By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc.

If it’s Monday, it must but ARPA update day! We are pleased to report that there was some activity last week as reported by the PBGC. Teamsters Local Union No. 52 Pension Fund, a Priority Group 2 Critical and Declining plan, refiled an application for SFA. This application is seeking nearly $82 million in Special Financial Assistance (SFA) for the 769 plan participants. They will hear from the PBGC by November 25, 2022.

In other news, Western Pennsylvania Teamsters and Employers Pension Fund and its 21,110 participants have been awarded $715 million in SFA. Congratulations to those members who will now see the reinstatement of benefits that were previously cut under MPRA.

To date, 41 plans have filed an application with the PBGC for SFA. Of those 41, 28 have received approval, and all but one of those have received the award totaling $6.7 billion. This remains a small sample of the estimated 200 plans expecting to receive roughly $80+ billion in ARPA proceeds. As a reminder, Priority Group 4 members were eligible to file beginning on July 1, 2022. None of those have filed an application as of July 29th.