Defined Benefits

J.C. Penney Co. is offering about 31,000 retirees in its defined benefit pension plan the option of a lump-sum payment in exchange for a lifetime monthly benefit.

GE is looking for buyers with experience managing retirement plan assets as it tries to shed GE Asset Management, a unit which also manages the companys own pension plan.

Kraft Heinz is eliminating some benefits and will offer medical and prescription coverage through the individual marketplace for retirees age 65 and older.

The funded status of the typical U.S. corporate pension plan fell 2.5 percentage points--which is why August was a wake-up call for some.

AIGs pension plan will be frozen effective 2016, continuing an industry trend of moving to defined contribution models.

Moodys said the IRS was expected to require sponsors to apply the new mortality assumptions this year but that the agency will not apply the new numbers until 2017.