Corporate Employers Accused of Increasing Risk Of Pension Shortfalls in Violation of Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA") (Brower Piven Release)

Globe Newswire 11-Jun-2024 11:52 AM

BALTIMORE, June 11, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lawsuits have been filed alleging that a number of large corporate employers have offloaded billions of dollars in pension obligations to Athene Annuity and Life Company and/or Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company of New York, subsidiaries of Athene Holding Ltd. (collectively, "Athene") in violation of ERISA. In addition to AT&T Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Alcoa Corporation, against which lawsuits have already been filed, according to SEC filings and/or Athene's public statements, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY), Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE:AWI), ATI, Inc. (NYSE:ATI), Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE:WY), and General Electric (NYSE:GE) have offloaded pension obligations to Athene.  

As these lawsuits allege, ERISA imposes strict fiduciary standards of conduct on employee pension plans, requiring fiduciaries to act with both prudence and loyalty and solely in the interest of employees who participate in the plan. The lawsuits allege breach of those duties to the detriment of some plan participants and beneficiaries, many of whom are former employees, by entering into transactions with Athene that removed those plan participants and beneficiaries from their employer's defined-benefit pension plans. The lawsuits allege that because of the transactions, plan participants and beneficiaries no longer enjoy certain benefits, including protection provided by the federally chartered Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. According to the lawsuits, the transactions have also harmed plan participants and beneficiaries by degrading the value of their pension benefits because of Athene's investment strategies that the lawsuits allege to be risky. The lawsuits also allege that the companies profited from their decision to offload pension obligations to Athene.

If you are a former employee of any of the corporate employers mentioned in this release and have questions about your rights as they relate to the offloading of pension obligations, please email Charles Piven at piven@browerpiven.com (referencing ERISA in the subject line) for more information.

CONTACT:
Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation
Charles J. Piven, Esq.
3704 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
piven@browerpiven.com