have done so in recent years. In 2019,3MCo.roughly halved such benefits, andHowmet AerospaceInc.,a business carved out of Alcoa,eliminated life insurance for some retirees.</p><p><blockquote>在削减现有退休人员的人寿保险福利方面，AT&T 加入了近年来其他几家大公司的行列。2019 年，3MCo. 将此类福利大致减半，而从美国铝业分拆出来的 Howmet AerospaceInc. 则取消了一些退休人员的人寿保险。</blockquote></p><p> Unlike AT&T, both said their changes applied to executives, too. So didCortevaInc.,a seeds and chemicals company formed from DowDuPont that will end life insurance for about 50,000 retirees on Jan. 1. Vanguard Group recently backed off plans to eliminate retiree life insurance and other benefits after retirees protested.</p><p><blockquote>与美国电话电报公司不同，两家公司都表示他们的改变也适用于高管。陶氏杜邦公司成立的种子和化学品公司 CorteVainc 也是如此，该公司将于 1 月 1 日终止约 5 万名退休人员的人寿保险。在退休人员抗议后，先锋集团最近放弃了取消退休人员人寿保险和其他福利的计划。</blockquote></p><p> When AT&T employees retired, the company told many of those who were managers that they had company-paid life insurance, which often equaled their final year’s pay, although the sum would decline by half once they hit age 70.</p><p><blockquote>当 AT&T 员工退休时，公司会告诉许多经理，他们有公司支付的人寿保险，这通常相当于他们最后一年的工资，不过一旦他们到了 70 岁，这笔钱就会减少一半。</blockquote></p><p> Some also were told that a “death benefit,” also based on final compensation, would be payable to a surviving spouse or dependent child. Nearly a third of management retirees affected by the latest cuts were eligible for both benefits.</p><p><blockquote>一些人还被告知，同样基于最终赔偿金的 “死亡抚恤金 ”将支付给未亡配偶或受抚养子女。受最新裁员影响的近三分之一管理层退休人员有资格享受这两项福利。</blockquote></p><p> Now, the life insurance benefit, no matter at what value it started, will be $15,000 if the management retiree dies after Dec. 31. The death benefit will be capped at $25,000.</p><p><blockquote>现在，如果管理层退休人员在 12 月 31 日之后去世，人寿保险福利无论起始价值如何，都将为 15,000 美元。死亡抚恤金上限为 25,000 美元。</blockquote></p><p> Retired AT&T union members also often were told they had life insurance based on their pay. This benefit, too, was designed to decline by half after they reached 70. Now, if they die after Dec. 31, it will be just $25,000. Many union retirees are due a death benefit as well; it will be capped at $25,000 after Dec. 31.</p><p><blockquote>退休的美国电话电报公司工会成员也经常被告知，他们有基于工资的人寿保险。这项福利也被设计为在他们年满 70 岁后减少一半。现在，如果他们在 12 月 31 日之后去世，则只有 25,000 美元。许多工会退休人员也有权获得死亡抚恤金；12 月 31 日之后，上限将为 25,000 美元。</blockquote></p><p></p><p> John Tucciarone, who spent 42 years managing AT&T infrastructure in New York and New Jersey until his 2009 retirement, said he recalls executives defending wages that were slightly below competitors’ pay by citing the retirement benefits. “At the time, it was a from-cradle-to-grave type mentality,” said Mr. Tucciarone, a 74-year-old in Leland, N.C. “That stopped a lot of people looking at other places” for higher pay, he said.</p><p><blockquote>约翰-图恰罗内（John Tucciarone）在纽约和新泽西州管理 AT&T 基础设施长达 42 年，直到 2009 年退休。“北卡罗来纳州利兰市 74 岁的图恰罗内先生说：”当时，这是一种从摇篮到坟墓的心态。“他说：”这阻止了很多人到其他地方寻找更高的薪水。</blockquote></p><p> In the mid-1990s, AT&T ceased telling most new employees that their spouse would get a death benefit. After 2007, it stopped providing managers a pledge of life insurance that continued in retirement. Over the years, it also stopped basing the life insurance given to new and current union workers on their pay, instead providing a flat $15,000.</p><p><blockquote>20世纪90年代中期，美国电话电报公司不再告诉大多数新员工，他们的配偶将获得死亡抚恤金。2007 年后，它不再向经理提供退休后继续提供人寿保险。多年来，它还不再以新老工会工人的工资为基础提供人寿保险，而是提供固定的 15,000 美元。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T informed retirees last winter of its plan to cut their benefits. Retirees protested to the board, and a group met with company benefits officials to urge them to reconsider.</p><p><blockquote>美国电话电报公司去年冬天向退休人员通报了削减福利的计划。退休人员向董事会提出抗议，一群人会见了公司福利官员，敦促他们重新考虑。