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Like many retirees, Jesus Nunez knew he was due a pension but was having a hard time tracking it down. Now 66, the Burbank, Illinois, resident had worked as a painter and garage worker for the Checker Taxi Co. Inc from 1978 to 1986 and then another year for its successor concern. But when Checker Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, he never got a notice about his anticipated retirement checks. He figures he's due about $300 per month.
"They didn't tell me anything about my pension," says Nunez. "Later someone said they lost my records."
Nunez's concerns are shared by millions of Baby Boomers who are in or nearing retirement. Although so-called defined-benefit pensions were long considered the gold standard of retirement plans—promising guaranteed regular payments for life—corporate churn, financial pressures, and outright fiscal malfeasance have made many of them less secure than the employee-guided, non-guaranteed 401k stock investment plans that many companies now offer in their stead....