Anderson

So what were these guys doing specifically? Cash bribes to schedulers, free annual use of vacation homes?

kwri10s

We were at 105% but that was 2023 I think, could have been 2022 it was the latest that was posted. There's an IRS funding filing they are required to fill out every year. I don't rememember how I found that but I was not impossible to locate. I was down the rabbit hole one night and stumbled across it. Just found it. A couple days later I thought I should have saved that link, but too late.

max8222

Giving gift cards with money on them, gifting frequent flier miles,hotel points, gift cards for restaurants. Pretty good trade off for both, a lot of extra pay and a sweet trip for the pilot. The scheduler gets to take his family to Hawaii on vacation for free.

Bribery plain and simple, both sides should get fired and possible charges brought up.

Fast fingers bull... more like illegal fingers.

dera

You are looking for the Form 5500 filings. You can find all Fedex filed 5500's in the Department of Labor website. There's like 500 of them so not sure which plan you want to see.
Looks like there's about 26 Billion in assets, and it's funded at just over 100%. 32% in stock investments, rest in investment-grade and high yield debt.
Target annual return at 6.5%. Seems like a well funded and conservative plan.

NuGuy

A couple of things... ERISA essentially requires pensions to be managed conservatively. No biggie there, so that mix of assets would be what you'd expect, and that return, while seemingly modest in the go-go world of the 21st century where "everything that pays less than 10% is crap", is reasonable and prudent.

The other part of the mix, though, is funding level for ERISA purposes isn't just about the amount of money in the pension fund. The big, big shadow over every fund is the assumed liability that the fund uses to calculate the required funding level. That liability is determined by the long-term interest rate. This is the interest rate that the fund assumes that will make going forward, and is wholly unconnected to the return the fund actually sees.

These days, long term interest rates are actually getting back to what is historically normal, thank goodness. That means "safe money" can actually make an OK return. Back in the day, a 7% mortgage was considered a screaming deal, and unfortunately after the 2008 financial meltdown, everyone has been addicted to essentially "free money", so these days everyone has lost their mind. But it's actually a healthy interest rate. Combine a good look-forward rate and a good, but not spectacutar return on the fund itself, and your pension will be in very, very good shape, and is essentially self funding.

Yes, the fund itself can take a hit from market shocks. It happens, but time has shown that the valuve of the funds will recover. The real bad news is if interest rates dip for an extended period of time, like they did from 2008-2020. Almost 12 years of historic lows. No fund, no matter how well funded, no matter how it can realistically perfom, can survive a 2% look forward rate. When that compounded rate hits the ERISA calculation, it turns into a big, big number. Fortunately for you guys, your pension was well funded, recovered in the market runs, and FedEx was always in a position to fund the pension with what is required when ERISA required it.

Usually it is the exact opposite and the funding bill hits just as you don't have the money. Combine in a few other factors, and you can see why pensions get terminated. The irony is that the IRS basically prohibits overfunding pensions because they see that as a tax dodge, so companies can't even save for a rainy day.

Some tax law changes could actually encourage the grown of pensions, but usually those funds are invested in nice, safe funds that never really do anything. No money to make on the churn, and you can't really use the capital to fund the techbro's Lambos, so yea, don't count on it.

Class9

It would appear that another one has bitten the dust. Allegedly.

https://tenor.com/view/freddie-mercury-queen-liveaid-gif-11491645

jackryan

Good. Clear them out! Fired or NOQ?

CloudSailor

Speaking of the Wolfpack (and I'm so glad they are finally getting nabbed), does anyone have numbers on the pensions for our c-suite leaders? How much have they improved since 2006? How much? How much QOL have they had to give up for those improvements? I know it's public information... I think our union should remind us of such numbers, and publish them in large font more often.

zmoney

This can be found in the annual proxy statement.

https://s21.q4cdn.com/665674268/file...-Statement.pdf

Page 79.

https://imgur.com/8mWLka0

DLax85

Good stuff - especially the foot notes found on that page.

When pilots argue the lump sum value of the A plan, it's dependent on what discount rate and mortality tables one uses. The union could easily provide an on-line calculator to show pilots how much the company values their current retirement based on the company's own, published, assumptions.

(Disclaimer: The value of the Pension Plan is fluid based on current interest rates. The 5.577% discount rate used for the Pension Plan in this specific proxy statement is most likely based on some widely accepted bond benchmark. It's above both the current 10 year US Treasury (3.892%) and 30 year US Treasury (4.149%), and below the 6.5% target rate-of-return for the proposed Market Based Cash Balance Plan proposed in TA1.0)

In Transparency, Integrity and Unity (for Everyone),
DLax

Table FootNote

(1) These amounts were determined using assumptions (e.g., for interest rates and mortality rates) consistent with those used in the audited consolidated financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2024.

The benefits are expressed as lump sum amounts, even though the benefits using the traditional pension benefit formula under the Pension Plan (as defined below) are generally not payable as a lump sum distribution (only $5,000 or less may be distributed as a lump sum under the traditional pension benefit formula under the Pension Plan).

The benefits using the Portable Pension Account formula (discussed below) under the Pension Plan maybe paid as a lump sum.

The present value of the Pension Plan traditional pension benefit is equal to the single life annuity payable at the normal retirement date(age 60), or June 1, 2024 if the officer is past normal retirement age, converted based on an interest rate of 5.577% and the Club Vita 2023 US VitaCurves mortality tables with MP-2021 mortality improvement scale, discounted to May 31, 2024 using an interest rate of 5.577%.

The present value of the Parity Plan (as defined below) traditional pension benefit is equal to the single life annuity payable at the normal retirementage (age 60), or June 1, 2024 if the officer is past normal retirement age, converted based on an interest rate of 4.66% for lump sums paidthrough May 31, 2025, 3.98% for lump sums paid through May 31, 2026, and 3.30% for lump sums paid on and after June 1, 2026, and the 1994Group Annuity Reserving Table, discounted to May 31, 2024 using an interest rate of 5.577%.

The present value of the Portable Pension Account as of May 31, 2024 is equal to the officer’s account balance on May 31, 2024, projected to the normal retirement date, if applicable, based onan interest rate of 1.535% credited quarterly during fiscal 2025, 1.2675% credited quarterly during fiscal 2026, and 1% credited quarterlythereafter and discounted to May 31, 2024, using an interest rate of 5.577

End Table FootNote