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T said directors have received the complaints, together with executives’ response, and the company has no plans to change course.</p><p><blockquote>AT&T 表示，董事们已经收到了投诉以及高管的回应，公司没有改变路线的计划。</blockquote></p><p> “The marketplace that we operate in has changed. And it’s really forced us to try and still be competitive and make changes that are challenging,” said Julianne Galloway, AT&T’s vice president for global benefits, who met with the retirees.</p><p><blockquote>“我们经营的市场已经发生了变化。美国电话电报公司负责全球福利的副总裁朱丽安-加洛韦（Julianne Galloway）在会见退休人员时说：”这确实迫使我们努力保持竞争力，并做出具有挑战性的改变。</blockquote></p><p> <p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/bf011d62dfcfd7e43af7ebc858256763\" tg-width=\"1252\" tg-height=\"697\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"><span>Mr. Allison said that when he retired, AT&T promised a benefit of at least $63,000 upon his death, an amount the company has cut to $15,000 if he dies after Dec. 31.PHOTO:MELODY TIMOTHEE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL</span></p><p><blockquote><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><span>艾利森先生表示，当他退休时，AT&T 承诺在他去世时至少提供 63,000 美元的赔偿金，如果他在 12 月 31 日之后去世，该公司已将赔偿金削减至 15,000 美元。照片：MELODY TIMOTHEE FOR the WALL STREET JOURNAL</span></p></blockquote></p><p> Warren Miner, 84, retired in 1996 as one of AT&T’s benefits directors, after several years of helping shape health and life-insurance programs like those he hoped to enjoy in retirement.</p><p><blockquote>现年 84 岁的沃伦-迈纳（Warren Miner）于 1996 年从 AT&T 福利总监的职位上退休，此前他曾帮助制定他希望在退休后享受的健康和人寿保险计划。</blockquote></p><p> Mr. Miner, of Estero, Fla., counted on being eligible for about $364,000 from the combination of life insurance and a separate death benefit.</p><p><blockquote>佛罗里达州埃斯特罗的迈纳先生指望有资格从人寿保险和单独的死亡抚恤金中获得约364,000美元。</blockquote></p><p> Instead, after Dec. 31, his wife can expect at most $40,000 in total from the two programs.</p><p><blockquote>相反，12月31日之后，他的妻子可以从这两个项目中获得最多4万美元的总收入。</blockquote></p><p> “If there isn’t a legal obligation, there certainly is a moral obligation not to treat people this way,” Mr. Miner said.</p><p><blockquote>“迈纳先生说：”如果没有法律义务，那么肯定有道德义务不以这种方式对待他人。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T’s Mr. Cook said the company’s “decision is very much about us fulfilling a moral obligation for more than 700,000 people, not just a select few.”</p><p><blockquote>美国电话电报公司的库克先生说，公司的 “决定在很大程度上是为了我们履行对 70 多万人的道德义务，而不仅仅是少数人”。</blockquote></p><p> Federal law bars companies from cutting pension benefits for employees after they retire, but courts have said other kinds of retiree benefits—including healthcare, life insurance and a death benefit—can be changed if employers reserved a right to do so in official documentation.</p><p><blockquote>联邦法律禁止公司在员工退休后削减养老金福利，但法院表示，如果雇主在官方文件中保留这样做的权利，其他类型的退休福利——包括医疗保健、人寿保险和死亡抚恤金——可以更改。</blockquote></p><p> Since the early 1990s, AT&T has included, in plan documents, language reserving a right to change retiree benefits at any time. For certain retirees whose plan documents predate this language, life insurance isn’t changing.</p><p><blockquote>自20世纪90年代初以来，美国电话电报公司在计划文件中加入了保留随时更改退休人员福利权利的措辞。对于某些计划文件早于这种语言的退休人员来说，人寿保险并没有改变。</blockquote></p><p> Many retirees said they knew it was possible for AT&T to change their benefits, but they never expected it to do so after maintaining them for decades.</p><p><blockquote>许多退休人员表示，他们知道 AT&T 有可能改变他们的福利，但他们从未想到在维持了几十年后，AT&T 会这样做。</blockquote></p><p> Karla Billings joined AT&T in Topeka, Kan., in 1996 after being widowed at 32. She retired in 2017. She said she decided not to buy additional life insurance, figuring that AT&T’s $65,000 for retired union workers at her level was enough. Now, assuming she lives past Dec. 31, the payout will be $40,000 less.