{"product_id":"9781101446072","title":"Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers","description":"\"'As far as I can determine there is only one solution [to the CEO's  demand  to save more money]', the HR representative wrote to her superiors. 'That  would  be the death of all existing retirees.'\"\u003cp\u003eIt's no secret that hundreds of companies have been slashing pensions  and  health coverage earned by millions of retirees.  Employers blame an aging  workforce, stock market losses, and spiraling costs- what they call \"a  perfect  storm\" of external forces that has forced them to take drastic measures.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut this so-called retirement crisis is no accident. Ellen E.  Schultz,  award-winning investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, reveals  how  large companies and the retirement industry-benefits consultants,  insurance  companies, and banks-have all  played a huge and hidden role in the death  spiral  of American pensions and benefits. \u003cbr\u003eA little over a decade ago, most companies had more than enough set aside  to pay  the benefits earned by two generations of workers, no matter how long  they  lived. But by exploiting loopholes, ambiguous regulations, and new  accounting  rules, companies essentially turned their pension plans into piggy banks,  tax  shelters, and profit centers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on original analysis of company data, government filings,  internal  corporate documents, and confidential memos, Schultz uncovers decades of  widespread deception during which employers have exaggerated their  retiree  burdens while lobbying for government handouts, secretly cutting  pensions,  tricking employees, and misleading shareholders. She reveals how  companies: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e    \u003cli\u003eSiphon billions of dollars from their pension plans to finance  downsizings and  sell the assets in merger deals \u003c\/li\u003e    \u003cli\u003eOverstate the burden of rank-and-file retiree obligations to justify  benefits  cuts while simultaneously using the savings to inflate executive pay and  pensions \u003c\/li\u003e    \u003cli\u003eHide their growing executive pension liabilities, which at some  companies now  exceed the liabilities for the regular pension plans \u003c\/li\u003e    \u003cli\u003ePurchase billions of dollars of life insurance on workers and use the  policies  as informal executive pension funds. When the insured workers and  retirees die,  the company collects tax-free death benefits \u003c\/li\u003e    \u003cli\u003ePreemptively sue retirees after cutting retiree health benefits and use  other  legal strategies to erode their legal protections.    \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e    \u003cp\u003eThough the focus is on large companies-which drive the legislative  agenda-the  same games are being played at smaller companies, non-profits, public  pensions  plans and retirement systems overseas. Nor is this a partisan issue:  employees  of all political persuasions and income levels-from managers to miners,  pro- football players to pilots-have been slammed.\u003c\/p\u003e    \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eRetirement Heist\u003c\/i\u003e is a scathing and urgent expose of one of the  most  critical and least understood crises of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e    \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Penguin Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47076998447344,"sku":"9781101446072","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781101446072_p0.jpg?v=1763687212","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781101446072","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}