Did you retire from Alcoa or are you a beneficiary of an Alcoa retiree? If your pension was converted to an Athene annuity, your money may be at risk.
Retirees and beneficiaries of Alcoa say they may not receive the money they are entitled to from annuities distributed by Athene.
Over the last several years, Alcoa has transferred at least $3 billion in pension liabilities. Employers sometimes pay to unload their future pension obligations to insurance companies.
Like past employees of Lockheed Martin and AT&T who filed lawsuits when their pension benefits were turned over to Athene, Alcoa retirees say that Athene makes risky investments that may ultimately deny them the income they worked for and expected.
Do you qualify?
If you are an Alcoa retiree or beneficiary of a pension that was turned over to Athene in the form of an annuity, you may be eligible to join a class action lawsuit to recover lost monetary benefits.
Please fill out the form on this page for more information.
What is an annuity?
An annuity is an insurance contract that can provide a monthly income. In this case Alcoa paid Athene to take over its obligation to make pension payments to retirees and their beneficiaries The retirees state that in selecting Athene, Alcoa selected an annuity provider that was substantially riskier than traditional annuity providers. Retirees also lost other protections once their pensions were transferred to Athene.
Alcoa’s decision to hire Athene is subject to certain standards set by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). While ERISA does not make the sale of pension obligations illegal, it requires that such sales be made in compliance with “fiduciary duty,” which is to say that Alcoa was responsible for choosing the safest annuity available for its former employees. Instead, say retirees, Alcoa chose a company that was far riskier over the long haul, thus, placing retirees’ future pension obligations at risk of default.
Athene has been written about for many years. An NBC News story in 2020 cited the company as an example of questionable sustainability because of its structure and overseas transactions. Investments appear to be calculated for quick profits that come with high risk, threatening the long-term health of the company and its very survival.
Should the worst happen, retirees stand a chance of losing most of what they were owed. According to NBC, “If an insurance company gets into trouble, its assets are sold to pay policyholders’ claims. If insufficient, policyholders must rely on state guaranty funds financed voluntarily by other insurers. Unlike the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which has a pre-funded insurance pool protecting depositors against bank failures, state guaranty funds raise money only after a failure occurs. States impose limits on how much policyholders can receive in a failure.”
Join an Alcoa/Athene class action lawsuit investigation
If you are a past employee of Alcoa or a beneficiary of its pension plan and your pension was converted to an Athene annuity, you may qualify to participate in a lawsuit investigation into the inappropriate sale of your benefits.
Please fill out the form on this page to see if you qualify for a FREE case evaluation.
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Join an Alcoa/Athene lawsuit investigation
If you qualify, an attorney will contact you to discuss the details of your potential case at no charge to you.
After you fill out the form, an attorney(s) or their agent(s) may contact you to discuss your legal rights.
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