By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc.
Another Monday brings the weekly update on the PBGC’s effort to implement the pension rescue under ARPA. As noted previously, activity has definitely slowed in recent weeks, and the week ending May 10, 2024 is no exception. I can report that the only activity on the PBGC’s ARPA spreadsheet is a withdrawal of a previously revised application. Employers’ – Warehousemen’s Pension Plan, a non-priority plan out of Los Angeles, was seeking $40 million in Special Financial Assistance (SFA) for just over 1,800 plan participants. The latest version of the application had been filed on March 4, 2024.
Unfortunately, there were no additional applications submitted or approved. At the same time, there were no additional applications withdrawn or denied. Lastly, no plans that might have received excess SFA have returned those excess assets at this tie outside of Central States. There remain 129 plans to still have their applications for SFA reviewed and approved.
Glen Eagle Trading reported the following in a recent email, that In 2023, a survey found that 78% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, up six percentage points from the previous year. Unfortunately, in yet another survey 29% of Americans don’t earn enough to cover basic living costs. The ability to fund a retirement is getting to be more challenging than ever, which is why DB pension systems need to be be protected and preserved. The ARPA pension legislation is going a long way to securing pensions for millions of American workers who were on the verge of losing most, if not everything, that they had earned and counted on for their “golden years”.