IBM to end 401(k) match, offering a hybrid plan

The more the employer&#x2F;employee relationship is comoditized, the more benefits need to be decoupled from the employee and the employer.<p>Health insurance is a bit complicated but stuff like 401k&#x2F;hsa&#x2F;ira etc should easily be decoupled since there are already solo 401ks etc. I should be able to dump 19.5k&#x2F;3.8k at the beginning of each year and be done with it without doing the whole song and dance.

AIUI they bought a ton of treasury bonds and are using that as the backing of this transition and that&#x27;s how they can promise the 6% return or whatever it is for the initial years.<p>Theoretically if the market tanks hard those 401ks will drop like a rock and the bonds won&#x27;t so this could be a hedge to protect their employees but to the employees it probably looks really scary.