</p><p><blockquote>卡拉·比林斯在堪萨斯州托皮卡加入美国电话电报公司。1996年，32岁丧偶后。她于2017年退休。她说，她决定不再购买额外的人寿保险，因为她认为 AT&T 为她这个级别的退休工会工人提供的 6.5 万美元已经足够了。现在，假设她活到12月31日之后，支出将减少4万美元。</blockquote></p><p> “You’re at their mercy, and you don’t really have any recourse,” Ms. Billings said.</p><p><blockquote>“比林斯女士说：”你任由他们摆布，你真的没有任何追索权。</blockquote></p><p> In letters announcing the reductions, AT&T said it often reviews its benefits to ensure it remains competitive and relevant to past and present employees.</p><p><blockquote>在宣布裁员的信中，美国电话电报公司表示，它经常审查其福利，以确保其保持竞争力并与过去和现在的员工相关。</blockquote></p><p> “We continue to provide generous retirement benefits that many in corporate America don’t offer any more,” said Mr. Cook, the spokesman. He said four out of five employees, and nearly all retirees, are covered by the company’s pension plan, and the company provides subsidized healthcare for retirees. The wireless network operator also employs a large union-represented workforce under collective bargaining agreements that many competitors don’t have.</p><p><blockquote>“发言人库克先生说：”我们将继续提供丰厚的退休福利，这是美国许多企业界所没有的。他说，五分之四的员工和几乎所有退休人员都参加了公司的养老金计划，公司还为退休人员提供医疗保健补贴。这家无线网络运营商还根据集体谈判协议雇佣了大量由工会代表的员工，这是许多竞争对手所没有的。</blockquote></p><p> Life insurance that continues in retirement was once a hallmark of work at blue-chip companies. It was still available to about a third of U.S. workers at medium-size and large companies in 1997, when the Labor Department stopped tracking it. Benefits consulting firm WillisTowers Watsonsays about 13% of the 732 U.S. and foreign companies of various sizes that it tracks offer retiree life insurance. Few of today’s new corporate giants do.</p><p><blockquote>退休后继续购买人寿保险曾经是蓝筹公司工作的标志。1997年，当劳工部停止跟踪它时，大约三分之一的美国大中型公司工人仍然可以使用它。福利咨询公司 WillisTowers Watson 表示，在其追踪的 732 家各种规模的美国和外国公司中，约有 13% 提供退休人员人寿保险。如今的新企业巨头很少有这样做。</blockquote></p><p> <p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9c34d749277776814bf9a6be8d4bbdd7\" tg-width=\"719\" tg-height=\"591\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"><span>Mr. Baggs, center, at an awards event when he was an AT&T manager.PHOTO:TALIA HERMAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL</span></p><p><blockquote><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><span>巴格斯先生（中）在担任 AT&T 经理时出席颁奖典礼。照片：TALIA HERMAN 为《华尔街日报》拍摄</span></p></blockquote></p><p></p><p> Companies aren’t required to set aside cash to pay future retiree benefits, as they have to do for pensions. But they must carry an obligation on their balance sheets reflecting the current value of every dollar they expect to pay in either pensions or retiree benefits in the future.</p><p><blockquote>公司无需像支付养老金那样预留现金来支付未来的退休人员福利。但他们必须在资产负债表上承担一项义务，反映他们预计未来支付的养老金或退休福利的每一美元的当前价值。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T’s obligation for retiree healthcare and life insurance plans, which it combines in its disclosures, fell to about $14 billion at the end of 2020 from roughly double that amount five years earlier.</p><p><blockquote>到 2020 年底，AT&T 对退休人员医疗保健和人寿保险计划的负债从五年前的大约两倍降至约 140 亿美元。</blockquote></p><p> About a decade ago, AT&T had $12.75 billion dedicated to paying those benefits. This fund was down to $3.8 billion in December 2020, as payouts exceeded investment returns and company contributions, securities filings show.</p><p><blockquote>大约十年前，美国电话电报公司有127.5亿美元专门用于支付这些福利。证券文件显示，由于支出超过了投资回报和公司捐款，该基金在 2020 年 12 月降至 38 亿美元。</blockquote></p><p> Last year, AT&T booked a $2.7 billion accounting benefit from its retiree life and health plans. “A large portion” of this came from reducing its obligations for retiree life-insurance and death benefits, the company said, declining to be specific.