General Motors pension buyout history
General Motors annuitized roughly $26 billion of salaried pension obligations with Prudential in 2012, including lump sum offers to salaried retirees. The full picture.
Timeline
2012
GM executed one of the two largest pension de-risking transactions in U.S. history, terminating and annuitizing its salaried employees' pension plan with Prudential. The deal transferred roughly $26 billion of obligations, about one fifth of GM's total pension liabilities, and GM contributed about $4 billion of additional funding to complete it. Lump sum offers to salaried retirees were part of the program.
What this means for you
GM's 2012 program is the landmark case study in this space: a combined lump sum window plus group annuity purchase that moved an entire salaried plan off the company's books. Verizon followed within months, and the playbook has been reused by dozens of large employers since.
GM salaried retirees covered by the transaction have been paid by Prudential for over a decade, at unchanged benefit amounts, under state insurance regulation rather than ERISA plan rules and PBGC insurance.
If you are a participant and receive a new offer letter, the analysis is the same as for any buyout: request the calculation worksheet, run the numbers in our calculator, and work through the 12 questions before the deadline. Declining always leaves your benefit in place.
Sources
Deciding on a General Motors pension offer?
Run the exact numbers from your offer letter, then get an independent second opinion before the window closes.