As we’ve seen recently in NJ with Governor Christie’s decision to withhold the State’s annual required contribution, public and private pension funds are under extreme funding pressure.  As a result, traditional DB plans continue to be terminated / frozen in rapid fashion, with new employees being migrated to defined contribution structures. Unfortunately, the complete shift in risk from the sponsor to the employee is proving to be a disaster, with most employees incapable of funding and managing their own retirement (median account balance for a DC participant is slightly more than $13,000).

Importantly, KCS is pleased to announce that we’ve entered into an alliance with Ed Friend, a long-tenured and highly successful actuary, Ryan ALM and Longevity Financial Consultants to bring to the marketplace a patent pending hybrid DB structure that provides the plan sponsor with a fixed cost feature. The product is called Double DB, and as a hybrid, combines elements of both DB and DC. We think that this new design could revolutionize the pension industry by making the use of defined benefit plans more economical for the sponsoring organization.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you’d like to receive more information on Double DB. We think that both employers and employees are better served utilizing the Double DB design.