Delta pilots won’t suffer total loss

Delta Air Lines Inc.’s termination of its pilots’ pension plan will sting – no more lump-sum payments – but won’t be a total loss for the 6,000 pilots at the nation’s third-largest carrier.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which will take over the plan once it is terminated, will pay the pilots a reduced benefit up to a certain limit.

The airline was to notify the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. on Monday that it intends to terminate the plan effective Sept. 2, a request that will have to be approved by a Bankruptcy Court judge.

Together with compensation the company has promised the pilots upon cancellation of the pension plan and distribution of existing funds in the plan, Delta pilots who retire at the mandatory age of 60 could get about $61,000 a year, a 13 percent reduction from current benefits, court papers filed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. say. Those who retire before age 53 could get about $53,000, a 24 percent reduction, the court papers say.

Those figures are subject to change, and a spokeswoman for the pilots union, Kelly Collins, said the union has not done its own post-termination analysis because it doesn’t know how the compensation the company has promised will be distributed.

The figures cited by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. were provided by a Delta representative, according to the agency’s May 24 court filing.

Washington

Real estate firms likened to ‘cartel’

Many real estate brokerage firms band together to set prices, a consumer group said in a report released Monday.

The brokerage firms work together to maintain commissions charged home sellers at 6 percent to 7 percent – typically, $24,000 for the sale of a $400,000 home – and to maintain control of multiple-listing services of homes for sale, according to the report by Consumer Federation of America.

“Many traditional real estate brokerage firms and their organizations function as a cartel that tries to set prices and restrict service options,” said Stephen Brobeck, the federation’s executive director.

Roy DeLoach, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, called the report’s findings “a restating of the facts on how traditional real estate brokers are compensated.”

Washington

Refco creditors to expand probe

A bankruptcy judge has cleared the way for creditors of Refco Inc. to expand their investigation of the company’s collapse last year, ordering several former Refco executives and insiders to provide information about lost company assets.

The investigation by Refco’s creditors committee has allowed it to obtain $750 million in settlements for Refco so far. Last month, the committee sought to expand its investigation, saying it had identified several former Refco executives who may have knowledge about the location of assets lost in the company’s demise.

Last Friday, Judge Robert Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York ordered several of those executives to hand over documents the committee had requested.