It feels gross to see pensions listed among liabilities when a company is facing bankruptcy or ruin. Why aren't they protected and held separate from the company's finances?
My (maybe naïve) view is that whatever pension benefits are accrued by an employee, should be paid into an annuity or similar, separate fund that is firewalled off from the assets of the employer.
The choice whether to honor pension obligations or pay back debt holders shouldn't exist. The pension was already funded and is held somewhere else beyond the reach of creditors.
(I'm not saying that the full dollar amount needs to be set aside today. Just an agreed-upon NPV of the future payouts for some standard actuarial retirement length.)
My (maybe naïve) view is that whatever pension benefits are accrued by an employee, should be paid into an annuity or similar, separate fund that is firewalled off from the assets of the employer.
The choice whether to honor pension obligations or pay back debt holders shouldn't exist. The pension was already funded and is held somewhere else beyond the reach of creditors.
(I'm not saying that the full dollar amount needs to be set aside today. Just an agreed-upon NPV of the future payouts for some standard actuarial retirement length.)