from Hacker News

IBM to end 401(k) match, offering a hybrid plan

by Umofomia on 12/1/23, 12:31 AM with 16 comments

• by Racing0461 on 12/1/23, 3:29 AM

  The more the employer/employee relationship is comoditized, the more benefits need to be decoupled from the employee and the employer.

  Health insurance is a bit complicated but stuff like 401k/hsa/ira etc should easily be decoupled since there are already solo 401ks etc. I should be able to dump 19.5k/3.8k at the beginning of each year and be done with it without doing the whole song and dance.

• by keep_reading on 12/1/23, 4:38 PM

  AIUI they bought a ton of treasury bonds and are using that as the backing of this transition and that's how they can promise the 6% return or whatever it is for the initial years.

  Theoretically if the market tanks hard those 401ks will drop like a rock and the bonds won't so this could be a hedge to protect their employees but to the employees it probably looks really scary.