</p><p><blockquote>去年，AT&T 从其退休人员生活和健康计划中获得了 27 亿美元的会计收益。该公司表示，其中 “很大一部分 ”来自减少退休人员人寿保险和死亡抚恤金的义务，但拒绝透露具体细节。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T has told retirees they can buy new life-insurance policies at a discount through the company if they wish.</p><p><blockquote>美国电话电报公司告诉退休人员，如果他们愿意，可以通过该公司以折扣价购买新的人寿保险。</blockquote></p><p> Scott Witt, an actuary and fee-only insurance adviser, said few 70- to 80-year-olds should seriously consider buying life insurance, even at a discount, because premiums rise rapidly at that age. Once it becomes prohibitively expensive, “they’ll drop the policy and then they’ll be worse off for having bought” it, he said.</p><p><blockquote>精算师兼收费保险顾问斯科特·威特 (Scott Witt) 表示，很少有 70 至 80 岁的人应该认真考虑购买人寿保险，即使是打折的，因为那个年龄段的保费会迅速上涨。他说，一旦保险变得昂贵得令人望而却步，“他们就会放弃这份保险，然后他们就会因为购买保险而遭受更大的损失”。</blockquote></p><p> An 80-year-old would need to pay $328 a month, or close to $4,000 a year, to maintain a life-insurance benefit of $50,000, according to a pricing schedule AT&T sent to employees in September.</p><p><blockquote>根据美国电话电报公司 9 月份发给员工的定价表，一名 80 岁的老人每月需要支付 328 美元，或每年接近 4,000 美元，才能维持 50,000 美元的人寿保险福利。</blockquote></p><p> “If I lived to be 90 years old, which I do expect, and paying an increasing premium, I would be far better off investing the money in equities,” said Monte Baggs, 80, who retired in late 1991 after 31 years with AT&T in California and Colorado.</p><p><blockquote>80 岁的蒙特-巴格斯（Monte Baggs）在加利福尼亚州和科罗拉多州的 AT&T 工作了 31 年后，于 1991 年底退休。</blockquote></p><p> At the time, Mr. Baggs said, he turned down a benefit that would have paid his widow a monthly pension after his death, figuring she would get life insurance of at least $75,000 when he died. Now, if he dies after Dec. 31, she will get $15,000.</p><p><blockquote>巴格斯先生说，当时他拒绝了一项在他去世后向他的遗孀支付每月养老金的福利，认为他去世后她将获得至少 75,000 美元的人寿保险。现在，如果他在12月31日之后去世，她将得到15,000美元。</blockquote></p><p> “It’s obvious what they’re trying to do—they’re trying to recover as much as they can, but they’re doing it on the backs of their retirees,” Mr. Baggs said.</p><p><blockquote>“巴格斯先生说：”他们想做什么是显而易见的--他们想尽可能地恢复，但他们是以退休人员为代价这样做的。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T remains a profitable company, paying nearly $15 billion in annual shareholder dividends as of last year, although its stock has fallen by about 40% over five years. Investors soured on bets that AT&T made on entertainment companies DirecTV and Time Warner Inc. Under investor pressure, AT&T has been unwinding those bets. It sold a stake in DirecTV and set plans to hive off its WarnerMedia division through a merger with Discovery Inc.</p><p><blockquote>AT&T 仍然是一家盈利公司，截至去年，每年支付近 150 亿美元的股东股息，尽管其股价在五年内下跌了约 40%。投资者对美国电话电报公司对娱乐公司 DirecTV 和时代华纳公司的押注感到不满。在投资者的压力下，美国电话电报公司一直在解除这些赌注。它出售了 DirecTV 的股份，并计划通过与 Discovery Inc. 合并来剥离其华纳媒体部门。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T Chief Executive John Stankey, 59, is eligible for life insurance in retirement equal to his final salary; that is about $2.4 million today. The insurance amount will decline to half his final year’s salary at age 70 or once he has been retired for five years, whichever is later.</p><p><blockquote>59 岁的 AT&T 首席执行官约翰·斯坦基 (John Stankey) 有资格获得相当于其最终工资的退休人寿保险；今天大约是240万美元。在 70 岁或退休五年后（以较晚者为准），保险金额将降至他最后一年工资的一半。</blockquote></p><p> Mr. Stankey and his predecessor, Mr. Stephenson, have bought additional life-insurance coverage through AT&T, with the cost subsidized by the company, its filings show. AT&T has disclosed paying about $1.5 million for such coverage for Mr. Stankey and nearly $889,000 for Mr. Stephenson since 2015. The executives declined to comment through an AT&T spokesman.</p><p><blockquote>文件显示，斯坦基和他的前任斯蒂芬森通过美国电话电报公司购买了额外的人寿保险，费用由该公司补贴。