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

We are pleased to provide you with an update on the PBGC’s yeoman effort to implement the ARPA legislation. The process has been underway since July 2021, when the PBGC issued its interim final rules and began taking SFA applications. To date, 41 plans have received the SFA, and in some cases, supplemented awards. This represents a small subset of the plans still in the queue to receive these grants. This implementation will likely stretch well into 2024, if not beyond.

The current activity includes 5 applications from non-Priority Group members and 36 pension plans that were among the initial 6 priority groups. During the previous week, there were no applications approved or denied. No SFA grant money was wired out either. However, there was an application filed. Priority Group 5 member, UFCW Local One Pension Plan, filed a revised application seeking $764.4 million in SFA grant money for its 19,177 participants. The PBGC has until 8/16/23 to act on the application.

In addition to the activity above, Priority Group 2 member, Pension Plan for Employees of United Furniture Workers of America and Related Organizations, withdrew its application. They’d been seeking $8.8 million for its 95 members. Lastly, the Local 1814 Riggers Pension Fund became the most recent non-Priority Group member to be added to the waitlist. They have not chosen to lock in a valuation date at this time. There are currently 101 non-priority plans waiting to file SFA applications. The PBGC has indicated that they will open the e-filing portal in an orderly fashion so as not to overwhelm their ability to review and approve applications within the mandated 120-day window. There is much more to come.