Equifax Puts Pension Plan on Ice, Adds Enhanced 401(k)

Equifax Inc. of Atlanta will freeze its defined-benefit pension plan for about 4,000 U.S. employees, according to a news release.

About 300 U.S. employees who have met what the release called certain grandfathering criteria will remain in the current defined-benefit  and 401(k) plans, while others will be offered a new, enhanced 401(k) plan in which Equifax will make automatic contributions of 1.5 percent to 4 percent, based on years of service. New employees also will be moved to the new 401(k) plan.

The company did not elaborate on the criteria for staying in the previous DB and defined-contribution plans.

The company will also make a 100 percent match on employee contributions up to 4 percent for the new 401(k) plan. The existing 401(k) plan includes a 50 percent match on the first 6 percent of employee contributions.

The changes are “in line with established marketplace trends, in which retirement savings through a 401(k) plan is increasingly becoming the standard retirement offering by employers, including many of the company’s competitors for talent and business,” according to the news release.

The company does not expect a material amount of cost savings in the near future as a result of the changes, the release stated.

The company’s defined-benefit plan had $606 million in assets as of December 31, the release stated. According to the 2008 Money Market Directory, the current 401(k) plan had $221 million in assets as of December 2005, the latest data available.

Equifax spokesman Tim Klein did not return a call by press time seeking details.

Filed by Jennifer Byrd of Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

Workforce Management‘s online news feed is now available via Twitter.