Lawsuit alleges utility set benefits with mortality data from the 1960s

Former employees of Pinnacle West, an electric utility company in Arizona, allege that the company used outdated and unreasonable actuarial tables based on data from the 1960s to undervalue their defined benefit pension benefits by underestimating the participants’ life expectancy, Plansponsor reports. The suit alleges that Pinnacle used an actuarial table published in 1971 for calculating joint survivor benefits, which drew on life expectancy data from the 1960s, to estimate the life expectancy of plan participants, the report says.