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

We hope that your “last” week of summer is a good one. Can’t believe that Labor Day is almost upon us. The PBGC has been laboring, as they continue to work through a massive universe of potential SFA recipients. They approved four applications during the previous week, including the following funds: Pension Plan for Employees of United Furniture Workers of America and Related Organizations, the Southern California, Arizona, Colorado & Southern Nevada Glaziers, Architectural Metal & Glass Workers Pension Plan (this plan now holds the unofficial record for longest fund name), the New Bedford Fishermen’s Pension Fund, and the Local 917 Pension Plan.

The PBGC continues to work through the applications from the initial Priority Groups, as they approved the revised submissions for four plans with one each from Priority Groups 1 and 2, while also accepting two from Priority Group 5. These four plans will receive a total of $613 million, including interest, for their 5,799 plan participants. In total, 62 plans have been awarded Slightly more than $53 billion in SFA grants.

There were no applications denied or withdrawn during the prior week. There were also no new applications permitted to submit from the waiting list, which still has 92 funds waiting for activity to begin.