Mmbb : A Pioneer in Employee Benefits-the First 100 Years

by Goodwin, Everett C.

• ISBN13: 9780881463835
• ISBN10: 0881463833
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-09-01
• Publisher: Mercer Univ Pr

Summary

The Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board (MMBB), was authorized in 1911 by the Northern Baptist Convention and chartered in New York State in 1913 "for the better maintenance of the ministry." Its core purpose was the provision of pensions to aged or disabled ministers. At MMBB's creation, American philanthropy was in transition from patterns of traditional charity to new structures designed to provide fundamental solutions to social and economic problems based on principles of business and science. Reflecting that change, MMBB became a pioneer by developing its pensions as a form of delayed, justly earned compensation that differed from the rare and often meager charitable grants previously available to a very few. At its creation, MMBB depended upon financial resources philanthropically provided by Baptist laymen, notably Milo C. Treat and John D. Rockefeller, and more modest contributions by others. But by 1921 MMBB developed a Retiring Pension Fund, an early form of defined contribution plan funded by contributions from individual members and employers. This approach, undergirded by philanthropic gifts, enabled the development of a long-term, sustainable pension fund. Later MMBB was a pioneer in developing variable annuity form of fund investment intended to link pensions with economic development. Its hundred year record of success, through major wars, Depression and market cycles is demonstrated to be based on the persistent vision focused by Henry Morehouse, its founder, MMBB's ability to raise adequate resources for its programs, its long-term practice of prudent management based on actuarial projections, and a succession of competent and committed executive leaders.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Author's Preface	p. xi
A Note on Sources	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xv
MMBB in Context	p. 1
From Context to Creation: Seeking Refuge for the Old Soldiers of the Cross	p. 21
Laying the Foundations	p. 38
Toward a Functioning Pension Program	p. 58
Responding to the Crises of Depression and War	p. 82
The Corporate Fifties-Refining Benefits and Expanding Programs	p. 107
A Generation of Transformation-Part One	p. 132
A Generation of Transformation-Part Two	p. 165
A Generation of Transformation-Part	p. 190
Into the Millennium: The End of the Twentieth Century	p. 217
Beyond the New Millennium	p. 244
Conclusion	p. 273
Notes	p. 281
Index	p. 311
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