美国电话电报公司透露，自2015年以来，为斯坦基先生支付了约150万美元，为斯蒂芬森先生支付了近88.9万美元。高管们拒绝通过美国电话电报公司发言人置评。</blockquote></p><p> AT&T said other companies also have paid for special life insurance for at least some executives.</p><p><blockquote>美国电话电报公司表示，其他公司也为至少部分高管支付了特殊人寿保险费用。</blockquote></p><p> Retiree benefits remain on AT&T’s financial radar. In a consulting agreement with a former AT&T finance chief, John Stephens, the company has offered to pay him an extra $500,000 if AT&T meets any of three financial targets. One is cutting $1 billion more from AT&T’s obligation for retiree pensions and benefits. Through an AT&T spokesman, Mr. Stephens declined to comment.</p><p><blockquote>退休人员福利仍然是 AT&T 财务关注的焦点。在与 AT&T 前财务主管约翰·斯蒂芬斯 (John Stephens) 达成的咨询协议中，该公司提出，如果 AT&T 达到三个财务目标中的任何一个，该公司将额外支付 50 万美元。其中之一是从 AT&T 的退休人员养老金和福利义务中再削减 10 亿美元。斯蒂芬斯通过美国电话电报公司发言人拒绝置评。</blockquote></p><p></p>\n<div class=\"bt-text\">\n\n\n<p> 来源：<a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-t-slashed-promised-life-insurance-for-former-workersand-time-runs-out-at-year-end-11640544022?siteid=yhoof2\">WSJ</a></p>\n<p>为提升您的阅读体验，我们对本页面进行了排版优化</p>\n\n\n</div>\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"T":"At&T"},"source_url":"https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-t-slashed-promised-life-insurance-for-former-workersand-time-runs-out-at-year-end-11640544022?siteid=yhoof2","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1178126612","content_text":"When Dean Allison left his job as a property manager atAT&TT0.36%in 1998, the company offered an incentive to retire: a payment of at least $63,000 upon his death.\nHe took the deal, figuring the money would someday help his wife cover funeral expenses, pay outstanding bills and have more to live on.\nEarly in 2021, AT&T told Mr. Allison it would pay no more than $15,000 if he dies after Dec. 31.\nAT&T’s decision to cut life insurance and death benefits as of Jan. 1 for many of the 220,000 retirees eligible for the benefits has roiled a generation of workers who say their former employer is reneging on a promise.\nThe cuts don’t apply to top executives, who have life insurance under a separate company-paid program, which the company can’t reduce without their permission. AT&T will pay heirs of Randall Stephenson, who left as chief executive in 2020, $3.6 million under a life-insurance plan reviewed by the board last year, securities filings show.\nAT&T said that the cuts for other retirees will bring their benefits more in line with benefits at other large employers, and that the change will increase payouts at death for more than 1,000 retirees. It said only a handful of Fortune 100 companies still offer most employees life insurance that continues after retirement.\n“We are working hard to responsibly balance the needs of the business and our taking care of our current 200,000 employees and 500,000 retirees and their dependents,” said an AT&T spokesman, Fletcher Cook. “It is admittedly a balancing act—one that many companies have not successfully navigated.”\nThat’s little comfort to Mr. Allison, 75 years old, of Stuart, Fla. “If they had told me this 10 years ago, that they were going to cut this, I could have done some planning,” he said.\nToday’s AT&T Inc. is the product of decades of splits and mergers, a remnant of the telephone monopoly nicknamed “Ma Bell” that shed its regional operations in 1984. Other offshoots of that breakup have treated retirees’ benefits differently.