Companies used to prefer having a pension for their retirement program because any excess returns on the pension fund would become profit. Many of the ill fate

Companies used to prefer having a pension for their retirement program because any excess returns on the pension fund would become profit. Many of the ill fated leveraged buyouts in the 1980s/1990s were PE firms raiding these "excessively" funded pensions. This, unfortunately, was around the time people generally stopped smoking and having heart attacks right after they stopped working. Also, people that have pensions live longer. This has led to underfunded legacy pensions.