Novartis (NVS) has begun to take for itself hundreds of millions of dollars it normally would have given its employees in pensions due to a complicated change in retiree benefits being rolled out across the company. In 2009, the company began considering a change from “defined benefit” to a “defined contribution” pension plan. The former pays retirees a guaranteed amount for the rest of their lives; the latter pays a fixed amount during the staffer’s employment, but after that the retiree is on his or her own.