\nAT&T retiree Monte Baggs said he expected his wife, Phillis, seated, to receive company-paid life insurance of at least $75,000 when he died, but AT&T has cut it to $15,000 if he dies after Dec. 31. ‘They’re trying to recover as much as they can, but they’re doing it on the backs of their retirees,’ he said.PHOTO:TALIA HERMAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL\nVerizon Communications Inc.hasn’t reduced already-retired workers’ life insurance or death benefits, though it has sold off business units to companies that later reduced them.Qwest Communications InternationalInc.,now owned by Lumen TechnologiesInc.,eliminated retiree death benefits entirely, more than a decade ago. Both companies, like AT&T, have capped or reduced retirees’ health benefits as well.\nIn cutting existing retirees’ life-insurance benefits, AT&T joins a few other large companies that have done so in recent years. In 2019,3MCo.roughly halved such benefits, andHowmet AerospaceInc.,a business carved out of Alcoa,eliminated life insurance for some retirees.\nUnlike AT&T, both said their changes applied to executives, too. So didCortevaInc.,a seeds and chemicals company formed from DowDuPont that will end life insurance for about 50,000 retirees on Jan. 1. Vanguard Group recently backed off plans to eliminate retiree life insurance and other benefits after retirees protested.\nWhen AT&T employees retired, the company told many of those who were managers that they had company-paid life insurance, which often equaled their final year’s pay, although the sum would decline by half once they hit age 70.\nSome also were told that a “death benefit,” also based on final compensation, would be payable to a surviving spouse or dependent child. Nearly a third of management retirees affected by the latest cuts were eligible for both benefits.\nNow, the life insurance benefit, no matter at what value it started, will be $15,000 if the management retiree dies after Dec. 31. The death benefit will be capped at $25,000.\nRetired AT&T union members also often were told they had life insurance based on their pay. This benefit, too, was designed to decline by half after they reached 70. Now, if they die after Dec. 31, it will be just $25,000. Many union retirees are due a death benefit as well; it will be capped at $25,000 after Dec. 31.\nJohn Tucciarone, who spent 42 years managing AT&T infrastructure in New York and New Jersey until his 2009 retirement, said he recalls executives defending wages that were slightly below competitors’ pay by citing the retirement benefits. “At the time, it was a from-cradle-to-grave type mentality,” said Mr. Tucciarone, a 74-year-old in Leland, N.C. “That stopped a lot of people looking at other places” for higher pay, he said.\nIn the mid-1990s, AT&T ceased telling most new employees that their spouse would get a death benefit. After 2007, it stopped providing managers a pledge of life insurance that continued in retirement. Over the years, it also stopped basing the life insurance given to new and current union workers on their pay, instead providing a flat $15,000.\nAT&T informed retirees last winter of its plan to cut their benefits. Retirees protested to the board, and a group met with company benefits officials to urge them to reconsider.\nAT&T said directors have received the complaints, together with executives’ response, and the company has no plans to change course.\n“The marketplace that we operate in has changed. And it’s really forced us to try and still be competitive and make changes that are challenging,” said Julianne Galloway, AT&T’s vice president for global benefits, who met with the retirees.\nMr. Allison said that when he retired, AT&T promised a benefit of at least $63,000 upon his death, an amount the company has cut to $15,000 if he dies after Dec. 31.PHOTO:MELODY TIMOTHEE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL\nWarren Miner, 84, retired in 1996 as one of AT&T’s benefits directors, after several years of helping shape health and life-insurance programs like those he hoped to enjoy in retirement.