General Mills to Freeze Defined Benefit Pension Plans by End of 2027

General Mills will be freezing its pensions at the end of 2027, according to the company’s annual report filed Thursday. The move comes on the heels of a similar announcement by UPS.

Defined benefit plans will be frozen at the end of the year, officially taking effect Jan. 1, 2028, when active US employees’ benefits will no longer accrue, according to the 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In June 2013, the company’s pension plans were closed to salaried new hires. On Jan. 1, 2018, the plan will be closed to newly hired non-union production employees.

As of May 31, the pension plans, which have a combined $5.925 billion in assets, had a combined $6.459 billion in liabilities and were 92% funded. This is up from the previous fiscal year, where the plans had $5.54 billion in assets and $6.449 in liabilities for a funded status of 86%.

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According to the SEC filing, the company does not expect to make a contribution to its pension funds in the 2018 fiscal year-end, although it made a $25 million contribution this year. General Mills also lowered its expected rate of return for fiscal 2018 to 7.95% from 8.17% in fiscal 2017.

General Mills’ 401(k) plan, which has $3.26 billion in assets, will remain unchanged.

Tags: General Mills, Pension Freeze, Pensions

It’s time again to nominate and celebrate the industry’s most innovative asset owners and managers/servicers. CIO’s eighth annual Industry Innovation Awards will take place December 7 at the New York Public Library, celebrating the most innovative and talented players of institutional investing.

Please nominate asset owners and managers/servicers for this year’s awards. Nominations will close on Friday, August 4, and all finalists will be announced in early September.

This year, the CIO editorial team will consult an advisory board of CIOs, including Jagdeep Bachher of University of California Office of the President, Tim Barrett of Texas Tech University System, Robert Hunkeler of International Paper, Jacque Millard of Intermountain Healthcare, and Mark Schmid of the University of Chicago.

The lifetime achievement award, which Schmid won last year, will be presented at the dinner. An overall winner from the asset-owner categories will also be chosen and awarded CIO of the Year (presented last year to Barrett).

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Our Next Generation Award is chosen the evening of the awards dinner, following a panel at the CIO Influential Investors’ Forum.

This year’s asset owner categories include (2016 winners in parentheses):

Foundation (University of Arizona Foundation, Craig Barker)

Endowment (Texas Tech University System, Tim Barrett)

Corporate Defined Benefit Pension Plan Below $5 Billion (Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Jamey Sharpe)

Corporate Defined Benefit Pension Plan Above $5 Billion (International Paper, Robert Hunkeler)

Public Defined Benefit Plan Below $15 Billion (MoDOT and Patrol Employees’ Retirement System, Larry Krummen)

Public Defined Benefit Plan Between $15 Billion and $100 Billion (Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, Jim Grossman)

Public Defined Benefit Plan Above $100 Billion (State of Wisconsin Investment Board, David Villa)

Sovereign Wealth Fund (which wasn’t a category last year)

Healthcare Organization (Intermountain Healthcare, Jacque Millard)

Defined Contribution Plan (American Airlines, Ken Menezes)

Next Generation (UPS, Greg Spick)

Consulting (Aksia, Jim Vos).

Asset management categories include (2016 winners in parentheses; italics indicate altered category):

Fixed Income (BlackRock)

Equities (including alternative equity beta) (Parametric)

Multi-Asset (including risk-balanced strategies) (Risk Premium Investment Management Company)

Private Equity (Blackstone)

Hedge Funds (Marshall Wace)

Real Assets (Pantheon)

Defined Contribution Strategies (NISA Investment Advisors)

Investment Outsourcing (Goldman Sachs Asset Management)

Corporate Investment Strategies (Nuveen)

Corporate Liability Strategies (Prudential)

Transition Management (Macquarie)

Data & Technology (Solovis)

**New 2017 Category: ESG Investing

Let us know who inspires you in this industry, and why. The nomination form can be found here: https://www.research.net/r/2017IIANominations.

Tags: CIO awards, Innovation Awards, nominations

General Mills to Freeze Defined Benefit Pension Plans by End of 2027

Eighth Annual Industry Innovation Awards: Nominations Open