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Paychecks have bounced for some of the 350 Sungevity workers who were abruptly laid off ahead of the struggling solar company’s recent bankruptcy filing, increasing the pressure on employees who lost their jobs, the <em>San Jose Mercury News</em> reported on Saturday. Sungevity said that the checks bounced due to confusion by its bank, and it is attempting to remedy the problems. The company didn’t identify the bank, and it didn’t specify how many former employees’ paychecks bounced.

Millions of retirees are expecting to get a company pension check for the rest of their lives. Increasingly, the name on it is likely to be an insurance company, according to a Wall Street Journal commentary today. The reason is a growing business called pension-risk transfer, in which employers with old-fashioned pension plans, such as General Motors Co., cut deals with insurers to take responsibility for retirees’ monthly benefit. The movement is expected over time to transform the management of pensions for employers, which can slash their exposure to the volatility of the stock and bond markets, as well as for the insurance industry, which gains a source of growth at a time when some traditional businesses are slipping.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is set to vote next week on cutting benefits for a small group of retirees in what would be the second such move in the last four months, Bloomberg News reported today. The reduced benefits, which must be approved by a committee on Tuesday and the full board yesterday, was triggered by the failure of a defunct public agency, the East San Gabriel Valley Human Services Consortium, to pay CalPERS the entire cost of covering the pensions of its former employees. Most of the 191 workers of the job-training service — of which 62 are currently receiving pensions — would see their benefits reduced by 63 percent, the rate by which the agency fell short, according to meeting documents. CalPERS had asked the cities that formed the agency known locally as LA Works — Azusa, Covina, Glendora, and West Covina — to pay the debt to the retirement plan, but they declined, pointing to the lack of a legal obligation. The consortium went out of business in 2014 after Los Angeles County severed its relationship, citing overbilling.

President Donald Trump’s promises to cut corporate taxes and ease companies’ ability to repatriate overseas cash could help corporate and public pensions close their massive deficits, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Investor enthusiasm over the president’s tax proposals is already boosting stocks, benefiting public pension plans. The S&P 500 index has jumped more than 9 percent since November 9, as investors anticipate more growth from Mr. Trump’s policies. Should Congress and the White House overhaul the tax code, lowering corporate rates from the current 35 percent, many companies could accelerate payments into their pensions plans, said Gordon Fletcher, a partner at Mercer Investment Management Inc. Pension contributions are tax deductible, so companies could lock in higher deductions before new, lower rates kick in, he said. Congressional Republicans are proposing to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. So a company that accelerates a $1 million pension payment and makes it before the rate cut takes effect would reduce its tax bill by $350,000 instead of $200,000.

Troubled telecom company Avaya Inc. has begun cutting off some pension benefits for retirees, a signal that these benefits may be on the chopping block in connection with its chapter 11 case, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In a letter to retirees, the communications company cited its recent chapter 11 filing to say that as of Feb. 1, it would stop paying so-called supplemental pension benefits to certain retirees until further notice. Some retirees recently received notice that March checks also wouldn’t arrive. An Avaya spokesman said the company continues to pay federally guaranteed pension payments but doesn’t “have the court’s authority to make supplemental pension payments…at this point in time.” He declined to elaborate on Avaya’s plans for these benefits, which are among the liabilities that companies often shed in bankruptcy.