3. Does your pension have enough gas?
Pension plans in the automotive industry are more under-funded than plans in any other industry. General Motors, in fact, has the largest benefit shortfall of any U.S. company. And, as a whole, the auto industry's shortfall of $60 billion takes up roughly 20% of the total U.S. pension-funding shortfall. Moreover, the Big Three may be understating their pension liability by a collective $40 billion.
Companies are taking steps to address this problem. For example, GM's pension plan was under-funded by $19.3 billion at the end of 2002, but the company has largely eliminated the shortfall through the sale of $17.8 billion of assets and bonds. Ford finished 2003 by cutting its U.S. unfunded liability to $3.4 billion (although its worldwide figure is worse). The company plans to pay over a billion into its worldwide pension plans in 2004. But nothing is certain, and pension security still depends upon a recovering economy, world stability and a number of other factors.
4. Where do I go to find out about my pension?
5. Contact info for auto companies
