Pilot Survivor benefits for spouses is a very
important topic for all of us to be informed about and understand. Though most of these benefits are financed by
the Pilot Disability & Survivor Trust, the payouts are really a form
of “insurance.” As such I would normally place this info in
the Insurance section, but in this High Life issue it is rather taken up by
Medicare info, so I’ll post this important Survivor info in this section for
all to see.
Before I share the letter from Ev Gost forwarded by
Will Buergey, I wish to remind all that the PCN does maintain a webpage that
has a number of sections archived for our benefit. For example the Pilot Authors copied and
pasted in the above section are continually posted and maintained always on the
web site at:
For Survivors there is a web page that
you might wish to bookmark at: http://pcn.homestead.com/DLSurv.html
On this page there is some helpful info for all members to know for
planning purposes and all spouses to know about should they become a
survivor.
And below is the letter from Ev about the service of the DDPSA:
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Last But Not Least
November 11, 2021
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Please read the letter below from the Delta Disabled
Pilots and Survivors Association. They are the only group monitoring and
protecting our Survivor Benefits, which are substantial. This retired pilot
volunteer organization also provides guidance information to our estates
and survivors.
Before you ignore this, we want to be sure you
understand that every DP3 member who is still married to the same spouse
they retired with has a significant amount of money at stake (typically
$4,000 to $6,000 per month or more). If your spouse outlives you, they will
be eligible for Survivor Benefits from the Disability and Survivor Plan.
Upon your death it pays almost the full pre-bankruptcy benefit you earned.
Let’s emphasize that point – they will receive most of your original
pre-bankruptcy benefit.
It is important that this plan be protected.
If you aren’t familiar with DDPSA, we strongly suggest you take the time to read
their letter and provide your contact information.
Thanks.
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Will Buergey, Chairman, DP3, Inc.
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Dear Will,
First, we, the members of the Board of Directors of
DDPSA (Delta Disabled Pilots and Survivors Association) extend our
heartfelt thanks to you and the board members of DP3. Your exemplary and
dedicated efforts on behalf of the pilot group have been outstanding and
selfless!
Our two organizations have much in common: Like yours,
our Board of Directors is composed of dedicated volunteers. Like you,
we have no regular employees. Like you, we operate on a minimal budget,
strictly as volunteers, with no compensation. And finally, like you, our
objectives are aimed simply at protecting the benefits of Delta pilots and
retirees.
As you wind down your many years of work on behalf of
Delta retirees, we have a request, which could be of extreme significance
to a majority of your membership. As the watchdog over the Delta Pilots
Disability and Survivorship Plan ("D&S Plan") Trust fund,
DDPSA is alarmed at Delta's failure to fund the D&S Plan to the
level necessary to ensure that promised benefits can be paid. Indeed, Delta
has allowed the Trust fund balance to steadily decline. At the time of
Delta’s bankruptcy, Trust Fund assets were approximately $1.6 Billion
Dollars. As of the last financial report, that fund balance has declined to
approximately $500 Million - which represents slightly more than just two
years of benefit payouts. Meanwhile, Plan Benefit Obligations are more
than $2 Billion.
DDPSA is the singular organization watching over the
D&S Plan, with the mission of ensuring that all promised benefits to
Plan beneficiaries are paid. We are concerned because current and future
D&S Plan beneficiaries include not only Disabled Delta pilots and their
eventual survivors, but also the surviving spouses of NORMALLY RETIRED
Delta pilots (who retired prior to 1/1/2008). NOTE: We are
constantly surprised at the LARGE number of normally retired pilots who are
not aware of the significant benefits to their eligible surviving spouses*
under the Survivorship provision of the D&S Plan!!)
Thus our request to you and your Board is this: As you
wind down your operation, we request that you forward this letter to your
members. Clearly we respect the confidentiality of your membership
information. We would not presume to ask you to provide us with that. We
will simply include here the DDPSA Website address and contact
information, in the event that your members wish to learn more about these
benefits that could be so impactful to the financial future of their
families. Our objectives in extending this request are simple: To make your
membership aware of their potential very significant benefits under the
D&S Plan; to make them aware of DDPSA and our efforts; and to expand our
membership roster should any future legal action be required to protect
their benefits.
Coincidentally, as our Board of Trustees has
contemplated ideas for reaching out to the retired Delta pilot group to
remind them of these large benefits that may be due to their survivors, we
have spent many hours updating and streamlining our website. We feel
we have made it much more "user friendly" and we make it clear
that we desire primarily the necessary CONTACT information for impacted
pilots and their spouses as future beneficiaries, and only secondarily do
we ask for financial contributions to sustain our efforts. To reiterate: We
need Delta pilots with qualifying spouses* to provide us with their contact
information. It is NOT necessary at this time to make a financial
contribution to join us in our efforts on everyone's behalf!
Thank you once again for your herculean efforts over
these past 15 years. We hope you and your Board will see the benefit to
your membership to pass on this information to them.
Detailed information about the Survivorship Benefit can
be found on our website, at www.DDPSA.org along with a huge amount of
information about the Plan, potential benefits to Survivors; a highly
accurate "Survivorship benefit calculator," and more detailed
contact information for each of us.
Sincerely,
Ev Gost, Chairman, LAX
Jim George, Secretary, ATL
*Qualifying Surviving Spouse: Simply put, for a
surviving spouse of a normally retired Delta pilot to be eligible for a
Monthly Income Benefit from the Disability and SURVIVORSHIP Plan, the pilot
must have retired prior to 1/1/2008, the spouse must have been married to
the pilot while he was on the active seniority list, and she/he must have
remained continually married to such pilot until his date of death post
retirement. Contact us with any questions.
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Thanks
again, Mark
Sent from Mail for Windows
10
From: Walter
Burkett
Sent: Saturday, October 9, 2021 8:04 PM
To: misc.pcn@gmail.com
Subject: Age of death averages
Found this site recently and
unfortunately found some that I have flown with. Sad to see them go, especially
the ones at a young age.
Would it be possible for you
to add to the site the average age of
death? Just curious what that would be and how it trends.
Thanks,
Walter Burkett Jr
330A DTW
Editor: Walter, Thanks for the
email. I am gonna share this in the next High Life. David Roberts
produces a spreadsheet of all deceased every year and I publish them on the website.
From that spread sheet it has a wealth of information and should be
rather easy for one to run avg death ages if desired.
All found here;
http://pcn.homestead.com/FlightWest.html
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Full post disclaimer in left column. PCN Home Page is located at: http://pcn.homestead.com/home01.html
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