Overpaying PBGC Premiums -- Money You'll Never See Again

Earlier this week, October Three released what may have been the most comprehensive study ever on payment of PBGC premiums. The study analyzed premium payments of nearly every mid-sized or large defined benefit plan in the country over the period from plan years 2010 through 2015 (leaving out plans with fewer than 250 participants).

The key results were shocking:

• During that six-year period, companies overpaid variable rate premiums by more than $700 million in the aggregate. That is, using techniques designed to lessen variable rate premiums, they could have paid $700 million less.
• For the 2015 plan year, more than 65% of plans that paid variable rate premiums, and did not have their premiums limited by the so-called per participant cap, paid more than they needed to.

If we think about this particular pension expenditure, one could consider it among the worst of all sins. For example, if you contributed more than you needed to in 2015, then your future required contributions will be lower, your PBGC premiums may have been lower and your pension expense will have been lower. So, while you may have had other uses for the money, at least you got some benefit from those contributions.

On the other hand, suppose you paid a larger variable rate premium than you needed to. What benefit have you gotten or will you have gotten from that overpayment? Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nihil. Niets. Niente. Rien. They're all the same. You will have received absolutely no benefit from your overpayment and neither will your employees. In fact, the only beneficiary of your overpayment will have been the PBGC.

Don't get me wrong. There are some good people, some nice people at the PBGC. I have friends at the PBGC. But, that said, there is no reason to give them more money than you need to under the law.

If you've made it this far, I'm going to leave you with an analogy. PBGC premiums are a lot like taxes. You pay money to a quasi-governmental corporation (PBGC) as a condition of sponsoring a defined benefit plan. Similarly, you pay taxes to the federal government when your company turns a profit.

Here is where they diverge. Your company probably has a Tax Department. If it does, its primary function is to ensure that your company properly pays its taxes, but in as small amount as legally allowable. That is, their job is to reduce your tax burden.

Your Tax Department may be pretty big. How big is your PBGC Premium Department? Oh, you don't have a PBGC Premium Department? You know you could.

Analytics and Hiring

Can you use analytics to help you in your hiring process? The conventional wisdom says no. The big data proponents say yes.

Let's consider how this might work at a larger (undefined term) company. Suppose you asked each manager to list all of the characteristics of their best employees. Have them do it with no limits. They tend to be of a particular height, have a particular eye color, and speak loudly. Perhaps they tended to graduate from larger primary state colleges. And, they tended to major in one of three disciplines.

Among the key questions then becomes whether those particular data points are predictive or not. If they are, then depending on what they are, then either before an interview or after an interview, you should be able to put the characteristics of an applicant into your model and determine whether they would be a good hire for you.

You don't think it works, do you?

Let me challenge that. Is professional baseball a job? If you read or watched "Moneyball", you know that one of the early adopters of analytics (they call it sabermetrics in baseball) were the Oakland As under the leadership of their GM Billy Beane. Perhaps his leading disciple was Theo Epstein. Epstein is fairly unique in being the General Manager of the Red Sox who broke the curse of the Bambino and may turn out to be the Cubs GM who breaks the curse of the goat. In any event, Epstein has made highly controversial moves and made two struggling franchises into winners.

I know; that's baseball; it doesn't work in real jobs. Or does it?

Frankly, I don't know. I haven't tried it. But I know people with expertise who think it does.

Try it in your company.

Let me know how it goes.