\nMr. Miner, of Estero, Fla., counted on being eligible for about $364,000 from the combination of life insurance and a separate death benefit.\nInstead, after Dec. 31, his wife can expect at most $40,000 in total from the two programs.\n“If there isn’t a legal obligation, there certainly is a moral obligation not to treat people this way,” Mr. Miner said.\nAT&T’s Mr. Cook said the company’s “decision is very much about us fulfilling a moral obligation for more than 700,000 people, not just a select few.”\nFederal law bars companies from cutting pension benefits for employees after they retire, but courts have said other kinds of retiree benefits—including healthcare, life insurance and a death benefit—can be changed if employers reserved a right to do so in official documentation.\nSince the early 1990s, AT&T has included, in plan documents, language reserving a right to change retiree benefits at any time. For certain retirees whose plan documents predate this language, life insurance isn’t changing.\nMany retirees said they knew it was possible for AT&T to change their benefits, but they never expected it to do so after maintaining them for decades.\nKarla Billings joined AT&T in Topeka, Kan., in 1996 after being widowed at 32. She retired in 2017. She said she decided not to buy additional life insurance, figuring that AT&T’s $65,000 for retired union workers at her level was enough. Now, assuming she lives past Dec. 31, the payout will be $40,000 less.\n“You’re at their mercy, and you don’t really have any recourse,” Ms. Billings said.\nIn letters announcing the reductions, AT&T said it often reviews its benefits to ensure it remains competitive and relevant to past and present employees.\n“We continue to provide generous retirement benefits that many in corporate America don’t offer any more,” said Mr. Cook, the spokesman. He said four out of five employees, and nearly all retirees, are covered by the company’s pension plan, and the company provides subsidized healthcare for retirees. The wireless network operator also employs a large union-represented workforce under collective bargaining agreements that many competitors don’t have.\nLife insurance that continues in retirement was once a hallmark of work at blue-chip companies. It was still available to about a third of U.S. workers at medium-size and large companies in 1997, when the Labor Department stopped tracking it. Benefits consulting firm WillisTowers Watsonsays about 13% of the 732 U.S. and foreign companies of various sizes that it tracks offer retiree life insurance. Few of today’s new corporate giants do.\nMr. Baggs, center, at an awards event when he was an AT&T manager.PHOTO:TALIA HERMAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL\nCompanies aren’t required to set aside cash to pay future retiree benefits, as they have to do for pensions. But they must carry an obligation on their balance sheets reflecting the current value of every dollar they expect to pay in either pensions or retiree benefits in the future.\nAT&T’s obligation for retiree healthcare and life insurance plans, which it combines in its disclosures, fell to about $14 billion at the end of 2020 from roughly double that amount five years earlier.\nAbout a decade ago, AT&T had $12.75 billion dedicated to paying those benefits. This fund was down to $3.8 billion in December 2020, as payouts exceeded investment returns and company contributions, securities filings show.\nLast year, AT&T booked a $2.7 billion accounting benefit from its retiree life and health plans. “A large portion” of this came from reducing its obligations for retiree life-insurance and death benefits, the company said, declining to be specific.