American Airlines Pilots Retirement Planning

American Airlines

AMR Bankruptcy - December 7th update

We are accumulating all the information we can regarding the bankruptcy at American Airlines and would be happy to discuss as it pertains to each individual’s unique situation.

Please call us at 1-800-321-9123 or follow this link to the AA data sheet to have retirement projections run and we will contact you.

AMR Bankruptcy - November 29th update

At this time Retirement Advisors of America is gathering information in order to give the best advice to the Crewmembers of American Airlines. There are many issues to cover but let’s start with the first one:

This bankruptcy filing does not mean you should retire. There may be some pilots that will go ahead and retire but you should not look at this as the reason to retire. It appears that A Plan lump sums will not be paid out for anyone whose benefit commencement date is later than November 28, 2011. Every decision to retire is personal and individual and while there will be some people that retire now, giving up your paycheck may not make sense. (click here for the rest of this article)

Links Related to the AMR Bankruptcy

Boyd Group - Issues Regarding AMR Chapter 11 Filing
Statement from PBGC

AMR Bankruptcy November 29th update (continued)

A Plan lump sums stop inside of bankruptcy unless the A Plan’s actuary has certified that the Plan is 100% funded (Pension Protection Act). To our knowledge, the plan is not funded to 100% at this time. The question at this point is whether the A Plan will be frozen or if the Plan will be terminated and turned over to the PBGC.

The company is trying to restructure and will need to negotiate with the pilots in order to do so. The A Plan could potentially be a bargaining chip to gain concessions in other areas. If the A Plan is terminated, the annuity from the PBGC will depend on your priority category and what the funding level is at termination.

The B Plan should not be affected; contributions could end but the B Plan itself is likely to remain intact.

You do have some protection under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code. Generally they protect the amount of benefits already earned unless the plan terminates underfunded. So as indicated above there would be a reduction based on the funding level.

There are many issues to address and we will be updating you as information becomes available. Please feel free to call Retirement Advisors at 800-321-9123 with any questions regarding this or visit out website at www.raa.com.

American Airlines History and Information

Retirement Advisors of America has a long standing relationship with American Airlines pilots which dates back more than 25 years to one of our founders, Howard Pritchard. Howard was a member of the American Airlines Pension Committee and worked closely with many American pilots as they headed towards retirement. Today, Retirement Advisors of America has approximately 1000 client relationships with American pilots located throughout the United States.

Retirement Advisors of America American Airlines B Fund Tables - Retirement Advisors of America provides monthly B-Fund unit value estimates for American Airlines pilots. Our B-fund estimates average over 99.5% accuracy. Please see the charts below for our historical estimates.