Description: General Motors (GM) is offering retiree Rick Knoth a check for more than a half-million dollars and he’s still unhappy. Yes, Knoth plans to take GM’s huge buyout of his retirement benefits, but says he may never buy another car from the company where he worked for 37 years. “During my career I was told I was a valuable member of the GM family,” says Knoth, 60, who retired in 2008 as a manufacturing engineer. “Now they’re saying … ‘Here’s your check, go away.’”

Source: Businessweek.com

Date: Jun 27, 2012

Link:  http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-27/u-dot-s-dot-automakers-cut-retirees-loose

Questions for Discussions:

• Summarize how the pension crisis at GM developed?
• Is the current strategy good for the company, the pensioner, both, or neither?
• What risk management lessons are there in this situation for other financial planners to learn from?