\nAT&T has told retirees they can buy new life-insurance policies at a discount through the company if they wish.\nScott Witt, an actuary and fee-only insurance adviser, said few 70- to 80-year-olds should seriously consider buying life insurance, even at a discount, because premiums rise rapidly at that age. Once it becomes prohibitively expensive, “they’ll drop the policy and then they’ll be worse off for having bought” it, he said.\nAn 80-year-old would need to pay $328 a month, or close to $4,000 a year, to maintain a life-insurance benefit of $50,000, according to a pricing schedule AT&T sent to employees in September.\n“If I lived to be 90 years old, which I do expect, and paying an increasing premium, I would be far better off investing the money in equities,” said Monte Baggs, 80, who retired in late 1991 after 31 years with AT&T in California and Colorado.\nAt the time, Mr. Baggs said, he turned down a benefit that would have paid his widow a monthly pension after his death, figuring she would get life insurance of at least $75,000 when he died. Now, if he dies after Dec. 31, she will get $15,000.\n“It’s obvious what they’re trying to do—they’re trying to recover as much as they can, but they’re doing it on the backs of their retirees,” Mr. Baggs said.\nAT&T remains a profitable company, paying nearly $15 billion in annual shareholder dividends as of last year, although its stock has fallen by about 40% over five years. Investors soured on bets that AT&T made on entertainment companies DirecTV and Time Warner Inc. Under investor pressure, AT&T has been unwinding those bets. It sold a stake in DirecTV and set plans to hive off its WarnerMedia division through a merger with Discovery Inc.\nAT&T Chief Executive John Stankey, 59, is eligible for life insurance in retirement equal to his final salary; that is about $2.4 million today. The insurance amount will decline to half his final year’s salary at age 70 or once he has been retired for five years, whichever is later.\nMr. Stankey and his predecessor, Mr. Stephenson, have bought additional life-insurance coverage through AT&T, with the cost subsidized by the company, its filings show. AT&T has disclosed paying about $1.5 million for such coverage for Mr. Stankey and nearly $889,000 for Mr. Stephenson since 2015. The executives declined to comment through an AT&T spokesman.\nAT&T said other companies also have paid for special life insurance for at least some executives.\nRetiree benefits remain on AT&T’s financial radar. In a consulting agreement with a former AT&T finance chief, John Stephens, the company has offered to pay him an extra $500,000 if AT&T meets any of three financial targets. One is cutting $1 billion more from AT&T’s obligation for retiree pensions and benefits. Through an AT&T spokesman, Mr. Stephens declined to comment.","news_type":1,"symbols_score_info":{"T":0.9}},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":3868,"commentLimit":10,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false,"reportStatus":false,"symbols":[],"verified":2,"subType":0,"readableState":1,"langContent":"CN","currentLanguage":"CN","warmUpFlag":false,"orderFlag":false,"shareable":true,"causeOfNotShareable":"","featuresForAnalytics":[],"commentAndTweetFlag":false,"andRepostAutoSelectedFlag":false,"upFlag":false,"length":12,"subscribersOnly":false,"subscribersOnlyAccessible":false,"xxTargetLangEnum":"ZH_CN"},"commentList":[],"isCommentEnd":true,"isTiger":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"url":"/m/post/698722891"}
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