Company Stock Blues at General Electric

In an April 22 article (subscription required) in the Wall Street Journal, Thomas Gryta tracks the impact of the decline in General Electric's share price on retirees. It notes that 43% of GE's shareholders are retail investors, many of them retired GE employees, who took advantage of a stock purchase plan in which GE matched 50% of employee contributions to buy stock. The article quotes NCEO founder Corey Rosen, who draws a distinction between employee and employer contributions, and notes "if you are looking at retirement, then diversification is a good thing."