You will receive shortly an important notice from Nokia concerning your pension fund and the Group Life insurance fund. The first good news is that the Nokia Retirement Income Plan “NRIP” (the pension plan for former management retirees) is funded at about 121% of its total benefit requirements. Total assets in the plan are $17 billion which now allows Nokia to take further action to provide additional funding to our Group Life Insurance Plan.
You are probably aware of our concern that the Trust Fund which pays Group Life benefits has been expected to be depleted in a few more years. We have been working with Nokia to hopefully extend that for additional years. You should be aware that our retiree body is getting older and we are losing retirees at an increasing rate.
Under current federal law, a company with well funded pension plans (in excess of 120%) may transfer some of that excess to pay the cost of Group Life insurance. In order to do one of these transfers, an employer is required to notify participants at least 90 days before the date of the planned transfer. Although Nokia has not determined definitely that it will do the transfer, it is require to provide the notice now. As set forth in the notice, Nokia has determined that the excess above 120% is about $ 253 million.If they decide to move forward, they would transfer up to $ 89 million of the excess to pay for Group Life coverage for eligible retired NRIP participants for the years ending December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020. The transfer, if made, would occur on December 30, 2019.
The transfer, if made, is expected to extend the life of the Group Life Trust for five years.
The Nokia notice closes with the assurance that the pension benefit for all NRIP participants is fully vested and nonforfeitable.
Questions about this transfer can be addressed to fcminter@aol.com or 1-205-915-2908.
LRO BOARD OF DIRECTORS